Don't Get Use To This

I have taken a lot of time off from posting on Mondays (and from posting on our other site) to focus on the building of a vision God has given us for the web... a new site which would take the place of our KOG Missions site and possibly even overlap with some of the topics I post about here at Faithful.

I prayed before all of this.

The vision is one I am certain (long story) God has given us to work on NOW.

BUT

There is often a but.  The harder I try and the more I set aside... the less I am getting done. 

It is a paradox (no, not a pair of ducks... a paradox)

Enter church on Sunday.

I (and the kids) did not go with my husband this weekend.  My dear Brooke was sick, then there was an issue of driving, and time, etc... we stayed home and watched another favorite church of ours which streams live on the web.

I firmly believe it was ordained to be that way.

While my husband found relevance in the message at our regular church (praising God for some affirmation), I was deeply moved by the web-message.

Don't Get Use To This  

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours made careful search and inquiry, inquiring about the person or time that the Spirit of Christ within them indicated when it testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the subsequent glory. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in regard to the things that have now been announced to you through those who brought you good news by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look!

- 1 Peter 1:10-12

We are so blessed.


In the United States and any country that can freely get on the web, do a Bible Study, or even meet as a church.

 We are so blessed.


With God's Word at our fingertips; testimonies of God's work throughout time.

We are so blessed.


As men and women die worldwide for their faith, we are blessed with the opportunity to speak out for ours.

We are so blessed.


With resources by the TONS ready and waiting to be used for Kingdom Glory.


But we often take our blessings for granted.  Pastor Levi  pressed into the cold hard truth:  The people Peter wrote to were often hiding and regularly persecuted for their faith.  The message he shared was a battle cry to be BOLD for that faith.  And we are to often not bold enough.


As he pressed on he reminded us what Peter is really saying here:  the prophets that went before us lived by faith in what was to come.  They labored for the hope that would be.... we are blessed to have faith in what has already come.  We are able to labor for the hope that IS.


We have an obligation to remember their hard work by offering our hard work on their behalf in all things they couldn't do... and we can.


We have so many resources and opportunities to speak on behalf of Christ, but we often become comfortable where we are.  We pass up opportunity to speak up, we are less bold, less active on behalf of the Kingdom... we aren't using what we have been given to the fullest extent it was given for.


It is a shame.


And I am guilty too.  It starts with 2+ snoozes lately... not embracing the value of my morning Bible study time to its fullest extent, instead making due with half the time.


I am guilty too.  As I let conversations around the house and small distractions interfere with my work time.  


I am guilty too.  I forgo stepping out of my box for kicking back, too cozy, in my box.


Oh, shame on me.


I don't deserve the blessings God has afforded.  But there-in lies the catch... the wonderful and amazing Kingdom logic:  None of us deserve it... but he gives it anyway.


And what happens?  1 Peter 1:12b tells us "angels long to look".  Pastor Levi described it as the angels chomping at the bit to see what we are going to do.  The Greek here indicates they have a "strong urging"... they always have a strong urging to declare God's glory... you see it all throughout the text.  As God gives them a message to deliver, they rush to get it there... fighting off demons when necessary.


Oh, if we were to work as the angels work, assured of who we serve and the urgency of His message.


I find myself convicted and evaluating.  Where am I not committed enough?  Where am I a lazy Christian, taking my faith and the resources God has given me for granted?


Oh, my Lord, please forgive this faulty heart of mine!  Grant me a spirit of endurance to persevere and to use all you have given me for your Kingdom's Glory.  Let me not get use to this!


I pray you don't get use to things either!


Be blessed this week,

Joining Michelle today at:

When Angry Bug Bites

I was 21 and it was Spanish.  Attempting to get some high school years neglected college pre-reqs out of the way so I could enroll at the university.  Married to the military, baby-in-tow, I was hoping to memorize as many terms as possible so I could kick-butt on my final exam. 

I didn't talk to God at that time.  I did my own thing.

A young military wife and neighbor arrived at my door.  She was collecting phone-numbers and basic contact information to put together a neighborhood phone book of sorts so if anyone had a need we would just be 7 number pushes away.

But she was interrupting me. 

No thank you wasn't enough... she persisted... she was pushy... I SNAPPED.  It wasn't pretty.

I can't tell you how many times in the last 20 years I have regretted that moment.  Maybe she was pushy, but she was trying to do something nice: create community among a disassembled mass of bodies all placed far from home.

But I couldn't' see that.

I was too busy, honed in on my own agenda.  The two minutes of hospitality I could have taken would have saved the years of disappointment in myself that resulted.

I have been "reborn" for many years now, yet even in a state of re-birth, tempers can still flare.  I like to think that my faith walk and age has progressed me past the hot-headed impulsive state I once was.  But anger is an ugliness that touches every Christians life, no matter how righteous they seek to live.

It is so ugly, in fact, saying the word "anger" is often treated like half the 4-lettered-words out there we try to avoid to keep from looking ugly. 

A fool gives full vent to anger, but a wise person quietly holds it back  

- Proverbs 29:11 (NLT)

No one wants to consider themselves a "fool".  But like it or not, that is how we look when we give way (especially quickly and easily) to the bite of the angry bug.

Consider:

• Often you are not blowing up over the thing that is really at the root of your frustration
• "My response is my responsibility"
• Arguments often happen when reality and expectations collide
• The battle starts in your mind

The pastor ran a gamut on anger this Sunday but he more specifically centered it around relationships.  Today I feel compelled, however, to consider anger from the perspective of our thoughts and reactions.  These, after all, effect our relationships.

When the angry bug bites me I find myself asking:

• Am I snapping at others because they are interrupting me....
• ...if so, is what I am doing so important that it can't be set aside for a moment of someone else's time
• Am I hurt or upset because I am falling short and someone else is noticing
• ... does it really matter that I am falling short?  Should I allow someone else's words or expectations to hurt me
• Am I remembering God's timing and God's expectations are the two most important measuring points in my life?

It is in our perspective and understanding that we find both hurt and healing.

Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right.  Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others.  Think about all you can praise God for and be glad about.  ' 

Philippians 4:8 (TLB)

I am, by no means, perfect.  But in the years of many hurts and opportunities (and giving-in-tos) of allowing the hurt to get to me God revealed the above truth from Philippians as one of the most powerful central points to healing and moving forward.

We shouldn't be one of those hurt people that hurt people.  We can CHOOSE to break the chains of bondage that push us to respond unkind and begin responding in-kind.

Does the recipient deserve it?  Maybe not.  But did we deserve God's ultimate grace as Jesus hung on the cross?  No... but we received it anyway.

Go in grace this week.  May the peace and love of Christ push out any hurt and anger that might dwell in the corners of your life.

Be most blessed,

Joining Michelle today at:

Struggling In Heart Matters

This past week I posted many threads having to do with being a reflection of Jesus and living out our faith.  I talked about how it is not works but rather what kind of conduit we allow ourselves to be.  As a result: I was challenged.

That is how it seems, though, when we put ourselves out on the matters closest to God's heart.  Next step: spiritual warfare and testing.  You probably wouldn't know to read the posts, but by week's end I was struggling to reflect and be that conduit of His love and hope to people around me.

This message is near to my heart, though, because it is the battle cry of our missions' calling:  It's not about religion, it's about relationship.  It comes in every aspect of having and sharing that relationship

I prayed and sought the Lord for my challenges and heart-ache.  I felt like he was telling me to post a cap-stone to the messages of late.  But I didn't know where to begin.  Enter Mugs and Muffins.

It is a women's group that meets at our church once a month.  They have coffee and muffins, listen to a devotion, and fellowship.  This month the pastor's wife delivered a devotion to the group.  The theme: love.

The capstone took shape.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.  

- Ephesians 5:1-2

OK, she didn't share this verse, but it is the mortar between the message of last week and the capstone to go in place today.

How are we "imitators"?  Simply, in how we live and her verse...

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  

- 1 Peter 4:8

... begins to shed light on specifically how.  If we have not love, we have nothing.  In my studies recently I read; if you reject love, you reject God, for God is love.

1 John 4

 I shuddered when I read that... how many times have I rejected love without trying my best?  The pastor's wife made these valid points:

• We should love people without judging them (we never know what they are going through at any given time)
• We should love people even when they are not making good decisions
• When we judge and are harsh, we are worse than the pharisees
• The ones who need to be loved most are often the hardest to love 
• If someone is offending me, it is because I need to love them better

But the most profound point she made:

• When we withhold love, we are not truly free.

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”... Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 

-  John 8:31-32, 42

People withheld love from Jesus.  His caution then can still be a caution now not just for how we love Him but also for how we love others in His name.

Like I suggested last week, faith is not an action beyond submitting.  It is nothing you can do.  Driving home from fellowship listening to KLove the final piece drifted over the airways. 

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 

-  James 2:17

No, it isn't about what we do... not even if we choose to love or act in love... or do anything in Jesus' name.  It is about the Holy Spirit living through us.  My grandma always said, "You don't have to want to change to come to Christ, but coming to Christ will change your want-tos".  I saw that happen with my husband and many others.  Secular actions to-the-core.  But when they accepted Christ as their savior and submitted to HIS way and will with them, they found their actions played out for them.

Love, when Jesus is loving through you is more perfect.
Help, when Jesus is helping through you is productive.
Life, when lived with Jesus living through you is powerful.

Actions may  not determine our faith, but our faith can be seen (and often determined) as the result of our actions... especially our actions in love.

Why did I write about this so much last week?  Because I was Led to; it is a common deficiency in the body of Christ and it makes my own heart cry.  It is at the core of failing churches.  It is in the midst of broken families.  It is in the hearts of everyone who turns from faith.  It is what tears our country apart this very day.  We are a stubborn people, many of us, and it isn't until we let go, submit ourselves, and LET GOD do wonderful and even radical things through us that we will truly see a revival in this land.

I pray these messages may stir your heart along side mine.  We all struggle, but it is in arming ourselves with His Word and His Spirit that we can fight these battles and take the battleground for Jesus.  Be strong, be reflective,  and above all don't try to do it yourself... just open yourself and let God do it through you.

Give yourself up =
Love deeper
Live fuller

Be blessed this week,

Joining Michelle today at:

Where You Are

 I love to go for walks... especially in historical districts.  To imagine who, what, when, where, and why just makes the walk that much sweeter. 

 This house sparks those questions most.  It also triggers my imagination to what if.  This, and another house I do not have pictures of, cause me to ponder all I could do for His Kingdom: study sessions, life skills training in the big kitchens and living areas... oh how our ministry could grow.

Am I coveting?  I hope not.  The other un-pictured house more than this one has such wide open spaces I can't help but think of how to use them not for myself but for His Glory.

Am I striking out towards envy?  I hope not on that account either.  But have I in the past... admittedly, yes.

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.  

James 3:16 (NIV)

Proverbs tells us "envy rots the bones".  (12:30)

About 8 years ago I owned a cleaning business.  Inside big, beautiful houses I saw a lot to envy.  Views, space, BIG kitchens (yes, I have an obsession with kitchens!)  When both mine and my husband's businesses began to fail I lamented; but I was going to save up, we were going to have a big house with a lot of room and all the frills... then God spoke to my heart and asked me, "Don't you have a house now?"  yes  "Haven't I blessed you with a roof over your head, plenty of space where you are?"  yes and yes  "Don't you keep warm in your beds with no fear of a cardboard box for your shelter, aren't you out of the cold and rain?"  yes, Lord, yes... I am blessed.

That night I began to see how truly and simply blessed I was.  I saw how the big places only equaled more work!  I also saw how easy it was to become unappreciative of the simple things that have been provided when we think too longingly on the things we don't have.

Currently, I don't have a house of my own at all.  Yet HE still keeps us out of card board boxes and in from the elements.  He provides for our calling, our health, and our deep-in-the-Spirit joy.  How could I, even now, be ungrateful?

"Isn't everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God?  So what's the point of all this comparing and competing?  You already have all you need!"  

1 Corinthians 4:7b-8a (Msg)

Envy can make you superficial.  I would add... so can coveting.  We are called to rejoice for others in their blessings period.  Not rejoice and want, rejoice and sacrifice to have of earthly things.  But how many of us climb and reach for things of this place rather than climbing with the same (or greater) energy and reaching just as far and hard for the things of eternity?

What if I told you, like the preacher told us Sunday, envy simply means you are in battle with God... you tell him His gifts to you are not good enough.

"Let us run with patience the particular race that God has set before us."   

Hebrews 12:1 (LB)

Particular meaning the race God has set you in... not someone else's.  No, YOURS.  Your race, your call, may be in a big place or a small one.  It may be in peace or it may be in trial.  You have been equipped for your race... not someone else's.  Trying to keep up with or achieve where you are not equipped to run will leave you exhausted and unable to maintain.

I pray for you this week, that the race you run is your own.  And if you find you are in the wrong race, that you will spot the exit and switch tracks.  God has so many wonderful things in store... don't give up... just make sure you are running your race, He will help you set the pace.

Many Blessings from my race track to yours!

Joining Michelle today at:

Kindness and Honor

This past week I was challenged in kindness.  Early in my faith walk God revealed to me the importance of honoring my husband in word and action.  It was what God used... and how God used me... to transform my husband.

Now that he and I share the same path I will forget, from time to time, the importance of honoring him in my words and actions... still.  I saw it this past week, I began to pray through it, and Sunday I became fully convicted of it.

Never walk away from someone who deserves help; your hand is God's hand for that person.  

- Proverbs 3:27-28 (The Message)

You see, my husband likes to talk.  We joke that he is worse than a woman at times!  I can get chatty, but he takes the cake.  I marvel at how different we are yet how God draws us together to relate through talk.  This talk is often my downfall.

I, on the other hand, have my list of to-dos.  Bible study, breakfast, kids on task, blogs, teaching that new math concept, having that heart-to-heart with kid #2 who would rather fiddle the time away then actually do the school work, discuss treaties in history and bone structure in health.... grade papers, make dinner, clean up, read that book the pastor asked me to and, finally, get ready for bed... but I won't go into that elaborate schedule!

You get the idea.

And right-smack-dab in the middle of it, hubby walks in from a meeting and doesn't just share the meeting content but every side tangent too.

I smile and listen at first... then slowly my patience wears and before I know it, I am almost in tears thinking of ALL that I need to be doing.  I get short, my words are terse, my actions show agitation and soon, I leave him feeling burdensome and uncared about.

I am not proud.

But... I share all this because I imagine I am not alone.  Granted, many husbands leave the home for their work and wives receive that quiet time and look forward to hubby's later return and interruptions... I remember those days... affectionately at times!  But some may have husbands that work from home (or, unfortunately, that may be unemployed at this time).  While their work and interests keep them busy, there are always those injections to our day that we aren't prepared for.  The syphon of our time we had hoped to keep for our own intent and purposes.

Are we being selfish?

The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others... harvests a crop of weeds.  All he'll have to show for his life is weeds!  

- Galatians 6:8a (Mes)

Yes, to a point we are.  My old rebuttal was, "So is he because he won't see the time I need for other things."  But if a wholly honorable marriage begins with complete selflessness, glorifying God with our language and actions, then wouldn't it stand to reason our husband's need for us, our time, our ear to hear... are greater than our need for that time to other things?  God first, spouse second, kids and so on.  If we choose not to honor the sanctity of our marriage, won't weeds begin to sprout?

On our way home from church I humbled myself and apologized for a week of short attitudes.  I wanted to say "But..." through the whole thing, however, we should never apologize with a contingency.  I was able to share my feelings; how I feel I can't do all God calls me to for His kingdom work when we take a 30 minute discussion and drag on for 2 hours.  (I said it with more grace than that!).

He heard me.

The kids went in the house and we stayed in the car talking... sharing our hearts and desires.  I found and understood the root of it all:  his need to align with me.  He wants me to know what he has going on and what he is thinking and feeling... and he desires to know my heart too.  But that takes time each day to sit and discuss.

We problem solved.  Agreed to keep our daytime conversations short and to the point so our work was not put so far off course.  I agreed to let him know when our talks are getting lengthy and I needed to get to a task.  But most importantly, we agreed to a set-aside time each day to have our heart-to-hearts... to align our spirits in all we have going on.  I acknowledged his need for me and he recognized my needs too.

I felt honored... and honorable.  Much more than continuing into a new week with lengthy daytime conversations and terse responses.  I found what I needed as the result of my submission and Christ-led humility.  I don't feel like I won... or lost.... I feel honor and that is the spirit that glorifies God most in these matters.

I pray to live in that honorable place each day.  With word and action.  I pray you may know the peace and humility that leads to honor in those difficult situations too.

Many Blessings to you in the week ahead,

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer everyone.

– Colossians 4:6 (NRSV)

Joining Michelle today at:

Living Missionally in Grace

We seem blessed by churches where the preachers interact with the congregation.  They will throw questions out like, "What do you think of when you hear the name Jesus" or "God" or "What is your favorite characteristic of Christ".  I'm the one, sitting observantly in the mid-section shouting out "GRACE".

I don't know what it is in particular that fascinates me about God's "Amazing Grace".  The song is great too and perhaps the message there is where it begins.  Because, for me (and for many) I was hopelessly lost.  I was on the verge of complete destruction... and He stepped in.  He gave me grace where grace was not due.  More than that, every time I slide backwards... he gives more grace!  How can that be?

Grace, as a noun, means:  mercy; clemency; pardon

When we submit our lives to Christ, that is just what God grants... mercy and pardons for all of our past wrong-doings... miraculously, he keeps pardoning us too, every time we try to do what is right and just miss the spot.


But it gets better!  Once the noun aspect of grace has taken affect, the verb portion kicks in:  to favor.  Once we have been pardoned we then become favored.  And the most amazing part of it all:  We don't deserve it!  But He does it anyway... again and again!!

We had a visiting missionary from South Africa at church yesterday.  He shared on grace and his calling to bring that message to the people of Africa and the world.  

I love listening to missionaries speak.  Their perspective is not the common perspective.  My husband has said that often of our own calling and how we, as missionaries, see the world... different from many.  I had to ponder: if this message of Grace and love is to be Known, don't we all need to live with a missional perspective?  To forgive and love and teach as Jesus did?  To give grace where grace isn't due... and then give grace some more?


We don't have to be missionaries to live by Grace.  We don't have to be missionaries to fully grasp Jesus' perspective.  We need only be wHoly devoted Christians ready and willing to live with a missional perspective.  To take the bad and see the grace.  To know in all situations we may find ourselves, His grace is enough and then reflect that perspective to those around us.

But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.  

 - 2 Corinthians 8:7 (ESV)

There is so much more I could and want to say on grace.  But perhaps it will appear in another article on another day.  For today I want to encourage you to deeply and truly consider grace and what that means.  To live missionally where you are, to know life is fleeting, moments pass, situations change but God and his grace are eternal... we must live as lights of hope to those who do not know this yet.  To accept our fallings, accept His grace, and reflect His love through it all.


May God guide and bless you in a life of grace this week.

Photo provided by stock.xchng
Scripture from Bible Gateway

That Love Feeling

My husband designed this.  It is for the pastor's new sermon series.  It wasn't used though... too Valentiney.  We both knew he was right.  After listening to the message on Sunday, Valentine was definitely not it.

Isn't that what we think of when we hear the word "Love"?  Or love may inspire images of favorite food, book, music and so on. 

Isn't that just like man?  To cheapen something deep and Holy driven for our own personal fleshly fulfillment?  I am guilty of it... we all are. 

However, true LOVE is more than a feeling.  If I based my love for my husband on how I felt... I can tell you with great certainty, half of our marriage has not been spent in "love"! 

Love, perhaps, as an action.  We can show love in how we act towards others.  But, no, that isn't it either.  We don't always feel like showing it.  How do you get consistent, deep and true LOVE?

The image of love has one thing right:  Hearts.

I say that because love should generate from our very core.  Not as a feeling, but as a fulfillment. 

Our hearts should be driven by the Holy Spirit.  All we do should be measured against our Savior and His great love revealed to us.  If we do not begin at the heart, all we do 'in love' is no more than empty motions which will eventually fade away.

If you are a follower of Christ Jesus, it makes no difference whether you are circumcised or not. All that matters is your faith that makes you love others. 

- Galatians 5:6 (CEV)

How many of us step out and do because it is the right thing?  Not because it is a heart thing.  How many of us step out and do because we seek man's approval and reward?  Not because we seek to be relational and approved by God?

What if we took 1 Corinthians 13 seriously?  Consider, if you don't live a life of love...
... nothing we say will  matter
... nothing we know will matter
... nothing we believe will matter
... nothing we give will matter
and worst of all....
... nothing we accomplish will matter

All things we do, work, family, teaching... everything... needs to be motivated by love.  Not that fluffy, happy, fun feeling of love.  NO, the ready to get my hands dirty-be subject to my faith-reflect the nature of God kind of love.  The kind of love that doesn't care what others think of us but rather what they think of God as the result of us.

That's love.

Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. 

- Ephesians 5:1-2 (Mes)

The sermon series goes for 5 more weeks.  I am looking forward to the challenges of truly understanding God's heart for us to love.  And not the pink-and-red-lace-doily kind of love.  No, the Rise to HIS greatness kind!

Will you take the 1 Corinthians 13 challenge with me?  Read it every day (or at least once a week) and be transformed by God's heart for ours.

Many blessings to you this week as you walk in His Word and live on Monday what you hear on Sunday.

God Bless,

All In

 We missed church again this week, stomach stirrings, leftover fluish and exhaustion meeting the mix.  Not wanting to truly 'miss', we opted for our online alternative.  Local and always moving.

I didn't take pages of notes this week.  I usually do with this pastor.  But one note was all it took:

We're all in.

He was preparing for a year ahead, just after a year in review.  He shared the church's 12 points to achieving God's vision and mission for their church.

We are not 'members' of that church, but we believe in what God is using them to do.  And each point hit closer and closer to home.  Enter #12.

Am I all in?

Members or not, God has given us all a calling, a purpose, and a place to rise in His name.  How often do I put one foot in... or worse.... barely one toe?  I say I can, I am, I will.  But in truth, I'm afraid of the water.  Afraid it is too cold, afraid I will sink, afraid a big ole' shark will come up and bite my leg off!

Am I all In?

When I say yes and then bow out?  When I make a commitment, even if only to myself, and then spend more time making excuses then performing the task?

Am I bringing HIM honor and glory and praise because I am in the water treading the deep.

or

Am I bringing Him shame, embarrassment and ridicule because I can't get past the toe?

I'm afraid I am both sometimes. 

He said to me, "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.  

- Zechariah 4:6

Listening Sunday I became more determined than ever to bleed over the projects God trusts me with to succeed at.  I will not listen to the neigh-sayers, it isn't always for everyone... but it just may be for me.  I am NOT going to put on Saul's armor... I don't need it!  I have my stones and my God, they are enough.  After all, it isn't about me, not in the least.  I will risk the Ocean for my Creator; Jesus risked it all for me.

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called,     

- Ephesians 4:1

In searching God today, I realized:  We must bring Him glory by bringing our all.

I pray you are brave with me today, brave enough to be all in, and not just the toe, in all that God calls you to today.

Many blessings this week!

New Year Dawning

Happy New Year friends!

I know the net is packed with new years posts right now... resolutions, year in reviews, and advice on starting over.  New year is all those things to me... but it is something more as well.

About 20 years ago I began noticing a pattern.  Not a practicing Christian at the time, I didn't fully understand it.  I have since articulated, however, the Source and meaning:

Every new year, in January, God puts a message on my heart.  A message to symbolize the year ahead.  A message that unlocks potential most would call resolutions.  I use to make them until I felt led to do something different with them:

It isn't a resolution, exactly, it is a time of prayer and seeking.  God, what is your desire for me in the year ahead?  How can I serve You, reflect You, show Your love best?  I begin to write out and consider how He desires I rise to His call in these aspects.  I rewind and fast-forward and through it, through the time, I hope in His desires for the year ahead.

This year, on the flip side of a Christmas that brought a lot of hurt and hardship, unexpected darkness seeking to snuff out the light of the season, my prayers and seekings in New Year's hopes have been in greater earnest.

My journal pages are filling up fast these weeks.  My head bows more often then ever and my hope and faith are filling me to step forward each moment knowing His promises will not fail.

God has been drawing me to curb my responses; sometimes the best reaction is to not react.  I can't control what others do and say... but I can lean into the Holy Spirit to guide my words and actions.  And at the end of the day, it isn't what we have done for ourselves but rather what we are doing for Him, through Him, that helps us sleep at night.

I thought I was handling it... getting it.  I didn't believe Sunday's message would be pertinent, I didn't expect it to move me at all.  Like many others, Pastor did a year in review.  Is that possible?  Review messages from a full year... didn't I already get those messages once?

But the montage' of moments from 12 months past was just what the Lord had ordered... pages in my journal filled even more.  Yes, I heard these messages, but like any good Word.... you can never hear it enough.  He was reiterating my heart's understandings and reminding me of even more.

Like affirmation that my contentment of late has become my own enemy and blotted more fertile spiritual growth.  Even contentment in the bad only leads to complaining and disgust.  Contentment in the good stifles the great.  We even forget, through our contentment, what God has spoken to us... His messages and beseeching, flying away in our sedentary Spirit.  We must nail His Word down, etch it in our hearts and not stop till everyone sees it reflected in our ways.

Therefore we must pay greater attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. 

- Hebrews 2:1

A friend told me once when we were transitioning through some great changes and facing hardships, when all else fails and things seem dark, remember what you last heard God telling you and hold onto it.

I'm holding on now!

As I pray through the trials of late, we remembered Ruth from February and how our trials are part of the story God is writing for us.  It is through our difficulties that we grow.  We are responsible for our own actions, not others.  When I shifted from worry and hurt and complaining in what happened over Christmas and instead turned to face God in lieu of facing my problems on my own, my heart swelled with peace.  He showed me how my scope and perspective needed changing... He even reminded me how the many trials and adjustments this past year have grown me, humbled me, and caused me to be grateful in ways I never expected.  Tears came first but hope was always renewed... it will be this time too.


And as I considered the source of our troubles... the differences in belief and the knowledge of Truth in our extended family, Pastor reminded us it doesn't matter what they think.  Let them laugh as people laughed at Jesus when he proposed to revive the dead.  Who was left laughing in the end?  I can be faithful because Jesus was faithful and all that matters is when I stand before Him in eternity with confidence that I did what I could and I did not shy away because they laughed.  


We can not fail in our ambitions Holy inspired.  We can not turn from our call to march forward... not because of hurt or fear or uncertainty.  Joshua's leadership taught us that.  As I thought of family in various states of unbelief, denial, and lashing out with hurtful attacks because I seek to march across the Jordan, I seek to see the walls of Jericho fall, a message flashed across the screen...

They overthrow their father's failures

... and it hit home.  Orphaned by a biological father who sides with harsh atheism, separated by in-laws who scream profanities inches from my face... my family tears apart, it writhes in despair... but I will and can overthrow the mantel of hardship and march on for hope.  I can prevail in His name, through His strength.  Each day can dawn brighter.

On the flip side of Christmas week and at the cusp of a new year dawning Pastor reminded me that our greatest triumphs come after our biggest failures.  I believe the most beautiful healing comes after the deepest hurts as well.





I pray, today's post most personal and poured out in hopes of testimony and inspiration, you may have renewed hope in a new year ahead.  Whether you make resolutions or simply submit your plans in prayer, may you know His greatest blessings in your life this 2012.

Most humbly yours in Christ!

O Little Things

Have you ever gone to church on Sunday and nodded through most of the sermon because the pastor is speaking of your own heart from the week past?  That was me this Sunday... actually, it seems like me a lot of Sundays at our new church.  Is it God confirming His Word in my heart?  I think so.

But here, I must rewind and share a rare thing first....

... a picture of me!  Normally I am behind the view finder of our camera!  This was taken Saturday evening, as my girls and I readied to go to a Christmas play.  One Bethlehem Night.  Tickets were given at the last minute and we were blessed to attend.

The production, at a local large church, was amazing.  The message cut right to the heart:  God knows what he is doing, His plans are bigger than ours, and when we trust Him with all, he will take care of us... even if it means have a little baby in a dirty smelly manger.

The girls and I were deeply moved.

Enter Sunday.  Pastor is preaching on the messages of some of our most well known Christmas songs.  This week, O Little Town of Bethlehem.

Pastor systematically pointed out how God chose the small, the poor and the helpless to do a great and wonderful thing in His name.  I was stirred when he relayed how Jesus didn't just come to save, he also came to identify with our weaknesses.  He has walked among us.  He was persecuted, rejected, scorned, betrayed, beaten, abandoned and finally crucified.... just to name a few.  He has been there.  He knows where we are.

And just as important as the relational aspect of our Savior is, there is also the fact that He calls us.  He often uses the smallest, quietest, least suspecting people to do the most wonderful things.  You say you are just a housewife?  You are just a parent?  You are just a nobody living on such-and-such street in no-whereville?  That isn't so.  YOU are a child of God and that is something in itself.

I know I often think of myself as a nobody... and perhaps we are a bunch of nobodies in a great space.  But we are somebody to Jesus and God wants to use us, where we are, with what we have, to bring a wonderful message.

Brothers, think of what you were when  you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong  

 - 1 Corinthians 1:26-27

Watching the play Saturday night, tears caught in my throat, as Mary and Joseph submitted to not understanding yet fully trusting God.  Oh to submit each time I want to fight for answers.  Oh to be used, even when I can't understand how useful I could possibly be! 

Praises be to God for using a young girl, a stable, and a tiny baby in an obscure little town called Bethlehem to change the face of the world forever!

I share my prayers with you.  That we can welcome together the seemingly small things God calls us to do.  That we know we are something special in God's eyes, he knows our hearts, he has experienced all (and more) we can imagine, and he wants to use us where we are to do many great things in many small ways! 

Many blessings this Christmas season!

Grace as a Gift

I get sentimental this time of year.  I am pretty sure I am  not alone!  Each year, though, God shows me a new aspect to the season... a perspective that grows my love of Him and expands my understanding of His Kingdom.

This year the Word is Gift of Grace.  Grace would probably define 2011 as a whole for me. The aspect of Grace as a Gift is fitting.

Grace seems obvious.  Our need to have our sins covered.  Our perpetual position of lost and broken requires the grace only God gives.  But on Sunday the preacher said something that humbled me in the scope of God's amazing grace as a gift.

On Jesus' birthday we received a gift.  Jesus, as the mighty King, Son of God, brought strength and power  because of our weakness.  It wasn't just sin that got us lost... it was our weakness in many things that kept us there. 

We think we are stronger than we are.  America is especially prone to the I can do it myself attitude and we as Americans fall too quickly into suit.

But no one can do it themselves.  Well, we can try, thinking we have it under control.  But things done outside of His guidance and His will eventually end up in the scrap pile out back!  We are too weak to fully lift our own plans and they, therefore, fall apart. 

"We are utterly helpless to change spiritual problems without Christ"

Challenges really are spiritual.  When we submit to His strength to manage all, the problem may still exist, but His strength coursing through us is always enough to manage what lies ahead.

"Christmas Brings Strength"

Praise God for that!  Through our acceptance of His Grace, His Strength pours out.

It is mind bogglingly awesome.... at our disposal (not just for emergencies but for all time time!)... and voice activated.

This gift of power, through grace, is given freely and it is connected to HIS PURPOSE for us.

We search Him, we look to the manger, to that strength in the form of a baby... that hope in promise fulfilled... and we drop to knee like the shepherds and magi of long ago.  We drop to knee and worship.  We drop to knee and pray.

“All hell is vanquished when the believer bows his knee in importunate supplication. ...Be sure that you are with God, and then you may be sure that God is with you.” Charles Spurgeon

I, like most Christians, knew Jesus gives us power to conquer all of life's challenges.  But it is so much more humbling when we stop to consider that power, for our weakness, as a more personal appeal of God to the lost of this world. 

When sin overtakes us, the strength of Jesus through the Holy Spirit within us can overtake sin.  It isn't just the forgiveness and grace... it is also the strength that grace bestows.

As I begin a new week, Pastor's message fresh in my heart, I am thankful for God's guidance by way of His subjects serving in His name.  I consider the first-thing-in-the-morning call we received today, a search for help in a troubled family we are ministering to.  We can draw on that gift of strength and rejoice that we can overcome.... and we can speak this truth to others that they may be able to overcome because through God's grace, true strength was born on Christmas day.  The gift that keeps on giving!

The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock!
   Exalted be God my Savior! 

-Psalm 18:46

May you be blessed by the gift of strength, given through grace, that HE, a babe in a manger, may be your rock... your everlasting... your mighty savior!

This week I begin linking up with Michelle DeRusha.  It blessed my heart to see women on the web regurgitating Sunday's message and seeking to actively apply it... I was inspired to join in.  After all, what good is a sermon if we don't seek to live it, share it, and allow God to work through it in us every day!  You can join me too!

 

Photo Credits go to Stock.xchng,  http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1121740