God Makes All Things Beautiful!

Fall is in the air this morning! There's a cool breeze and it smells like dry leaves; it's the kind of weather that makes me want warm cozy blankets, hot chocolate, and ooey gooey warm cheesey dinners. Fall, I think is the most comforting season, and it seems that every time fall hits, I need some comforting. God know exactly what we need and brings us through our seasons at just the right time. This past week has been a week of loss...On Monday, we helped Bailey, our sweet dog of 15 years out of pain and out of this world. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. I am so thankful that God prepares our hearts for times like these and fills them with His love, mercy, and grace. I still have an empty feeling when I think of her and am reminded she's no longer here, and I imagine that will linger for quite some time.

Then, on Wednesday, I found out that someone close to me is "moving away", and we will no longer be able to be "so" close...Last, on Friday, I said goodbye to nine of my students (that's half of my class) as they "moved up" to their new class, some of them had been with me for almost a year-and-a-half, this prooved to be more difficult than anticipated. The comfort of this fall breeze is more than healing than I can describe! Sitting in my living room with the door and windows open, getting close to grabing a blanket, looking forward to the new week and new season ahead.

I was reminded this morning of the verse that says

"And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.”' Revelation 21:5

"He has made everything appropriate (good, beautiful) in its time. He has also put eternity in their hearts, but man cannot discover the work God has done from beginning to end." Ecclesiasties 3:11

Our God is in the business of transformations...think of the swan, for example. The swan duckling is often reffered to as "the ugly duckling," we've all hear the children's story of how the ugly duckling is laughed at and teased and them grows and matures to become more beautiful than his taunting counterparts...(looking at the picture above, these litte swans are not so ugly, but for the sake of illustration, lets pretend)  I believe this is a beautiful picture of God 'making all things new.' God can bring beauty out of every situation, good or bad, and works all things together for our good, and does not allow anything that does not fit into or fulfill His will and final plan. So, I like to think that God is in the business of swan-making! Which he is. He made the swans, afterall. :) What I mean is, even after my seemingly terrible week, I know that just like the swan, just like this cool fall morning after a crazy-hot summer, God is renewing and refining my heart through every season He wills for me to go through. Therefore, I must be thankful, even for this past week, because God is using it to transform my heart and my life so that I, too, may one day become the "beautiful ending" he has planned for me!

Blessings, friends! As I look forward to my beautiful ending and the journey of life that will take me there, I pray that God will reveal something beautiful to you this week. Just as Ecclesiasties says, He makes ALL things beautiful in its time!

Off Track...

Have you ever struggled with a season of apathy? I believe there are seasons for everything, Ecclesiastes tells us much about seasons...this season, my heart is steeped in apathy...many times I find myself not wanting to do anything say anything feel anything...Even this email/post/devotional*as some of you have termed SWS* I've been putting off for two weeks. My mind babbles like a river with phrases and ideas that may or may not be filled with wisdom and I compose and revise and think through sentences and paragraphs of next week's blog and when Saturday comes around I seem to find other things to do...avoiding the calling, the tug at my heart to share what God has placed on my heart. So, as I struggle through not wanting and not trying and not enjoying I force-feed encouragement to myself in an attempt to grow to change to move forward to...something...only to feel like life has thrown another curve ball aimed at my heart...God never said life would be easy. In fact, just the opposite, Christ assured us that we would have trials and storms of many kinds and people would hate and persecute us. And life is hard friends...SO hard. I am SO grateful to God for sending the Holy Spirit to enter my heart and HELP me through this life.

My weeks since my last blog have been difficult and I suppose I've used that as an excuse to neglect my commitment to you...Bailey, my sweet dog, got sick last weekend and has been steadily declining, this week, after 15 years of loving furry friendship, we will say goodbye to our dear pet. I am heartbroken. I LOVE that I have a God who I can CRY out to and He will heal my heart! This God who healed Naaman of his leprosy, raised Lazarus from the dead, kept Jonah alive in the belly of a great fish, flooded the earth, parted the red sea and SO many other miracles send Jesus to earth to die on a cross and be raised from the dead so that YOU and I can have life/healing/restoration/and joy everlasting! What wonderful comfort in this truth! So, even in my apathy and lack of passion, I can run to the arms of Jesus and feel comfort and healing...through prayer I can communicate my heart to the One who already knows everything about me and as I draw near to Him, He draws near to me and I begin to feel my passion returning-my desire renewing-my will conforming- and I find myself ultimately in the center of God's will! And no matter how hard life seems to be going, no matter how low or painful or lost life feels, I know I can turn to Christ in prayer and He will ALWAYS rain down comfort and healing! And THAT is a truth worth sharing!

When you experience apathy, combat it with prayer and ALWAYS remember who you are in Christ! You ARE a saint, made perfect, loved, healed, forgiven, restored, redeemed, and washed white as snow! (among so many other things). No matter what pain I may feel, no matter how hard I feel life gets, no matter how many times I turn away, no matter WHAT, God pursues me with the answer! What sweet love :)

I'm sorry that this week we seem to have deviated from out normal pattern of discussion, but this has been my heart for two or three weeks now so I figure God wanted me to share! I hope you've enjoyed our little journey into my heart...I know I needed it!

Made New in Christ

Sunday again and a beautifully sunny morning (how fitting! Sun for Sunday)! This week has been FULL of lessons learned and lessons still to come. And, of course, Saturday has somehow gotten away from me...So, good Sunday morning! I love the creation of nature! I can look out the window when I wake in the morning and see trees and grass and sunshine and birds...all of which have no ulterior motives, nothing to hide, and ALWAYS glorify their creator, God...this is not so of humans! As you may have noticed, people are a bit harder to 'read' and understand than a tree. "Duh," you say...but stick with me on this...there's beauty in the end!

What do you see when you look at someone. Typically, when we look at people, whether we know them or not, we see their appearance (face, body, clothing, etc...) Just as when we look at anything else, we see the outside. All mind and soul function are hidden from our eyes. People are complex. They can hurt us, comfort us, encourage us, lie to us, manipulate us, show emotion, and a vast array of other things...some good and some sinful. How wonderful to be created with so many different attributes! Now, we can know a person as we spend time with them and see the overflow of their heart in their actions and words, but this usually refers to a small, tight knit group of people we would call friends. At face value, we see a 'picture' of a person...a picture void of soul truth. So, what does God see when he looks at us?

Our God is magnificently all powerful and all knowing and all seeing...when God looks at us, he sees our sin. Every sin: past, present, and future...God sees the heart, therefore God sees your sin. "For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." 1Samuel16:7. I love the poetic phrasing in Isaiah64:6:

"All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away."

"Well, great," you say...when God looks at us He sees filthy rags! But that's not the end of the story, my friends! This verse in Isaiah comes from the Old Testament, and though in our New Testament times God still sees the heart and still sees our sin (for He is UNchanging!), we have great hope! See 1John1:7:

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,

we have fellowship with one another,

and the blood of Jesus, his Son,

purifies us from all sin."

"The blood of Jesus PURIFIES us from all sin!" What a blessing! And, what a relief! God sees all...and because of our sin we were separated from him...enter Jesus! God sent His only son to die the worst death so that IF we accept this gift and allow Jesus to rule over our hearts, our sins are washed away! We are made clean! God no longer LOOKS at our sin (though He can still SEE it ALL), now he LOOKS at Christ, and welcomes us...no longer separated! There is NO GREATER love than this!

This past week I have struggled with an idol I have created...All the while I could hear that 'still small voice' (the Holy Spirit) call to me, pleading with me to turn away from this idol that was causing me to take my eyes off God, and I ignored it...I kept on in my sin, enjoying the pleasure it brought me (forget that it left me feeling guilty and alone at the end of the day). I tried to excuse it away, tried to tell myself "It's not really a sin...I'm not hurting anybody...I'll turn back tomorrow..." feeding myself lies, giving Satan room to redecorate my heart. It doesn't take long for Satan to see the smallest window of opportunity in our heart, the smallest turning away and rejection of God becomes Satan's widest opening...he swoops in and begins to redecorate our hearts and our lives and before we can see what's happened, we are knee deep in a sin we had no business giving our life to. Hallelujah, God has sent Jesus to save us! AS SOON AS we repent of our sin and turn back to God, we are made new. We are cleansed. God welcomes us back with loving open arms! Of course, it's not easy to drop the sin or tear down the idol...but God gives us grace and time to work at it, knowing full well if and when we will falter again. And, dear one, He's already agreed to take you back, pick you up, brush you off and clean you up when that happens! BEST of all, we don't need to do anything! We don't need to tear down those idols on our own. We don't need to purge our lives of that sin by ourselves! If we ALLOW God to work, HE will do it WITH us! What beautiful truth!

Remember, brothers and sisters, no matter how deep we dig ourselves into a sin, God is ALWAYS there to pull us out and help us fill in the sin-hole with

Jesus!

Worry, Worry, Worrry...

Sitting here, sipping coffee, watching the Olympics in the comfort of air conditioning and a reclining chair...how blessed are we! Life can be so demanding and worrisome...God has reminded me this week of Matthew 6:25-34

“This is why I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t He do much more for you—you of little faith? So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ or the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Our God clothes the flowers of the field and feeds the birds in the sky...and yet we worry...over everything...that we won't have enough, we won't have the same as someone else, we won't get what we want, we won't be able to have it now...worry and wait seem to pair themselves conveniently together, don't they? We worry that we have to wait so we worry while we wait...forgetting all the while that God has THE plan for our lives...God knows how it will end...God knows what we NEED! Culture and media in America capitalizes on our human desire to be and have the biggest and best (whether that's selfishness or pompous pride) we always want to look better than the person next to us...Romans 12:10 says, however, we should "Outdo one another in showing honor" NOT to outdo in showing possessions or wealth or health or strength or ANYthing else we humans look to as we wish to be the best, BUT to outdo in showing HONOR! Dictionary.com defines "honor" as "honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs and actions." Honor is a word of Character. Showing more honor does not mean being first, but being last. Allowing others to come before yourself, giving the person next to you the biggest and best rather than taking it for yourself. This is a difficult thing to do with every input into our senses telling us differently...commerce tell us that what we have isn't good enough (forget that it meets our needs, it must be bigger, better, and more expensive), gigantic appliances send the message that what we eat and cook is too small, we must have more, the housing market alerts us to our deficiency in space and size, isle after isle in the book store totes ways to "become a better you," the Internet encourages time wasting and money spending, and all of this only to mutate out feelings of inadequacy into worry and fear at the end of the day. Of course, there are aspects of these things that are good, portions that God provides to us out of His generosity to bless us in our short time here on this Earth...and at the end of the day the choice is yours....a choice to either thank God for His generosity and blessing OR look at your neighbor and decide God hasn't blessed you enough.

My hope is that at the end of my day I will choose to thank God and bask in the glory of His grace and love and blessing so that I might take that blessing and share it with my neighbor. And, through it all, remember not to worry...God's got this.

In God's Name

At Bible study this week, we had a Seminary professor come and lead our discussion. He spoke about the history of the church and of Christianity, and I'll be honest, history of any kind is just not my area of interest. There was one point that stood out to me though...He referenced 2Corinthians 5:20 "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us." And, as ambassadors, we are the face and voice of the embassy. I had never thought of the Church as God's Embassy before...There are American Embassies all over the world...land in other countries that the US owns with a building run by the president and with people who are expected to be the face of America to whatever country they serve...the Church is God's Kingdom Embassy. So then this professor posed a question: "What kind of ambassador are you? Do you represent the Embassy well? Do you represent God well?"

I have been confronted with this a lot lately in my own life. Do I represent God the way I should? In everything I do? "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. (1Corinthians 10:31) And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.(Colossians 3:17)" So, how am I doing? How are you doing? How do we represent Christ when we're stuck in traffic? When someone cuts us off? When we have a bad day? When we have a good day? When we're out with friends? When we're out with co-workers? When we're at the gym? When we're at the store? When we watch that movie, or listen to that music, or use those words or that tone of voice?...Because the fact is, whether we represent Him well or poorly, we ARE His representation to the world. Do we turn people TO Christ, or AWAY from Him? I wish the church would focus on this more...I wish I would focus on this more.

We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but as Redeemed sinners covered by the blood of the lamb with the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts, we have a responsibility to the world to endure, press on, and SHOW the grace and mercy of God. I pray that God would continue to provide opportunities in my life and in yours to practice being a GREAT ambassador for His Kingdom! I pray God would guide our steps today, tomorrow, and each day until His coming in such a way that glorifies His name. I pray He would make us less so He could be more! I pray for His strength to run this race with endurance and thank Him for His presence and protection each step of the way! Thank you God that you are with us wherever we are and you welcome us with open arms. Thank you that you equip us with every good and perfect gift so that we may be ambassadors for your Kingdom to win others to Christ! Help us to realize and accomplish the plans and dreams you have for each of our lives in the name of Jesus!

By Grace

Fellow Forgiven,

Have you ever, or do you remember a time when you've really come to understand how far you've fallen? I don't think we can ever know the true gravity of our sin, nor can we comprehend what our sin does within the walls of our savior's heart. Can you imagine adding cream into black coffee? How it permeates every space within the coffee...causing the coffee to cloud...and the two can not be separated. I think that may be a little what our sin does in our hearts and in the heart of God...only, God has the ONE way to separate cream from coffee, sin from heart, darkness from light.

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That's comforting to me in some way...not one of us is better than the other...not one of us is worse than the other...there is not one of us who God loves better...there is not one of His children whom God is disappointed with...ALL is a level playing field within the body of Christ. What a sweet thought. I know I have fallen--I have fallen hard and I have fallen fast and I have fallen worse than I ever thought I would...but ONE thing remains...Jesus. nails. death. life. redemption.

I praise God tonight for His healing love and redemptive grace. I am daily reminded about my misdeeds...Satan makes sure I am reminded how "bad" I am like it's his job...and THE response to the evil one is to preach truth and gospel to ourselves. Take every thought captive. Remove all unwholesome talk. And rejoice in the place God has prepared for you!

I hope, friends, that you had a great weekend! While you read this, I hope you will ponder the greatness God has accomplished in your lives and in the lives of loved ones...than pray for those you love who have yet to have their eyes opened. How can we keep such great love to ourselves?

The Things of This World Grow Strangely Dim

Sorry for missing Saturday this weekend, I was up in the mountains at camp with some of the youth from church! Was so excited to be asked and get to go! I left with the expectation for God to work, what I got was so much more, for me and my group! The camp was fun, the worship was moving, and the message was powerful, impactful, and convicting! The thing that stuck with me most was the points made this morning before we left for home. Jared (the pastor for the week) talked about sin and overcoming sin. What he said was basically this: struggling with a sin is difficult, overcoming that sin can be even more difficult...depending on how you approach it. He used the illustration of having a "sinful addiction" to chocolate. If you tell yourself to stay away from chocolate, and you tell your friends to keep you away from chocolate, and you continually say "no chocolate" all you're going to think about is CHOCOLATE! You're setting yourself up for failure because you've continued to keep the sin (in this case, chocolate) on your mind. Rather, if we focus ALL our ATTENTION on Christ and the gospel and sharing and living holy and blameless lives, we won't be thinking about the sin. Wow. Did you get that? I didn't really listen the first time (I was a bit distracted) and was glad he said it again.

If you're focusing on God rather than the sin you are trying to overcome, your mind and heart will be so full of the Gospel and of God that there will be no room for your sin to continue to torment you. If we allow Him, God can fill our hearts and minds to overflowing and all that yucky sin stuff will be forced over the edge and out of our lives.

Point being, focus on Christ in the midst of overcoming sin rather than focusing on saying "no" to the sin. That's what got me. I often find myself saying no to things I am working to overcome and it becomes all about me. Instead, I need to make it about God, pray for his help, and immerse myself in His love and in His word to overflow the sin right out of my life. I had never thought of it that way. What sin are you struggling with that you just can't seem to kick? Are you focusing on the SIN? or on GOD? I pray God will change my habits and cause me to rethink how I approach my sin and I pray the same for you!