Pouring

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Sorry I haven't written much lately! There's been so much going on, trying to pack and get everything situated.  But this post has nothing to do with that :)

We listen to sermons on Pod-Casts.  I think I've talked about this before but there are a few churches we follow as much as we can by downloading their sermons (for free) to our ipods and listen to them.  The latest one we listen to was by Francis Chan.  (you know him Crazy Love author and all that) Anyways he and his family are embarking on a new journey, leaving their church and serving God in a new mission field.  Anyways his parting words were about the confidence we have as Christ followers and how separation from God is the worst of the worst.  Sometimes I forget what a reality this is.  People are going to be separated from God forever.  Not only just separated but an eternity of suffering.

So as Christ Followers we should be taking this seriously.  I started thinking where is God going to use me to reach these people?  I very much think my ministry is always going to involve women, possibly young women.  My heart is growing more and more compassionate towards young women.  I kept thinking about that phrase of "Speaking into the hearts of..." To me it's like pouring water into an empty cup.  I think my compassion is growing toward young women because so many women recently have been speaking into my heart, and I know how much I need it.  I know that in order to do this God is going to put me through experiences that enhance my ability to speak into hearts, but that also means having people speaking into mine.  It also means that I need to have my questions answered, like What does God really feel about me/women?  I need to be more intentional about seeking these answers.

So today I feel like is a good day to encourage you all that even though you might not always feel it, you have an important role to play in expanding the Kingdom.  You've been through things to speak into others hearts, to pour healing water into empty glasses.  My prayer is that our eyes be opened this week who we can encourage! We've got some watering to do!

Silence

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While reading my devotion today (brief confession, I haven't posted about my devotions because i fell off the wagon so to speak, and I haven't been doing them, bad on me) the verses were from John 11.  It talks about Lazarus getting sick and his sisters sending word to Jesus to come.  When Jesus heard he sent back a promise that Laz would not die, and that this happened so that God would receive the Glory and that God's Son would also be glorified through it.  Then Jesus stayed where he was for 2 more days....

What?! So you've been here, you need God's help so desperately, and he is silent.  God has left reassurance in His Word, so we know that God has a plan to prosper and not harm us...but sometimes we have to wait it out.

My devotion then went on to say a quote from Oswald Chambers: “Has God trusted you with a silence—a silence that is big with meaning? "  Has God trusted me with silence?  This puts a different spin on things for me...to know that God has a plan but He is trusting me to trust Him.

Lord, thank you for your silence today.  Thank you for trusting me, what an honor it is to know you and love you! I pray that as I continue to face challenges that I remember that you've already reassured me and that now I am to be patient and wait for your plan to be revealed.  Amen.

He Cares...phew!

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Psalm 121

A song of ascents.

 ¹ I lift up my eyes to the hills—
       where does my help come from?

 ² My help comes from the LORD,
       the Maker of heaven and earth.

 ³ He will not let your foot slip—
       he who watches over you will not slumber;

 ⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
       will neither slumber nor sleep.

 ⁵ The LORD watches over you—
       the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

 ⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
       nor the moon by night.

 ⁷ The LORD will keep you from all harm—
       he will watch over your life;

 ⁸ the LORD will watch over your coming and going
       both now and forevermore.

 Sometimes I don't know how God feels about me.  When I'm scared about the future I don't know if God cares...I know in my head He does, but some times my spirit feels so far away that I have my doubts.  Yesterday on the way home from work I said a teary prayer to God asking Him for help in a situation (which He answered later) and also to tell me how He feels about me, I came across theses verses...Thank you Lord for watching over me!

Humility the Hard Way

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My devotion this morning was on the Prodigal Son.  I always felt like I related to the Prodigal's brother more...the one who stayed.  But then I realized that I was totally wrong.  It doesn't matter what sin you commit, or how "big" the world thinks it is...when we walk down that path of whatever sin, we a being like the Prodigal and walking away from a loving father.  What's interesting is the freedom the loving Father gives the son, the son is like "gimme all the money, and see ya later!" And the Father gives it (probably knowing exactly what will happen) The son was humbled...big time!
So maybe that's the point, God allows us to think we know what we're doing, we say things like "hey can I handle this one?" Or "I know what I'm doing!" and He lets us go...and when we come back we are humbled in our hearts...that's why the son got a party, because he learned a good lesson the hard way.  Thank you Lord for always taking me back!

Luke 15:11-24 (N L T)

Parable of the Lost Son

 ¹¹ To illustrate the point further, Jesus told them this story: “A man had two sons. ¹² The younger son told his father, ‘I want my share of your estate now before you die.’ So his father agreed to divide his wealth between his sons.

 ¹³ “A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and moved to a distant land, and there he wasted all his money in wild living. ¹⁴ About the time his money ran out, a great famine swept over the land, and he began to starve. ¹⁵ He persuaded a local farmer to hire him, and the man sent him into his fields to feed the pigs. ¹⁶ The young man became so hungry that even the pods he was feeding the pigs looked good to him. But no one gave him anything.

 ¹⁷ “When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger! ¹⁸ I will go home to my father and say, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, ¹⁹ and I am no longer worthy of being called your son. Please take me on as a hired servant.”’

 ²⁰ “So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. ²¹ His son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.^[a]’

 ²² “But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. ²³ And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, ²⁴ for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

Hey have you heard?

Psalm 105:1-5 (NLT)

 ¹ Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness.
      Let the whole world know what he has done.
 ² Sing to him; yes, sing his praises.
      Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds.
 ³ Exult in his holy name;
      rejoice, you who worship the Lord.
 ⁴ Search for the Lord and for his strength;
      continually seek him.
 ⁵ Remember the wonders he has performed,
      his miracles, and the rulings he has given,

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 I wish that I was bolder in proclaiming the excellence of God! Do you know what I mean?  I can talk about things I really like to strangers, like make-up, tv shows, clothes etc.  But I have something in my life whose Amazingness (new word) tops all of that in every way possible, but I don't talk about it much.  That's not good...He has done amazing things in my life and in the lives of all of His followers.  I want to be more excited about God and the things He is doing AND TELL PEOPLE! Happy Monday, I hope you're all excited!

The Comfort of Sin, Or the sin of Comfort

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(sometimes God does not allow is to plant roots today)

 Last night my husband and I went to a church in our new town where a small Bible study was taking place with guys and gals of our same age (early to late 20's).  This Bible study was lead by my husband's good friend who is a pastor at this church.  During his talk he asked us to ponder the sins we struggle with that are "more acceptable" in the Church world.  You know what I mean, everyone would be up in arms if they saw a Christian man cheating on his wife but do we blink an eye when we hear Christian's being judgmental?

So it got me thinking about my sins and I think a big one that God is totally trying to prune away from me is comfort.  I've kind of mentioned this before but I just got married last November, and moved with my husband to a new town, away from my family and the place that I have lived my whole life.  This means NEW everything.  I get overwhelmed when I think about it, most times I function pretty good, meeting a group of new people all the time, but some times it breaks me down.  It's so strange functioning in an environment where no one knows me, my past anything.  Like I have no credibility, people's opinions are based on my appearance (and that is the worst! Because no one thinks that a young gal is as wise or knowledgeable as I am)

Getting back to my sin...I told my husband that my sin, I feel is seeking comfort in other places but in Christ.  Right now it is almost impossible to do that...nothing is comfortable but being at home with my husband, or going home to be with my family.  But I long for the comfort of the things that are no longer mine to take comfort in....like my old church family and where I used to live etc.  I know that God is working hard on me to get me to take comfort in Him...I don't know why this is apart of my Christian journey but God always has a purpose.

Sometimes sin can show up in seemingly innocent places...What are you a little too comfortable with? (you don't have to answer that...just to your self maybe) Praying for you!

Who is to Blame?

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 I like to post about my devotions, it keeps accountable.  This morning I was reading in the first chapter of Job.  Where servant after servant comes up to Job telling him one horrible thing after another, all involving either Job's possessions or family.  The news was that they were all gone.  Imagine everything everything you own plus everyone you love is gone...

Job falls to his knees when he hears these words and praises God.  What?! How could you do that?

Job 1:20-22

 ²⁰ Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. ²¹ He said,

   “I came naked from my mother’s womb,
      and I will be naked when I leave.
   The Lord gave me what I had,
      and the Lord has taken it away.
   Praise the name of the Lord!”

 ²² In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.

In all of this Job did not sin by blaming God.  Sometimes it's hard not to blame God, I am so guilty of that sin.  But my sister reminded me, as we were talking about her baby who is due soon, that this baby is God's and He has complete control over what will happen.  That's a brave statement for a mother to make knowing full well that that could mean anything.  God has complete control over our lives, whether we like it or not,  And He has a plan and a purpose for everything!  I think that is the wisdom that Job had, he knew that God is sovereign and has a plan...and that's why he could praise God when everything had been taken.

(I used a picture of a river because rivers cut through land and make a permanent presence like God does in our lives)

What do you smell like?

2 Corinthians 2:14-17 (NLT)

Ministers of the New Covenant

 But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume.

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These were the verses in my devotional today.  I chuckled as I was reading it a little thinking to myself "what do I smell like?" Think about a believer you know that when you come into contact with them it's like a breath of fresh air.  But I can imagine those same people can get under the skin of non-believers, because of the same hope and joy they have in their lives.  I hope that I am like a breath of fresh air to the believer that I come into contact with but right now I don't feel like I am because I am in a completely new environment and it takes me a while to open up.  However, there are sweet older ladies who come up to me every week and hug me and say they are praying for me and they "smell sweet to me." Are there believers in your life that you can "smell sweet" to? I hope that God reviles that person to you this week...I'll be praying for that this week! 

Faith by Obedience

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So my husband and I like to listen to pod-casts from the Pastors at Northcoast Church, in Vista California. They are doing a new series on faith.  This week we listened to one entitled Faith or Folly? by Pastor Chris Brown.  It was so interesting...great faith is not taking risks, blind leaps, etc.  Think about it...in all the Bible stories where you see the character doing something strange but you say "wow what faith" that person is doing it because GOD SAYS TO.  Faith comes into play when you OBEY God's commands...did Peter walk on water without Jesus sticking out his hand?  No. Should we "get out of the boat' simply because we believe that that's what faith is-taking a risk, or because God is commanding you to do that? It takes great faith to obey God!

This honestly has cleared up so much of the struggles I've been having with "leaps of faith."

(if you click on Northcoast Church it should take you to their site where you can listen to the sermon if you'd like)

Prayer

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"Prayer should become as natural as breathing"

I just read this quote from my devotional this morning, I don't know who wrote it.  I just kept saying it over and over in my head.  To make this possible it must take great discipline and lots of practice.  I wish that this was true for me.  There are so many un-knowns going on in the lives of my husband and I.  It's not that I need to know the answers right away but there's one big thing that we need direction on and I know that prayer is going to help us get that.  I don't know,  prayer is just intriguing to me right now...I want to be better at it.

The Discipline of Prayer

So I've been feeling the pull of God to come closer to Him for a while now.  I started to do my daily devotions again every morning which feels good.  Then I started to pray afterward...It did not go well and I was thankful that the Spirit intercedes for us because I needed Him to.  I realized that the reason why it didn't go well was because I wasn't disciplining myself to focus on talking to God.  My mind was wandering all over the place.  I would say a word like "work" and starting singing a song in my head like "I've been working on the railroad."  SHEESH.  It was embarrassing! So I decided that I need to pray more and discipline myself.  Today went better...even though I still did the word associating song thing...but I asked God to focus my mind every time I strayed.  It will probably take a while but a disciplined prayer life is something very important to me and hopefully for all believers.  Happy Saturday!

By Faith

My husband and I have been recently discussing some possible changes in our lives.  Unfortunately we can't see into the future and that makes planning and decision making hard...at least for me.  So we've been talking about making a decision in faith.  I'm sure so many of you have made these kinds of decisions before, took that leap trusting God will catch you. But for some reason, I'm having a hard time with it. I know that God loves me and has a plan for me but I also think "why should God help us out with our needs when so many are suffering and we have it so much better than so many people?" But then I saw a few verses yesterday that hit me....

Ephesians 2:8-9

⁸ God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. ⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. ¹⁰ For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

I've heard this many times so much so I could probably say it with out reading it. But the word that hit me today was boast.  We are put here to glorify the name of God, which means when we step out on faith and God comes through we give him the glory and spread the good news of what He has done.  When I take decisions on myself and things work out do I give God the glory...hmmmm?  So maybe God would rather me step out on faith so that I boast in Him and the awesome provisions He has "planned for me to do long ago."  Let go and Let God....

They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts...

I know I haven't been blogging for a while...Chris and I were at a conference starting on Monday in Southern California.  It was really great on many levels.  One thing was that Chris' family lives in So. Cal. so we got to catch up with them and that is always really fun! The weather was perfect and Chris' mom's place is to die for (over looking the ocean...I know!)
Another reason it was great was because Chris and I got to go to Disneyland...which we love...and again the weather was lovely and it wasn't crowded the best thing to do there is people watch (if you like people watching) it's delightful, because people are so happy there and kids are so uninhibited! We just sat there watching people and chuckling!
The third reason it was great was because the conference we went to was amazing.  It's called the On-Target Conference. Which is designed for pastors and other leaders in the church but mainly pastors to come together and get a little fellowship time but really to get challenged to stay "on-target."
It's been really awesome for me since I've been married to be able to learn so so much in such a short amount of time. I really didn't want to move here, away from my hometown and family and church family. At times it feels like being cast out into the desert.  I didn't understand why this was in God's plan for us.  But as I look back on these 3 months I can see how much I have learned out here in the desert how you can find the springs of water in what seems to be a very dry place.  If you never venture out of the comfort of familiarity then maybe you aren't living up to your full potential as a Christ follower.
So all this comes into culmination at this conference as I was listening to a message on The Great Commission. I never have ever wanted to be involved in foreign missions, I used to help out in the youth ministry and every year they went to Mexico on a mission and every year I said no.  Ok first things first, if you say no....eventually God will make you say yes. The first day of this message I was like "I don't like Jesus anymore" because I was truly that uncomfortable with what was being pressed on my heart. The next day I heard "Does your heart break for what breaks God's heart? At the end of you life will you only have to show for your self a live of self serving comforts?" Oh...don't get me wrong...I am all over the place serving the church at my church being involved in anything my skills are suited for.  Serving only those who already know and love Christ...only. Does my heart break for the lost...no...do I even think about it much or at all...no. Are you really following after Christ then? Yikes I don't know, not if I feel this bad about how I answered those questions.  I'm so excited to be at this place! So excited to have been given a new perspective on this life I have and on the world I live in.  Praise God!! I read Isaiah 43:1-13 today...I feel renewed!