Milestones

Well, friends, we're coming up on one year...currently my blog count tells me I've posted 49 posts (that's no small feat for me).  I realized (or remembered) that my first post was on Easter last year, and here we come again to the most precious and miraculous of holidays...the day we remember Christ's death, burial, and resurrection to redeem our souls and save our lives!  God has brought me a long way since that first post, and I know He has much more in store for me in the coming years.  I hope this blog has been as inspiring and encouraging to you as it has to me.

In this year, and increasingly so in the past few months, My head and heart have been filled with aspirations for this blog that I fear I am ill-equiped to manage on my own...thatkfuly, I'm not on my own.  This is God's voice...rather, He inspires the words and simply give publication to them...and I hope that never changes.  

'Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring—what your life will be! For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes. Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”  But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So it is a sin for the person who knows to do what is good and doesn’t do it.'  James 4:13-17

I know that I've shared this passage before...it rings in my heart, clamors in my head, reminding me that my words are not my words.  My breath is not my breath.  My life is not my life.  And so, all of my aspirations for this blog and my "influence" are not mine either...All belongs to God.  Only He knows the beginning and the end and every second inbetween...  All I can do, all He asks of me is that I listen intently to His instruction and be obedient.  So here's to one year, friends, it was beautiful spending it with you!

A Child of God

"Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn't know Him.  Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is.  And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. "  1 John 3:1-3

We have been adopted by God into His family of faith!  Having never been adopted, I've had a difficult time fully understanding this concept.  Last night, I watched a movie that somehow helped me to understand...The movie was "The Blind Side."  A great movie about southern (white) family who adopts a homeless (black) teen.  From the outside they do not seem to mesh...they don't look similar or talk the same way, they do not come from the same area of town or the same area of mind, they are in every way incompatible (from the outside).  But inside this family there is bonding and acceptance that can only come from the heart overflowing with love and grace!  So it is with God.  Jesus came to this earth in the form of a man in order to die on a cross and free us from our bondage, pay our debt, and sign our adoption papers with His blood...thus adopting us into His family...a family that we as mere sinners don't look like we fit...but God welcomes us with love and grace just the way we are.

What a wonderful privilege we have to be a part of God's family!

It's amazing how God speaks to us through the things of this world, isn't it?  I am so thankful to finally begin to understand what it means to be called God's daughter.

Tuesday

"...For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.  But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” Acts 5:38-39

One of the Pastors at my church shared this with us at a meeting last week, and it has been with me since (as it has with many others, I think)...reminding me that I can go ahead and make my plans if I want to, but if I am not consulting my God on whether or not my plan has come from Him or if He approves, my plans will fail...and miserably so.  And, even in the failing, God allows me to learn a lesson so deep and profuond that it changes my life!

Typically, I don't blog in the middle of the week.  But, I felt I needed to share this, and it couldn't wait until Saturday.  Much of my week is filled with plans for this and that...lesson planning, social planning, quiet time planning, etc... I wonder how many of you are like me in this...?  We are planning people...manytimes, without "our" plans, we feel lost and chaotic and purposeless and frazzled.  Plans help us to make sense of our moments in life, help us to put the moments together and fashion a day which then gives into a week...so on and so on...until we are stopped dead in our tracks because our plans are of men.  Ever been there?  There is a passage in James (James 4:13-17) that, I think, echos this passage from Acts:

James 4:13-17                                                                                                                                                            Come now, you who say. "Today or tomorrow we will travel to such and such a city and spend a year there and do business and make a profit."  You don’t even know what tomorrow will bring-what your life will be!  For you are like smoke that appears for a little while, then vanishes.  Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”  But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.  So it is a sin for the person who knows to do what is good and doesn’t do it.

If God is FOR us, who can be AGAINST us?  No matter what our plans, if it does not accomplish God's purposes, it. will. fail.  But, if our plan DOES accomplish God's will, NOTHING can stop us!!!  I love these verses!  The context in Acts 5 provides the rich backdrop to this wonderfully encouraging truth.  We are more than conquerors as Christ's followers and there is nothing that can stop us.

His Best

Happy Saturday!

God is SO good!  I am thankful, today, for the many people He has brought into my life who encourage and inspire me to be the best me I can be!  Spending time with these people not only brightens my mood and reminds me of God's grace and bountiful goodness, but also causes me to recognize my best qualities because they bring out the best in me!

Conversely, there are people in our lives who tend to bring us down and bring out the worst in us.  These types of "friends" can cause us to feel like we need to change who we are, become a "better person," fix ourselves, or simply cause us to feel inadequate.  These are not God-given friends!  Granted, every person brought into our lives is there for a season and a reason, HOWEVER, the whole goal of fellowship and community is to be encouraged, feel and spread the Glory of God, and to bear one-another's burdens and triumphs in LOVE!  Our culture tends to send a different message:

"You are never enough, so surround yourself with these people (who are better than you) and fake it til you make it."  -Love, the world.

Now, why, in our right minds, would we want to listen to that?  My point exactly!  There is a much better lesson brought to you by the One who TRUELY loves you: you are enough.  And, in true fellowship and TRUE friendship, your friends will echo the voice of the Lord!  After all, by this, everyone will know that we are Christ's disciples, by how we love each other!

I love that God has created us to be people of community, and that He created community to spurr us on to further His kingdom!  There's nothing better than the realization that God has brought you out of unhealthy relationships and gifted you with true friendship  to last a lifetime!  What a blessing it is to have each other! 

All that Glitters

I love that God allows us to have an intimate relationship with Him...to learn more and more about Him and to be in awe at every new discovery! I feel like that's the best part of this Christianity thing, don't you?  So why do we find ourselves turning from Him in search of all that glitters in the world?  If God's fellowship and friendship is really that much better in our eyes...why do we find ourselves get so deep into the pull of the world?

It's different every time...sometimes I notice the change immediately, in one simple choice I pick the world for my team over my God.  In these moments, it's not so difficult to say "no" and turn back - not losing too much of my relationship with Him along the way.  Other times it's days, weeks, even months before I realize I have been consistently saying "yes" (or "OK" or "just one more time") to the world and "no" to God and before I know it, I look just like the world.  In these cases the realization that I have turned away comes as a much harder truth, it hurts more, it's harder to say "no" to whatever thing has been luring me into the world, and my relationship with God has now suffered.  I am no longer as close to Him as I once was.  I no longer have the same influence for Him among my friends and family.  And Satan has gotten exactly what he wanted.  This is not good.

Praise God for the power of the cross and the mercy of our maker!  We have already won the victory through Christ!  Yes, turning back into the light hurts our eyes at first after following the darkness for some time, but I believe that Light (The Light that is Jesus Christ) is more welcoming and more warming and more healing every time we choose Him!  He rejoices anew to have us back in His arms every time...because each time, it gets harder.

There is so much glitter and glitz in the world that it can sometimes feel like the light, but God gives us the power to see the world for what it is.  And, through consistently choosing God, we are saved from falling head over heels into the world.

Our God pursues us every day...He is always wooing us to His side...He COMPLETES US!  So, even though it may sometimes be harder to choose Him, the pay off is ALWAYS so much better!  Ask Him in the morning to help you make the choices that bring you closer to Him, and He will!  And your whole day will be better for it!

You Dance Over Me!

Today is one of those days when nothing comes to mind...no inspiration...no word from God...no great revelation to bring forth...no dark corners to liberate into light...just calm, peaceful, silence.  From morning's light I have reached for that encouraging bit of wisdom to share.  Even now, fingers pressed to the keys, eyes intent on the screen, ears tuned to heaven - quiet.  There was a time in my life when I would do anything in my power to fill this quiet with as much noise as possible.  Music, TV, the bathroom fan...have you ever had those days?  So fearful of what you might hear in the silence.  Horrified by what might find you.  So focused on covering up that still. small. voice.  Yeah, I've been there.

Not today though (praise God for His saving grace!!!).  No, today I am overjoyed to be immersed in this quiet!  And not because life has gotten overly-hectic or because I am surrounded by noise every day (which may be true), but simply to sit in the presence of my Lord and Savior with nothing but thankfulness to offer Him.  It brings me more joy and contentment that I could ever ask for!

Only God can fill this space.  Only His presence is full enough, bright enough, big enough, loud enough, and comforting enough to make all those fears of failures revisited fade away.  What's more, He's pleased to be that fullness for us!  How cool is that?  The one and only God, Creator of the heavens and the earth, Orbiter of planets, Mover of tides, Grower and Giver of life, Almighty, King of kings is PLEASED to sit in the quiet with you and with me.  It overjoys Him!  Just take the time to simply sit at His feet and worship Him in humbleness and thankfulness!

"Yahweh your God is among you,
a warrior who saves.
He will rejoice over you with gladness.
He will bring you quietness with His love.
He will delight in you with shouts of joy"

(Zephaniah 3:17)

I've stumbled upon this verse in my musings today...the song "Amazed" by Lincoln Brewster follows the same thought....that God can rejoice in us, in our obedience!  He becomes so joyful and proud over what He has created in us that it causes Him to DANCE OVER US!!!

You dance over me, while I am unaware.

You sing all around, but I never hear a sound.

Lord I'm amazed by You

And how you love me!

(Lincoln Brewster: "Amazed")

WOW.  Don't you just love those "wow" moments?  Warms my heart.

If we sit long enough and quiet enough in these moments of 'nothing' we might feel his rejoicing!  We might hear sound of His voice in song!  We might see a glimpse of His dancing over us!  And, brothers and sisters, We might just be amazed by HOW He loves us!