Do We Live In a Time That We Glory In Our Shame?

"Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is onearthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." Philippians 3:17-21

When I read the third chapter of Philippians, I got more understanding of what Paul was saying to the Philippians. Let's see if I can express it the way i understand it to be.

First, he warns about Judaizing seducers and tells them to follow his example (Paul). He also reminds them who his own lineage and his own status, that he rejects to be a follower of Christ (verses 1-6). The in verses 7-14. Paul talks about his choice to be what God has designed him to be.

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. " Philippians 3:7-14

Here Paul begins to talk about attain what the Lord has already attained for him and forgetting the past failures and successes to press toward this goal in Christ Jesus. Paul is stating to put it simply: Do not have confidence in your flesh but put your confidence in Christ. It does not matter what you have or the world thinks that you have. You must be willing to put it all aside for Christ and achieving this one goal.

So far, Paul is speaking to the church and he goes on to say in verses 15-16: that we must be mature and have this mind. He also tells us to govern ourselves by what we have already attained through the teachings and revelation of God's truth. Which leads us up to verses 17-21. Paul here is not addressing those that are not in Christ but those that are stating that they are in the body of Christ. He is warning them not to be like some who are, in my words, perverting the things of God by "their god being their stomach, their glory is in their shame, and their mind is on earthly things." Paul says, "they live as enemies of the cross."

So, with all this said, do I believe that this scripture is relevant for the time we live in? YES. My reasoning being many are living as enemies of the cross, but say that they are friends of the cross. They smear the reputation of the church. They tend to forget it's not about earthly gain or what you can be or get here. It's all about helping people see Christ is still the answer. They promote themselves in a way that people come to see them and not the one who sent them. They pollute the gospel for their own gain.

Some of us have forgotten that this world is not our home we are just passing through. Paul reminds even the Philippians of this too.

"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." Philippians 3:20-21.

I hope I made myself clear, your thoughts welcomed.


You are Bound No More. 

Pastor Linda Hillman 

(c) 2015 LAH Ministries International 

Booklindahillman@gmail.com 

Get Your Copy Now 

Will You Be Made Whole 

In The Meantime

Why So Much Suffering? Does any one really Care?

Nearly 450 million people suffer from mental or behavioral disorders. Nearly 1 million of those who suffer from such disorders attempt suicide every year and of those 40,000 are successful on their first attempt. Here's another staggering thought, the greatest number of deaths of the 40,000 that are successful, are among men. Surprised?

Let me ask this, how many of the individuals that attempted suicide reached out for help? How many asked the silent question, "Would you care if I killed myself?" How many sat in our churches, on our jobs, in the doctor's office or walked by us as we lived our lives. How many did we dismiss as "Oh that's just ________, they will be alright." Did we let them know that they were loved, respected and needed? Did we take the time to notice their pain? How many ended their lives and there was a solution to their pain but it was never offered to them? 

Are you one of those that will consider suicide this year. Are you one that will attempt to end your pain with such a final solution? Suicide is a real option for some and the only option for others. So it's time we stop acting like this is something that will go away and help the hurting heal. 

Living Above Hurt Ministries is looking for men and women who understand and want to help those who are hurting. Not just those hurting in the world but those that are feeling as thought there is no place for them to go and they are already in the Body of Christ. They sit in our churches hurting from past failures, hurts, habits and hangups, they have been abused, misused and mistreated. They have lost hope.

We want those that are hurting in the Body of Christ to know there is a way out of the pain. You can rise above the pain and live again. We do care about your pain, anguish and frustration. You voice does count.

Join me in ministry or join me in being healed. I once suffered from thoughts of suicide and even planned it out but God. Now I am ready to talk to those that need to and want to live about the hurt. this ministry is not for the faint in heart but it is for those that care about the pain of others and have survived their own hell. 

Don't let another wounded soldier die...not on our watch.

You are Bound No More. 

Pastor Linda Hillman 

You are Valuable!

We are all God's children. Brothers and sisters in many sizes and colors. We are His prize possession. So the greatest lesson we can learn from our Father is simply, as He hung dying on the cross he utter the words..."Father Forgive them for they KNOW not what they do."

Let me try to explain myself and tie this all together. If we have been hurt, betrayed, scorned or what have you by someone in our lives then we have to work on forgiveness. Forgiveness does not let the person off the hook but it does open the door for you to grow to levels otherwise unknown.

The fact of the matter is that if we could remember that we are all God's children then we may not be so quick to hurt one another. There are no big I's or little u's. No race or weight differences. No social or economic differences. No educational or geographic differences. We are all the same. Just like I would not dream of hurting or devastating my biological sisters or brothers, and when I do I am quick to repent and seek forgiveness and visa versa.... thus is how we should be toward our spiritual brothers and sisters. When they believe in your God or not. Whether they call your God....God or not.

So what if that brother that raped you, or that sister that slandered your name, that brother that abandoned you or that sister that betrayed you understood that they were hurting their family.... would they have done it. What if the world understood the significance of the bond that connects us. Would they we able to hate me because of the color of my skin or the size of my body or the texture of my hair. If they knew hating me meant they hated themselves because we are the same would they do it?

So I end this thought with this simple song from Sunday School.... Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, red and yellow, brown, black and white, they are precious in His sight. JESUS loves all the children of the world. 

You are Bound No More. 

Pastor Linda Hillman 

(c) 2015 Living Above Hurt Ministries 

Why Be Made Whole?

Many people are walking around with emotional, mental, physical, spiritual, and financial baggage. They carry it from place to place - relationship to relationship. Most importantly they make decisions based on their past hurts and hangups. The one thing that I know to be true is that you don't have to be that way. You choose to be that way. Yes, I said it YOU choose to walk around and play the blame game.

Just think about the last time you had a real good laugh? A good meaningful conversation where it did not turn into an emotional blame game? Can you think back that far? If you answered: No, I can't remember the last time a really laughed or sat down and had a good conversation without blaming others for my current circumstances... then I am here to help you. Just consider me your own private coach for healing.

For many years, I thought that being "me" was being rude, resentful, evil, a gossip and saying what was on my mind no matter who it hurt. I thought I was keeping it real. As the young people say, "I was keeping it '100'". however, I was living a lie and truth be told I was miserable. I blamed everyone for what I did not have and what I thought I could not get. I was my worst enemy. In my book, "Will You Be Made WHOLE" I share a formula that helped me to see that I could be and do anything I wanted to do but I had to be healed of the things life had dealt to me. I had to release on the things that were not meant to be in my life. I had to realized that there was a different me YELLING on the inside of me... Hey sister, let me out. I'm suffocating in here and I can make things so much better.

If you are tired of living in the pits of hell that you call a life. Then let me help you. I promise, you can blame me for the satisfyingly delicious life you will experience.

You are Bound No More. 

Pastor Linda Hillman 

(c) 2015 Living Above Hurt Ministries 

Loss of Identity - Redefining Yourself through Faith

Having a relationship with Christ is not a religion, it is a lifestyle and identity. You live it, breath it, wear it and eat it day in and day out. It is the very reason we are called Christians.

A Christian is to be Christ-like. It means to have the mind of Christ in you, causing you to live with a higher awareness of love and faith. You operate not as the "normal" would have you respond but as the Spirit would lead you.

The unfortunate things is many of us of us have been indoctrinated into a religion. This indoctrination began at birth or conversion, and continues throughout your whole life. Religious beliefs and doctrines get internalized and adapted into your own identity, often to the point of suppressing your real authentic self in favor of the "group-think identity" of religion. For many who thirst for a more meaningful experience, they must lose fundamental parts of their identity. This can cause an identity crisis of sorts which can be quite painful at times, yet freeing and euphoric in the end.

Because doctrines are internalized to such a great extent, the persecution complex arises quickly and naturally to any information that is critical or challenging to those beliefs or teachings. New information isn't seen as just critical or challenging to the Dogma of religion, but as a personal attack in many instances. This is why you see many fighting over the letter of the law and hating what does not look, believe or think as they do. Once a person decides to stand for authentic relationship with Christ it can prove quite difficult to be embraced by those that still uses the defense mechanisms of legalism. However, it can also leave those of us who do cleave to Christ in relationship to feel a sense of loss with a church shaped hole in our heart and feeling like we don't know who we are anymore. After all, some of the greatest life-questions of philosophers were given to us with surety through great men and women of the cloth. We knew who we were because they told us, where we came from and where we were going after this life, if we followed their path. As long as we dont let the touchy-feely, sloppy agape come near us.
One of the more painful experiences we may have in leaving legalism is losing the identity we so deeply internalized and invested in. For many of us, there is a mourning process that we go through to weep over the loss of our beloved companion, "the church", and all that it fulfilled in us, or that we believe fulfilled in us. It is okay to mourn this loss. Not everyone goes through this though and that is okay too. Mourning can help release some of the religious or church programming and identity though, making room for God's truth to shine through. His truth that church is not a building we attend but who we are and we all are not a islands based on our beliefs but the body of Christ jointly fit together. We are all one!

You see the internalizing of beliefs into our core identity is what gave legalism (Religion) so much power over our thoughts and minds, and also the potential to hurt us on our way out through the loss of identity. Despite all of this potential for hurt and mourning from the loss of identity, you now have an opportunity that many go their entire lives without ever experiencing, and that is being able to consciously define your new identity. This can be a freeing and empowering experience. It can also set you up for further hurt if not done cautiously. When it comes down to the words and phrases by which we identify ourselves, the more emotionally invested we are in those definitions, the more potential and power we simultaneously give them to hurt us if or when that identity dissolves. Any identity-definition can be internalized and believed in so heavily that should it fail, causes us great pain, suffering and further identity crisis. The key to preventing any further identity crisis is to limit how emotionally invested you become towards any one identity-definition you may have for yourself, or that you adopted from outer sources. 

With all that said, the only source that we should look to for a definition of who we are is the one who created us. He thus, created us for relationship with him. To be loved by him and to love him. To allow our faith to accomplish what the world says is impossible. Not be our own strength but the strength that comes from Him. So let go of the religious beliefs that limit the God you serve and you from becoming a new creature in Christ.

Embrace the fact that transformation, requires you to lose your old ways and take on new ways. To think differently and understand your purposes as it pertains to the whole. Strive to be in relationship with Christ. Thus your identity will be made clear and your faith pure!

You are Bound No More!

Pastor Linda Hillman

(c) 2015 Living Above Hurt Ministries

Pastorlindahillman@hotmail.com

Lost And Searching For Answers: Love and Faith is the key!

I want to talk to you today about a subject that touches every one of us, young, old, male or female...LOSS.

Sometimes we are faced with things we think we just cant handle; the death of a beloved father, mother, sister, brother, child, spouse etc... but what happens when the loss we feel is the loss of self? What happens when we lose who we are? Whether it is beaten out of us, snatched from us, or we give it away. How do we recover from this loss?

We may strive to find the reasons behind it, but when those reasons don't make sense or add up, we question God. We look up to the heavens and say, "God, how could You do this to me? How did You allow this to happen? Why do I have to suffer with so much pain in my life? How can You put so much on my plate? Why do I have to suffer at all? Why Me? What did I ever do to You to deserve this?" We might even go as far as becoming angry with God and blaming Him for the evil that has befallen us.

The real point is this... we don't operate on God's timetable nor do we have a true understanding of His ways and thoughts. We allow the fear of the unknown to cloud our judgment and even the most logical theories fly out of the window. We would rather think a loving God is punishing us, and that a God that gave up His own life so that we might live, somehow hates us. Even though His word is true and He speaks only of how much He loves us. 

In the world we live in, how could we even begin to understand His plans and purposes for our existence? So we look to other things to add value to us. Thus, we lose ourselves even more. OH, we say, we are trying to find our purpose because somewhere we have lost our worth. That tragedy, we survived, has stripped away our happiness, left us with no joy, scattered our peace. We are lost, broken and devalued.

My friend, let me tell you, this is where FAITH comes in and begins to play a huge role in our healing and restoration. Faith helps us to see His message in the darkness of our caves of despair. Faith beckons us to believe again, to hope again, to search for the truth of God's love for and toward us. Faith requires us to love through the pain of loss. Faith tells us that God's message has never changed. This loss is there to teach us not to take the ones we love for granted while they are with us. To love hard and deep. It is there to teach us that we should love ourselves enough to want better for our lives. We should love ourselves enough to search for the treasures God placed in us the moment we were conceived and not to let anyone speak over us what He has not already spoken.

Faith says even the mundane has purpose. Even the fleeting moments are to be cherished. The solitude that comes in those glimpses of hope, should be embraced. As I reflect on the pain we feel when we lose who we are in a hurricane of issues and strife, I am reminded what Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-39.

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Faith breeds love. First, love God with your very being, Secondly, love yourself unconditionally, and then it spills over to mankind. It also reminds me that God is love; therefore there is no ill will in Him concerning you. He desires to see you prosper and walk in your expected end even if you never had a relationship with Christ. You cant be angry with a God that only wants the best for you. All He has is love to give.

He only requires us to love as fiercely, as bravely and as compassionately as we can and in that love, that human love, to allow faith to grow. Faith that allows us to forgive, and to continue to love unconditionally. As we find the peace of who we are once again, the pain of loss lessens and the joy of live emerges.

Today I challenge you to take a chance on FAITH and LOVE. Let your life begin again.

You are Bound No More. 

Pastor Linda Hillman 

(c) 2015 Living Above Hurt Ministries  

Pastorlindahillman@hotmail.com

Get Your Copy Now!

Through the scripture and the story of the woman with an issue of blood, Linda Hillman moves past the obvious, more common meaning of the text to a revelatory truth: GOD would not have us live unbalanced and incomplete lives. In her book WILL YOU BE MADE WHOLE, Linda reveals just how crucial balance is in every area of your life. Through scripture, practical principles and faith, Linda shows the reader how to get back on track when life derails. In Linda’s own words—“The one thing I have discovered in my life is that the pains I have had to endure were not to take me out of the game but to polish me for the end result.” Get your copy today and be made whole! 

Get your Copy now!

In today’s microwave society, we want everything in an instant. And we want it now. Between instant gratification and a sense of entitlement, we often forget that GOD is GOD and HIS will be done. We can’t lag behind HIM and we surely can’t jump ahead of HIM. Linda Hillman’s new book, IN THE MEANTIME, addresses this very subject—waiting upon GOD. 

Through vignettes of the Prophet Elijah’s life, Linda reveals GOD’s plan for waiting upon HIM. This concise but rich study provides insight into the character of GOD and how HE takes us through steps of preparation, motivation and confirmation in getting us through our seasons of waiting. The beauty and truth of Linda’s message is that you can have the same glorious breakthrough as Elijah had.