Laryssa Toomer

Laryssa and I became "friends" during the JustOne Conference. Since that time we have stayed in contact via twitter and facebook, so I was beyond excited when I found out we would get to meet in person during the Armed and Dangerous Retreat! Laryssa's had a crazy journey getting there and I spent a lot of time on pins and needles waiting for her to check in. Of course I knew her who she was instantly. LOL Have to say she is cute as a button, and has such a sweet spirit. We did not get to spend a lot of time together but at the end of the week I felt as if I had connected with a friend for life.

Laryssa has been married to Jeff for 16 years. He is a Campus Pastor at Manna Church in Fayetteville, NC, and is a retired Army Officer. This home-schooling mom of three enjoys cooking, sports, disco, and mentoring. You can connect with her on twitter, facebook, or on her blog.

Religious Predators

We recently had to treat some of our trees for whiteflies. Whiteflies are dandruff-looking predators that hang out on the underside of leaves and feed from sucking sap from plants. Long story short -- as innocent as they may look, these critters cause serious damage.

I’ve had a lot of spiritual whiteflies in my life, specifically, religious ones. Being a PK, I strived hard to live for God, and have led in various ministry roles since college. Though I couldn’t discern it back then, I began to take over the Spirit’s work with my human effort (see Gal. 3:3). My walk with Jesus became based on what *I* did more than what Jesus has already done. The only problem was...I was clueless to it.

Religious sins are harder to detect because they “look godly.” I thought I understood the grace of God. I thought I would never act like a Pharisee, and yet, there I was. The irony? I lived a secret, vicious cycle of ups and downs of pride & despair, success & failure, and religious check-boxes & condemnation.

The Gospel isn’t the good news of our goodness; that’s bad news. The real Good News centers around the Person and work of Jesus. But here’s the thing -- this isn’t a work to be isolated at the moment of first believing, but rather one that we must appropriate faith in daily (see Gal. 2:20).

The liberty in Christ frees us from the treadmill of religious performance for God, our husbands, our families, and members in the church. Especially as a family now serving in pastoral ministry, we make much of preaching the Gospel first to ourselves. On good days and bad ones, it’s always Jesus. Our righteousness is in Him alone, not in how long we prayed or studied, ministry successes, how many loads of laundry we accomplished (or didn’t!), or what others say about you.

If you find yourself zapped at times or feel sucked-dry, then perhaps it’s not always people or your schedule. Sometimes, it’s those self-effort predators lurking in your soul. Our pastor once said, “Anything that focuses on what you can do, then it’s works. Anything that focuses on what God has done is grace.” Choose to focus on what Christ has done and live each day in light of His grace.