It's been a season of moving.

I moved to a new office area at work.

We moved to a new house in June.

And The Heart Change Place has moved too.

Will you come and visit me? You can find me here at http://www.kathybutryn.com.

I posted the lastest devotional there today...I pray it will be a reminder of just how much God loves you.

For those of you who have subscribed to The Heart Change Place, I want to invite you to subscribe to Kathy Butryn.com so that you don't miss the Pause Devotionals and other posts that will help you build wisdom to make today count. 

You can subscribe by going to Kathy Butryn.com and scrolling down the right-hand column to "subscribe."

See you over there!!!!

kath

Recently, Alan and I watched a documentary about a husband who murdered his wife. He denied his involvement and had so cleverly covered his crime, that all the  law enforcement authorities involved in the case were completely stumped.

That is, until his computer was confiscated by a special technical forensic team. 

Now, I don't know much about the inner workings of a computer. But that night I learned, contrary to what I had previously believed, that hitting the "delete" button on my computer does not actually delete my computer activity from my hard drive.

Hmmm, I'm thinking this husband was none too excited when he discovered this little piece of information as well. The truth was about to be exposed.

Each and every key stroke analyzed by the forensic team revealed ugly facts that slowly chipped away at the crafty story the husband had devised, until within time, there were so many cracks in his story that it all crashed in on him and led to his arrest and conviction.

The thing that stood out to me was this: he had fooled himself into thinking no one could ever know the innermost parts of his computer. Foolish man!

Yet, do I do the same thing when it comes to my heart? Do you?

Is it possible that we can hurriedly live out our days and grow numb to the fact that we are fooling ourselves into believing no one can knows the innermost parts of our heart. The real us.

Like this husband, we cleverly cover up the ugly facts of what really is happening deep inside. Things like anxiety and worry; our obsessive need to control the people and circumstances in our lives; affairs; laziness and sloth; criticism; fantasies and dark thoughts; pride; disinterest in others; anger, resentment and bitterness.

In our fear of being exposed for who we really are, much like the husband in the story above, we deny the true condition of our hearts by cleverly building  pleasant--yet false and protective--facades to fool and impress all we interact with. 

Let's remember.

God sees and knows every keystroke of our heart. While people look on the outward appearance, God looks at the heart. (I Samuel 16:7) 

The beautiful part is that we need not fear the exposure of our heart before God. He invites us to open ourselves up before Him honestly within the context of His love, His mercy, and His grace.

Psalm 139 helps us to capture how God really feels about us when He looks at us. Take some time today to read it--slowly digesting the truth each word holds.

As we sit safely in the palm of God's love, mercy, and grace, we will allow the careful chipping away of our false and protected selves so as to reveal our true selves...who we are in Christ.

Pause: Will you surrender to God's heart search today?

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:23-24

Have an amazing day!

This past week, while chatting on the virtual front porch of The Heart Change Place, we took the pressure off ourselves of memorizing God's Word.  

Remember: it's not that we are going to stop paying attention to the verses that nudge us by God's Spirit.

We will still write them down.

We will still carry them with us.

But instead of trying to memorize them--we will read them, over and over, allowing His very Word to seep down deep into our hearts as well as invade our minds.

What happens to us when we listen to the same song--over and over again?

What happens to us when we repeat the same phone number--over and over again?

What happens to us when we make the same recipe--over and over again?

We remember. We begin to memorize.

And that's what happens when we commit to reading those verses...over and over again. 

So I encourage you...and me.

 Let's make "hiding His Word in your heart" a part of cultivating our inner life. As we were reminded by Dallas, it is a practice that is more important than our quiet time.

And yes, the memorization will happen...naturally.

 In time. 

Just because we keep committing to the process of "hiding."

How do you hide God's Word in your heart?

Have you read about the lesson in the boardroom yet?

Here's a quote from Dallas Willard about memorizing Scripture:

“This practice of memorizing the Scriptures is more important than a daily quiet time, for as we fill our minds with these great passages and have them available for our meditation, “quiet time” takes over the entirety of our lives.

God’s word to Joshua, as he undertook the great task before him, was, “This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success” (Josh. 1:8, NASB)….

But how does the law get in your mouth? By memorization, of course. It becomes an essential part of how we think about everything else as we dwell on it…This is the true education for ministry and for life.” Dallas Willard 

I'm not sure what it is like where you live right now...but where I am, there was a lot of snow-shoveling activities goin' on over the weekend.

That fact alone makes a chat on my virtual front porch kind of welcoming, don't you think?

So curl up here for a minute or two...I just want to bend your ear about something I have been thinking about--and hear what you have to say too! (hearing your side of the conversation is the best part of our chat...why not leave a comment at the end of this post?)

One of the 5 timeless ingredients to committing to our life is to cultivate our inner life.

One of the ways we cultivate our inner life is memorizing God's Word.

For a while here at The Heart Change Place, I was posting a verse on Monday mornings, a verse I was committing to memorize that week.

Here's what happened. 

There was more unmemorized verse left than there was week.

I so desperately wanted to memorize my weekly verse, and when I didn't, I felt guilty, and soon gave up.

I decided to take the pressure off myself and took some time to leisurely wander through Psalm 119.

What an amazing reminder it was of the power of God's Word in my life...but also I got the renewed sense of invitation...to incline my heart to it; to cleave to it; to love it; to delight in it; to be steadfast in it, to meditate on it...well, you get the picture.

With no pressure--or guilt--I decided to accept the invitation.

I still have my memory card box.

I still write down verses on a 3 x 5 card that nudge me or jump right off the page at me.

But instead of looking at my memorization of scripture as another "to-do" on my list (ie: I must memorize this verse), I just take my cards several times a day and quietly read them and ask God to allow His Words to sink deeply into my heart...to HIDE them in my heart.

So, as we finish our time here on the front porch, I want to leave you with 2 invitations:

Invitation One:  Take time to read and re-read Psalm 119. Ask God to stir up a love and desire in your heart of His Word like never before.

Invitation Two: Take the pressure off yourself. Cultivate your inner life by sitting quietly reading and meditating on the verses you would like to memorize. Allow them to sink deeply into your heart. 

I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You.

-Psalm 119:11 NIV

Leave a comment and let me know what you think? Would this work for you?

Thanks for spending some quiet time with my on the front porch,

love you,

Read why I want to be more afraid.

Each month, the women@calvary gals (the women's ministry at my church) are memorizing a verse as we walk through our Character Makeover. Today I wanted to share a verse with you from our week discussing the character quality of HUMILITY.

Although it did not take long for me to memorize.--in fact, it's a verse I have been familiar with since I was a child--it is one that requires a life time to apply.

As I have been meditating on it, I have asked God to continue to transform my heart--to allow me to have the right perspective of who He is...and who I am in relation to Him.

This verse is a great "perspective-setter!!!"

What verse will you be memorizing this week?

There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: 

   A right time for birth and another for death,
   A right time to plant and another to reap,
   A right time to kill and another to heal,
   A right time to destroy and another to construct,
   A right time to cry and another to laugh,
   A right time to lament and another to cheer,
   A right time to make love and another to abstain,
   A right time to embrace and another to part,
   A right time to search and another to count your losses,
   A right time to hold on and another to let go,
   A right time to rip out and another to mend,
   A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
   A right time to love and another to hate,
   A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Boy, these verses sure point out the desirable and undesirable aspects of the seasons of our lives, don't they?

Without a doubt, life is composed of joy and sorrow, building and destroying, and living and dying. Each comes at the proper time.

At some point or another, each of us has come to grips with the reality that life is full of changes and sorrows as well as continuity and joy.

What Season Are You in Today?

Perhaps its a desirable season. Do you find yourself crossing your fingers and gripping this desirable season tightly, for fear that a "wave of bad times" may flood over your life? Perhaps you are feeling overly-confident about this desirable season of life. Maybe you really genuinely are enjoying this time as a gift from God?

Perhaps its an undesirable season. Do you find yourself comparing your life and circumstances with someone elses' life and circumstances--because it just seems a lot greener on the other side of the fence.  Maybe you are filled with fear, resentment and complaint about this undesirable season of life. Or it could be that you are both resting in and leaning on God in trust--as best you can even though you can't see how this season fits into the big picture.

I invite you to take a moment right now to:

1. Be truthful about the season you are in.

2. Tell Jesus about what you do and/or do not like about the season you are in.

3. Find a promise from God's Word that speaks truth into your heart about the season you are in.

4. Thank God for the season you are in.

Be encouraged today:

He has made everything beautiful in it's time.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

 
 
I call this verse  My Daily Reality Check! As soon as you see it, you'll know what I mean.

What verse are you memorizing this week?

This is one of my favourite verses. I memorized it many years ago, but decided this week to add it to my "memory pac" of memory verses and spend time this week meditating on it.

What verse did you choose this week?