You see, I find myself worrying way too much. I find myself in situations where I feel helpless and lost. Sometimes I just don’t feel worthy enough to even write these devotionals due to issues in my own life.

I recently read a quote from A. W. Tozer that said, “When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety!” Wow…… That is so powerful, isn’t it? So why can I not remember this when I’m struggling? I have come to realize, however that it is in those moments that I have a choice. I can choose to either sink deeper into the pit, or to rise above and be that person God is molding me into.

I have found that there are scriptures to back this up. Now, if only I can just remember to “Cast My Fears” on God and allow Him to take care of EVERYTHING when I find myself in that place again! I know, it’s a cool concept, huh?

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:6-7

When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy. Psalm 94:19

Anxiety weighs down the heart, but a kind word cheers it up. Proverbs 12:25

My hope and prayer are that for those of you who have a tough time with this that you can find comfort in His word. I also encourage you to take the opportunity to reach out to those around you who are disciples of Christ. If you do not have this in your life, I encourage you to get in with one of our connect groups, so that you can do “life” together. It’s almost like this, if you spill a 2 liter of pop, and the ONLY thing you have is your own napkin, it’s going to get messy. However, if you have a whole role of paper towels, and others there to help you “Clean Up” the mess, it’s just that much easier. Same way as being in a Connect Group. It WILL make a difference in your life and help you when anxiety and worry begin to creep in again.

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself

and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

Luke 9:23

If you asked the nine-year-old version of me if he wanted to be anything in the world, he would tell you a professional baseball player. If you asked the nine-year-old version of me if he would be willing to sacrifice friends, hours of video game playing, candy, and weekends free to do nothing so that he could focus on becoming the baseball player he wanted to be (because that’s what it really takes), he would have said, “No, thank you!”

And I would have said it because the nine-year-old version of me feels what the adult version of me feels, and what I think most of us would feel if we really knew what it took to achieve our desires. We want something…but we don’t really want the process it takes to get there, and if the process is difficult…we would rather not pursue that desire.

I have been thinking about this a lot in my walk with God. How often I proclaim my desire to live for God, to do what He wants me to, but I don’t really want to walk through the process.  Because I know it’s going to be hard. It’s going to take sacrifice. It may even require more of me than I ever thought it could.

I mean, Jesus called it dying, right? And it’s unfortunate I so often balk at this opportunity, because it’s in the process that some of the greatest blessing happens. It’s been in the process that I have really seen God do some pretty awesome things. He has shown me I am dependent.  He has provided for me miraculously. He has shown me how to be patient. He has sustained me in my pain. He has been faithful and patient while I learned. He has strengthened me when I was too tired to even think.

In other words, He’s been present. And it’s in the process when I truly get to know and spend time with Him. It’s in the process that I get to see how good He truly is. It’s in the process that He shows me who I really am in Him.

Do I still balk at the hard things He calls me to? Sure. I am human…and I still like things to come easy. But each time I am brought to that moment where I stand at the decision to follow God or go the easy route…I want to choose to follow. No matter what the process.

Paul said it best: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:12)

The reward of knowing Christ is worth the pain of the process!

And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more,

“Crucify him.” So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas,

and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Mark 15:14-15 (ESV)

Last week, as we were prepping as a staff for Easter weekend, I spent some time reading the events immediately preceding Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. Even though I’ve read the story countless times, I was struck again by the contrast between Pontius Pilate’s thoughts and actions. The war that raged in his heart and mind during Jesus’s “trial” and sentencing is fascinating, and one from which we can learn much about the human condition and ourselves.

After Jesus was betrayed by Judas and arrested, He was taken to Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor of Judea, and presented as a criminal worthy of the death penalty. According to the Jewish leaders, Jesus was guilty of all manner of wrong-doing, and it was up to Pilate to justly punish His treachery. Pilate, doubtful from the beginning about the guilt of Jesus, begins to question Him regarding the charges being leveled. Multiple times, Pilate came back to the Jewish leaders stating he saw no guilt in Jesus, but they kept crying out to crucify Him. Pilate knew the truth. He made multiple attempts to appease the crowd without condemning Jesus to death, yet in the end we read Mark 15:14-15.

We’ve all been Pilate at different points in our lives, but we can use the case study of this decision as a way to analyze our own actions. We see Pilate trading his conscience for gain in this world. He knew, probably from the very beginning, that Jesus was innocent, yet he slowly compromised his beliefs to gain favor with the Jewish people. We must be careful not to pander to those around us at the expense of what we know to be truth. It’s the age-old example of a teenager succumbing to peer pressure at their first party…I want to “fit in,” so I will sacrifice all I know is right to gain that status.

We can avoid succumbing to the temptation to compromise by creating godly goals in our lives, instead of goals based on what the world would tell us is important. Clearly, worldly goals dominated Pilate’s thoughts. He was determined to keep the peace at all costs so he could keep his job, wealth, power, influence, and chances at an even higher station in the future. He knew the truth of Christ, yet turned his back to pursue the world. How often can we find in our past that exact mistake? We come to church, we know the truth of Christ, we go to Connect Group, we pray, but when presented with a chance to obtain what the world would deem success, we chase it…regardless of the plan God has for our lives, and the damage it may bring to our family, selves, or relationship with God. We must prioritize the influence of God in our lives so we can confidently pursue His plan without compromise or fear.

I pray this week that the power of Jesus’s death and resurrection will instill in our hearts the willingness to pursue truth over the temporary indulgences this world offers.

In college, I had to take business communication courses. One class became one of my favorite courses in obtaining my business degree. The professor was awesome at what she taught, and I’ve applied a lot of her teachings in my daily life. One specific concept that has stuck with me has to do with non-verbal communication. She taught us how body language communicates just as much as verbal communication. The general focus was how to read your audience and how your communication was being received. For instance, if their arms are crossed over their chests, they are really not open to what you are saying. They are essentially guarding themselves, and their arms are like a shield to deflect what they are hearing. If asked what they heard, most likely it will be the portrayal of how they felt during the message, not what they needed to receive from the message.

I’ve said this before, but I’m a people watcher, and find it interesting to see the ways people behave. But in the same sense, I think about my own actions/behaviors. What kind of non- verbal communication am I displaying when around others? Am I fully engaged in what they are saying? What does my body language demonstrate? I’ve transferred that way of thinking to the way I communicate with God. I am purposed about the posture I take in prayer. I want prayer to be a two-way communication, and how I position myself has determined my openness to receiving God’s answers. If I pray with my arms crossed, I’m guarding my heart from fully hearing the message I need to receive. I usually bow my head and close my eyes. This helps me to not be distracted by what my eyes are seeing (people watcher, remember) and focus on the conversation with God. Learning that this behavior works best for me has also moved into the way I worship. When I keep my hands and chest open, I feel more spiritually full than when I wait to be moved by the words of a song or directed by those around me. If you have ever wondered why people lift their hands during worship or prayer, think about what they are communicating with God in that moment. If you are someone who grips the back of the chair, stands with your arms crossed, or sits through worship, consider thinking about what your posture communicates with God. Consider standing (if able), with arms down, palms open. Close your eyes and picture your hands receiving a gift. God is always ready to give you His Spirit. Are you ready to receive Him? Choose your posture in communication. Even in prayer and worship.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a

living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Romans 12:1

My dad used to grow tomatoes in our back yard. Every year, he would prepare the dirt, put his tomato plants into the ground, water them, and watch them grow. I still remember…the plants would get so tall he would eventually have to stake them up. I was just a little boy and didn’t know much about growing tomatoes, but I do remember eventually getting to eat big red ripened tomatoes. When they finally ripened, my dad would pick a half dozen or so and bring them into the house. My mom would slice and salt them, and put them right on my plate. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

But what would have happened if my dad did the same process: prepared ground, planted tomatoes, watered, and watched them grow. They grew, and grew, and grew. They grew so big he had to get taller and taller stakes to prop them up, so they would not fall over. Let’s suppose the tomato plants turned a deep dark green, and for some strange reason, grew bright-colored flowers. It would be a beauty to behold. It might be the best looking garden on the block. But if the plants never produced tomatoes, they would have been worthless. It’s because the purpose of a tomato plant – is to produce tomatoes. If the plant never produced tomatoes, my dad and his family would not have had tomatoes to eat.

It’s the same with us. God gives us the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives, He fills us with God’s love and produces good fruit in our lives. We can look like a Spirit-filled Christian, talk like one, and act like one at church. But if we don’t produce any usable fruit, what value are we? You see, the proof that the Holy Spirit lives within us is when we produce fruit.

Are you producing fruit? Are you more loving this year than last? Does joy characterize your life? Are you more patient? Are you more kind to your family or those around you? How are you doing with gentleness or self-control? Fruit is the proof.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-25(ESV)

This week in staff prayer, during the devotional time, Pastor Chris had us take some time and write down three ways of thinking that often derail us. After a set amount of time, we grouped up and discussed our ways of thinking. Here is an example of what Chris meant by our thinking becoming derailed. God tells us in His word that He is attentive to our needs and cares for us

(1 Peter 5:7). Most of us know this powerful truth, yet we can easily find ourselves anxious about our needs being met, worried about what we are not in control of, or feeling unsure if God even knows what we are experiencing, just to name a few. It’s one thing if we are unaware of this promise from God and are simply thinking out of ignorance, but when we are aware and still find ourselves in these places, then our thinking has gotten a bit derailed.

Every time I participate in an activity like this, I am reminded of several things. I’m reminded I am not the only person who has these times of derailment. In fact, for the most part, my ways of thinking are quite common, and this commonality with other individuals can be quite comforting. When you are alone with your own thoughts, this can often create even further derailment for you. But having Christ-centered individuals in your life who you can process your thoughts out loud with is so healing and necessary. #Connectgroups…wink wink. Personally, processing thoughts out loud is a pretty new thing for me. I have spent most of my life as a stuffer, and always shied away from conversations that made me feel any sort of vulnerability. However, with the leading of the Holy Spirit, paired with the encouragement of others, I have made it more of a regular practice. #Connectgroups…you gotta join one. In turn, I have experienced a tremendous amount of freedom, rest, and healing from this practice. It’s often the thing I need to get my thoughts back on track.

I know this will most likely not be a eureka moment for you, but did you know that God’s thoughts are not like our thoughts, and God’s ways are not like our ways (Isaiah 55:8)? Could you imagine a God who was in a constant state of insecurity, anxiety, stress, or distraction? Things would be utterly chaotic. But thankfully, God’s thoughts are perfect. Isn’t that so refreshing to be reminded of? God’s ways and His thinking are perfect, and therefore, they are perfectly reliable. This is why we seek to have the mind of Christ. The Holy Spirit gives us this possibility (1 Corinthians 2:16), but it takes us being continually purposed to seek and surrender our derailed thoughts to God, in addition to processing them out loud with others. #Connectgroups…no better way to grow.

Have you ever had that awkward moment when you are pushing and pushing on a door to get in and it’s not budging? Then you look up and read the sign that says, “Pull to Open.” I’ve done that a few times! You look around and feel so silly. If only you had taken a second and read the directions on how to use the door correctly.

During our day we encounter so many doors. It is a part of our daily living. We use them to enter many rooms in our home, to get in our cars for transportation, and to enter stores and buildings for shopping or work. If we’re meant to get through the door, we can. However, if it is locked because the store isn’t open for business yet, that makes it more difficult to complete our task. The same happens with our lives. We come across doors in our lives that close unexpectedly. That’s hard! Of course, there is also the door of something you want so badly, something you desire in your life, only for that door to remain shut…maybe for now, or it might never open.

What then? What do we do when our door doesn’t open like we thought it would? Well, we can pound on it, and push and pull and manipulate it to get it open. Sometimes that may work, but if what’s behind that door isn’t part of God’s plan, then it will not likely end how you were hoping.

That reminds me of the story in Genesis 16, where Sarai (Sarah) went against God’s plan for a child He had promised her. She got tired of waiting and took the matter into her own hands, and gave her servant Hagar to her husband Abram (Abraham) in hopes of giving her a child. It didn’t turn out like she had hoped it would.

Can I give you a better way to wait? When you have a closed door in your life you want God to open, ask Him. Ask your Heavenly Father to open it for you!

So here is what I say to you. Ask, and it will be given to you. Search, and you will find.

Knock, and the door will be opened to you. Everyone who asks will receive.

The one who searches will find. And the door will be opened to the one who knocks.

Luke 11:9-10 (NIrV)

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that some of the things you are asking God for, some of your doors, are not going to open. They may never open, or they may be shut just for the time being. But I can tell you that your Father, who loves you so abundantly, has a reason! He has a good purpose for not giving you what you ask of Him. It’s not always best for us, His children. When the door isn’t opening, it could be because He is protecting us from something destructive. God is our door. He is our protection!

It could be there is a better way coming that we can’t see. I know this isn’t easy because I’ve experienced it, too. But I’m going to worship Him anyway, because He deserves it. I’m going to ask, pray, wait, and trust that what God allows to stay closed is for my good. And oh, when it opens, I’m going to praise Him then, too!

Today, ask God to open doors you need opened. Ask Him to move mountains for you in His precious name! I’m praying you get what you need from Him. I have no doubt you will! He provides every time we ask. And if what you’re asking God for isn’t meant to be right now, I’m praying you receive His peace to wait well.

Love and prayers, friends.

“Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you must start young!”  -Theodore Roosevelt

The Bible is FULL of great passages on aging. If we have studied God’s plan for aging like we have our retirement plans, our golden years become pure gold BECAUSE we have been refined by the fire and reflect Him.

Years of trials show your faith is genuine. It has been tested as fire tests and purifies gold- though your

faith is far more precious than mere gold. When your faith remains strong through years of trials,

it will bring you much praise, glory and honor on the day Jesus is revealed to the world!

I Peter 1:7

As we age, a toxic thread of thought can start to permeate our minds…thoughts of entitlement. Its symptoms are noted in phrases like, “in the good old days” or “I just don’t understand this generation.”  At their core, those are divisive thoughts because the implication is one generation is superior to another. Worse yet, it could imply we are checking out of spiritual growth.

God remains the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob…and the God of Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. God is always doing something innovative through every new generation. I stand amazed at the depth of scripture and fresh understanding of God that the young songwriters of today are able to capture in their songs. I am thoroughly moved by the great young preachers on the national stage who have incredible depth, character, and the gift of application in our present world. I am challenged by the young ladies I know who are pressing into God’s Word and blogging or producing Bible studies in their 30’s!

God is always giving revolutionary revelation to the next generation. Thank God, or we would still be singing only songs written in the 1500’s, listening to John and Charles Wesley sermons, and having only Oswald Chambers’ books. Thankfully, God speaks to every generation to guide that generation through what they will face. BUT…He continues to challenge the oldest generation to stay viable in their faith and not to sit on the bench! The world still needs our stalwart roots tried in the fire of grace!

As you age, whatever you don’t use, you will lose. If you don’t stay active, you lose muscle strength. If you don’t stay engaged in life, you lose your social life. If you don’t keep challenging your mind, you forfeit being relative. If you don’t press in spiritually, you become rigid and critical. Your soul begins to atrophy, instead of thriving.

I love David’s old man perspective in Psalm 70:17-19: “God, you have taught me from my youth; and now in old age I declare your wondrous works” (he kept pointing to God…not the past). “Even though I am gray headed, O God do not forsake me” (David was still keenly aware of how much he needed God. He didn’t rest on his laurels). “Help me declare Your strength to this generation” (God’s strength…NOT how we think things should be done) and “Your power to everyone who is to come” (I don’t see a quitting time implied).

Even as we age, the narrow path keeps bidding us to transfer to the broad path…to become critics, uncooperative, “know it alls” who trade serving for judging. The narrow path stays available for those who want to receive God’s blessing by continuing to be gentle encouragers, sharing His power, grace, and love to the next generation.

Job died old and full of days. Satan was convinced this man served God only for what he could get. Instead, Job showed he was capable of loving God under the severest affliction. The summation of his life is one of my favorite verses, and is inscribed on the necklace Skip gave me at our engagement: “The second half of Job’s life was better than the first half!” Job 42:12

Whatever generation you belong to:

• Stay vital and full of the Holy Spirit.
• Hold onto the beauty of how precious each generation is to the other generations.
• Fight for this exhilarating unity that God will pour out His Spirit upon!

Jesus is the master teacher…infinitely wise, innovative in His delivery, completely understanding of his audience, repetitive in his delivery, yet overflowing with creativity. He takes His listeners on a journey as He teaches, makes the truth come alive, seamlessly transitioning from parable to reality. He is the college professor we all dreamed of, the epitome of the sage on the stage.

His brother, James, though, is the intense, espresso-chugging, ACT prep teacher who sees life in Cliff Notes form. No fluff, no extra words, give-it-to-you-straight, “I’m only going to say this once so you better listen” were the mantras he seemed to live. I try to read the book of James once every couple months just as a jolt back to the bedrock of my role as a follower of Christ. While the entire book is a plethora of hard-hitting truths, the last two verses are what stuck out to me this week.

My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God’s truth, don’t write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God.

James 5:19-20 (MSG)

“Go after them…and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction…” That says it all. We love to sing about the reckless love of God, but we are given the same instructions for our own lives. It’s such a fitting way to end this epic letter to early Christians.  James essentially says, “You want to be like my brother? Go and live out His example! He pursued you out of the deepest love; now go pursue others as He pursued you.”

My prayer for us this week is we will see the wanderers in our lives, and begin to seek God as to how we can positively influence their understanding of Christ’s love. Maybe it’s your spouse, your kids, your friends, your co-workers, your family members, your small group members. Read the truth, yes…but just as quickly, go live the truth.

The week of my sister-in-law’s death continues to be pretty fresh in my mind. I think about the events a lot. She was put into a medicated coma on Sunday evening that week. The very next day, there was a prayer and worship night where we specifically gathered together to pray for healing for her. We prayed for God to breathe life back into her lungs and for the cancer to be gone. There were probably over 100 people there, praying boldly and with confidence of what they hoped God would do. I know there were many others all over praying at the same time. People all over were asking God to heal one of His most faithful children. It was so incredibly powerful to watch people from different backgrounds and all walks of life join together in prayer. So many people were interceding on her behalf. That evening, I was convinced we had interceded on Carrie’s behalf and surely this was the moment God was going to do it. The miracle was going to happen. But just three short days later, we said goodbye to her here on the earth, leaving many people shocked, baffled, and confused.

How do we handle life when the things we pray for don’t happen the way we want, hope, or expect? I’ve been thinking a lot about that this week, because in the back of my mind I realize that situations like this often are what cause people to walk away from God or choose to never pursue Him. I’ve had numerous people ask me how I still trust God, even though He didn’t heal her. So many people can look at this from the outside and think, look how passionately those people prayed and worshiped, yet their prayer wasn’t answered. It’s hard to stomach sometimes, and easy for us from our human perspective to think God left us in a moment of great need.

The answer I always give people when asked these questions is I choose to always go back to God. I wrestle with Him, and even sometimes question Him, but I always go back to Him. Sounds like a simple answer, but it’s the truth. I sometimes don’t like God’s answers to my prayers. I would have much better loved it if she were still here with us. I would love for her to be sharing her story of God’s incredible healing and for all of us to stand in awe. But that’s not how God sees it. Would that have been an incredible story? YES! But God had something else in mind. There is obviously something else that we don’t see…and that is where our faith comes in. Faith is saying I don’t understand, but I CHOOSE to trust you anyway. If there is one thing I have learned about God, it is He has never let me down. He is indeed trustworthy, and when He doesn’t answer my prayers the way I hope, I have to believe He has a greater purpose. So I trust Him! God loves each of us so very much and wants what is best for us. I don’t understand why Carrie not being here is better, but I continue to trust. I have to continually seek God’s presence and say not my way, but your way, God. Even if this doesn’t turn out the way I hope, I’m still going to trust that You have something greater in store.

It helps me to know even Jesus struggled with this. Right before He was arrested and began the journey to the cross, He struggled with God’s will for His life.

He (Jesus) walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.” Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him.

John 22:41-43 NLT

As He did for Jesus, in those moments when we pray, God provides. He gives us strength, wisdom, comfort, peace, or whatever it is we need. When I pray, no matter the outcome, I know it is drawing me deeper and deeper in a relationship with God. He is there, and that is enough for me in those moments. I am praying for you this week because I know this can be difficult to wrestle with. I hope you find confidence in knowing that God is with you, His plan is always good, and He wants what is best…even when it doesn’t make sense to us. He is a faithful God who will never let us down. Keep praying my friends, because God is still working, even though you may not see or understand it yet.

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Hebrews 4:16 NLT

One day last week we had gorgeous weather. The sun was shining, it was warm, and I had a false hope that spring was on its way. I was gifted with an unexpected one hour free that afternoon and chose to wash my car. I don’t know about you, but I have the hardest time keeping my car clean in winter months. After running through the carwash, I ran a few more errands and headed to pick up my daughter from school. As I pulled up to the door, the teacher slowly opened the door and my daughter took a few steps out, studying whether it was me or not. She turned to the teacher, nodded, and ran to the car. As she climbed in she said, “She asked if we got a new car because she didn’t recognize it but thought it looked like you driving.” Oh my word! How dirty was my car beforehand, and how long had it looked that way?! I’ve been picking up my kids from school in this same vehicle for over four years, and it has been the same teachers manning the door. I was so embarrassed, and hoped they didn’t see me the way my car looked this past winter.

With the upcoming Easter celebration, this incident made me think about the resurrection. Our sin covers us. It builds a dirty film that can make us see ourselves as someone we’re not. But Christ died to cleanse us. He gave us scripture as a source to clean our sin daily. For me, winter months require more attentive care for my spiritual health, and unlike washing my car, I can “wash” my soul regularly. When I washed my car, it was restored to a state recognized as new. When I “wash” myself with the blood of Jesus, I’m made new again. All I have to do is accept it. Still me, still the same age, still the same life, yet born again. There is nothing I can do to earn this; I just have to open my heart to Him.

And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as

he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them,

having cleansed their hearts by faith.

Acts 15:8-9

Choose to be cleansed this Easter. Celebrate your “new” life in Christ!

“What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus
Oh, precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow
No other fount I know
Nothing but the blood of Jesus” – Hillsong United Nothing But The Blood (excerpt)

A worthless man plots evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire. A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.

Proverbs 16:27-28 ESV

I believe that gossip is the silent killer among sins. Christians tend to write it off as “not a big deal”, or “I’m only human.” Gossip is a silent killer because it can affect so many people. It cuts so deep, and it can’t be undone. If you are talking about somebody to five different people, you have changed those five people’s perceptions of that person. You have hardened not only your own heart, you have also hardened five of your friends’ hearts. In the book of Romans, Paul includes gossip among the sins of murder, envy, greed, deceit, and malice. He said, “those who do such things deserve death.” When we say mean things about others, we’re causing emotional pain for them. Instead of punching them in the nose, we’re piercing knives into their heart. Gossip is everywhere! It is at your workplaces, schools, church, etc. You can NOT love well and gossip. You can NOT love well and listen to gossip.

For lack of wood the fire goes out, and where there is no whisperer, quarreling ceases.

As charcoal to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for

kindling strife. The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels;

they go down into the inner parts of the body.

Proverbs 26:20-22 ESV

Here are some practical ways we can stop this ugly sin:

• If you get the urge to talk about someone this week, stop and pray for them instead. This will instantly soften your heart toward that person. Getting into this habit will help train your mind to replace sinful patterns with habits that are pleasing to God.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up,

as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Ephesians 4:29 ESV

• Say something positive about the person being gossiped about. If you turn the conversation around to something uplifting, this will usually cause the gossiper to change the subject or end the gossip. This also is a polite way to acknowledge what they are doing is wrong.

• Confront gossip. Respectfully call it for what it is. Tell them you don’t want to hear what they are saying, because it is gossip. This can be hard, but God holds us to a high standard.

Jesus reveals in Matthew 12:36-37 that “…on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” God places a superior value on keeping people liable for their words.

My prayer is that we, as believers, can change this bad habitual sin. I pray God will continually convict us in this, and HE will change our hearts and then our actions. Pray this week that God will reveal to you the condition of your heart, and that He will convict you on any gossiping habits. It will not be an easy thing to change, but God knows what is best for us and HE will help us to overcome it.

Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds,

they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.

So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

James 3:4-5

Did you know that the average person speaks around 11,000,000 words a year? At the age of 65, that is 715,000,000 words. Think of how much power you hold with that many words. You hold the power to encourage or motivate, but you also hold the power to hurt someone with your words. When you think of how many words we speak in a day, it may seem like a drop in the bucket, but I would encourage you to think about the long-term impact these words have. It is rare that what you say in one day will determine the path of your “boat,” but rather, the daily choice of how you choose to use your words. The Bible reminds us that “Life and death are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Proverbs 18:21 

Here is an acrostic you can use to help evaluate whether or not you should say something. Ask these questions:

T – Is it True?   H – Is it Helpful?   I – Is it Inspiring?   N – Is it Necessary?   K – Is it Kind?

You gain a lot when you live a godly life. But you must be happy with what you have.

1 Timothy 6:6 NIrV

I have been doing a devotional on my Bible app called “Without Rival” by Lisa Bevere. It is an amazing study. In this study, she talks about how God didn’t create us to be in rivalry with anyone, especially when it comes to our time spent with Him. He created us to be who we are, not anyone else around us. I love this quote: “Contentment and being truly comfortable in your own skin won’t breed complacency; they will release creativity! Rather than compete for what was never meant for you….you can have the energy to discover what it yours.”

Being comfortable in your own skin is a hard thing. This world is telling you how to dress, how to do your hair, what car you should drive, what house you should have, when you should be married and having kids, and what your life should look like at a certain age. In reality, God didn’t make us all alike; He made us unique. He has a way you should look, and what your life should look like. He has a plan for you. God loves you and made you special. He didn’t make you to be just like anyone else.

Today, think about the areas in your life where you are in rivalry with someone. Ask God to help you and tell you where you need to add Him. If you aren’t spending time with Him, take a couple minutes today to talk to Him. If you are trying to be like someone else, stop and see who God has created you to be. Be comfortable in your own skin!

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

Ephesians 6:10-11

I’m sure by now you are fully aware of the enemy’s schemes. The way he twists and turns God’s words and promises to make you believe that somehow you must have heard wrong. Or maybe you’ve experienced his constant ridicule, guilt, and condemnation. The devil is slick and sly, and he’s only out to kill, steal, and destroy (John 10:10). He lives in darkness, and wants to bring us down with him because he hates seeing us getting closer to God! He doesn’t want us to be happy. He wants our marriages to fail. He wants us to stay stuck in our past failures and mistakes, and he wants us to give up.

Ok, enough talk of the enemy. You know why? Because he has already been defeated! God has the final answer. The victory is already His! Claim that over your life today. Claim that over your past, over your brokenness. Claim the name of Jesus Christ over your family, because He is and always will be victorious over sin and death!

So how do we stand against the enemy? We put on the full armor of God…

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

Ephesians 6:10-18

We can defeat the enemy with God fighting right beside us. But we have to fight for ourselves, too! We have to get into our Bible and put the scriptures in our hearts, so we can use them against the enemy when we need to. We have to secure our faith in Christ, and when the enemy comes against us once again, we will be able to declare that our God reigns supreme! Today, stake your claim that God is Lord of you and your home. There is no room for the enemy!

My fight song is on repeat today…God Is Fighting For Us, by Darlene Zschech. Turn it up. Prayers for you all!

God is fighting for us, pushing back the darkness

Lighting up the kingdom that cannot be shaken.

In the name of Jesus, enemy’s defeated

And we will shout it out, shout it out!

God is fighting for us, pushing back the darkness

Lighting up the kingdom that cannot be shaken.

In the name of Jesus, enemy’s defeated

And we will shout it out, shout it out!

A Song of Praise. Of David.

I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable.

One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts.

On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.
They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness.
They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

Psalm 145:1-7 ESV

This week, I want to be very intentional about praising the Lord, and I think this passage in Psalms shows us what that praise can look like. I can put praise into a box sometimes. I’ll think of it as singing songs on Sunday morning or praying with the community God has placed me in. To be fair, those are both great ways to show praise to God! But there’s a consequence to praise that we see in this passage above, and that is declaration. When you are living a life of praise to God, the natural progression is to declare His mighty acts to the next generation, to declare His greatness to the world.

My wife always makes fun of me for having countless interests. It’s really easy for me to latch onto a new hobby and invest my time and resources into it. I’m the kind of person who can become passionate about almost anything, and if there’s one thing I know as a result, passion drives you to share what you have discovered. When you discover something awesome that contributes to your life, you want to tell people about it! You want to declare and praise the benefits to those around you, and hopefully challenge them to participate as well. Our faith should be no different, and that is what we find in this passage.

This week, I want to challenge you to share your praise. Don’t allow your praise to start and end on Sunday morning, or when something good happens to you throughout the week. Live your life in a way that reflects what God is doing in your heart to the people He has placed in your life. Declare it to everyone you know, not only through your words, but your actions. Live a life that reflects praise.

One thing I have learned about God is – HE IS FAITHFUL. God is perfectly faithful, steadfast, and true. Faithfulness is the very essence of who God is. Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” It is so important for Christians to fully believe that God is faithful. If you don’t embrace this fact, you won’t seek out His will, trust Him with your possessions, or be able to fully enjoy His presence.

In Philippians 1:6, God’s word promises, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Romans 8:28 promises, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” No matter what I have done or the circumstances of my life, I have learned that God is and always will be there for me.

My whole life is a demonstration of this fact, but one illustration is when I felt a call from God to leave family, friends, job, house, and security and go overseas to Korea as a career missionary. I sold everything and just trusted God to meet our financial, physical, and relational needs. Upon landing in Korea, it became quickly evident if I were to have any success in my new ministry, it would be determined by my ability to learn a new language. That could have been a scary thing because my language classes in high school and college were just sub-par. Also, my daughter (age 6 at the time) left her grandparents, friends, and school to begin a foreign school with new habits, customs, and language. But as soon as I landed in Korea, God’s faithfulness showed up in abundance. God did meet my financial, physical, and relational needs. I made some incredible lifelong friends. I graduated first in my language class, and my daughter loved her new school, made new friends, and developed a love for cultures. In fact, she currently serves in Guatemala as a Foreign Services security agent, responsible for the security of Foreign Service personnel.

“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

Isaiah 54:10

Faithfulness is foundational to the very character of God. God’s steadfast love for you is surer than the very ground you walk on.

As you step outside today, take time to look at the world around you. Think about the things you’ve put your trust in. And remember God promises that His faithfulness will outlast anything your eyes can see.

I’ve always been into the way things look…from advertising to product design to home décor. I used to place an unnecessary value on “things,” but in recent years, God has really been working on my heart and actually changing my heart. I still like nice things, but they don’t seem quite as important as I once thought. I think this change of heart can happen naturally as we pursue Jesus. But most often, our culture’s constant parade of “stuff” needs to be actively combated with what Jesus thinks about it. He is always so much more concerned about our hearts, our very souls, than anything else.

Knowing my enthusiasm for home interiors, my sister gave me a book by someone whose design I appreciate. The book looked fascinating, and I couldn’t wait to look over it and read how this designer picked up different items from life experiences and personal travel. But the title of the book bothered me. “Things That Matter.” Do things really matter? I don’t think I realized how much my view of “stuff” had changed until I felt my heart reject that phrase. I want to focus my heart and mind on what Jesus Himself places value on, not on mere objects.

If someone wrote a book about the “Things That Matter” to you, what would it include?

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

Luke 10:27, ESV

]]> Travis Keirns http://yourlcc.org/?p=9015 2018-03-16T23:43:45Z 2018-03-21T09:00:43Z

If you have ever been part of a jury, you understand it can be extremely difficult to determine whether someone is guilty or innocent. Sometimes the facts are very plain, but that does not make the decision any easier. During the initial jury selection process, jury candidates are often asked questions about whether they can render a verdict regardless of any sympathies they have toward the accused, or whether they have the ability to be fair and impartial in their decision. This may seem doable from an outsider’s perspective, but once you are given that power, and someone’s life and future are at stake, it suddenly becomes apparent that life is about more than just right and wrong.

I have had several friends and family who have served on juries and have shared their jury duty experiences with me. Nearly all of them have said it was much more difficult than they expected. They will often mention they became very empathetic with the accused. They see the value of that person’s life and want to be fair in their decision, because they hope if they were ever in a similar situation they would be treated with that same fairness. They begin to see their own humanity, shortcomings, and struggles…and how they are just one decision away from being in the same seat as those who are being accused.

I have never personally served on a jury, but I have had seasons when I have struggled with being judgmental. Early in my faith, I was very unaware of how bad being judgmental really was, but looking back, I now see I hurt many people along the way with my words and actions. I used all that I was learning through scripture as a way to tell others how short they were falling in comparison to the standard given in scripture. Were they probably falling short? Yes, but instead of modeling the attitude and lifestyle of mercy and grace that Jesus modeled for me, I failed to look beyond the right and wrong and see the beauty of mercy.

Am I saying that all people should be given an innocent verdict? No. At times, negative actions certainly deserve negative consequences. But people still have value and worth, even if they have done something wrong. This is what the Holy Spirit began to show me over time. God is Holy and the only Righteous Judge. Therefore, He has every right to pour out judgment and condemnation on His people. However, scripture repeatedly tells us that He is “rich in mercy” (Ephesians 2:4). This truth, combined with the Holy Spirit gracefully showing me my own wretched condition, drove me to want to be rich in mercy as well. Am I always successful in this pursuit? No. But then the Holy Spirit once again reminds me that true wisdom, the wisdom from above, godly wisdom is “full of mercy and good fruits”  (James 3:17). Therefore, this is the heart I strive to have toward others.

The littles are ooh-ing and aah-ing at the tv. The winter Olympic Games are on non-stop in our house as I’m sure yours as well. Each and every sport that comes on, their little minds dream dreams that don’t seem impossible at this age. “Mommy, I want to be in the Olympics! Can I do that sport?” I love that they don’t see restraint or complication or ability (or climate for that matter, haha).

“You can do anything you set your mind to and I’ll cheer you on!! As long as it’s not that sport, it’s too dangerous…or that one, it’s dangerous, too.” Each sport carries the same answer from me…eh, no.

What I’m really saying and thinking is that’s too extreme. You may get hurt. It’s not worth the risk. I would much rather keep you inside the mama bubble I have going on where I can keep you safe under my wing. Protection is the name of my mama game.

But WHAT IF God calls them to something extreme? What if God calls them to ski jumping? (I mean seriously, Jesus will have to be so, so near if this happens.) Or *gasp* the luge? My mama heart skips several beats just thinking about it. Or how about something more practical like being called to be a missionary? Or the military? Am I ready to embrace the calling God is going to place on my children’s lives? Am I really? If I’m being honest, nope. Not ready. Well, I’m ready as long as it doesn’t mean risk. Because I want them safe and protected and intact and near. But listen here, God does, too. His plan is so much more than I have planned for them. And how can the Kingdom shine when I’m over here sheltering?

Mamas aren’t the only ones struggling with plans God has laid out and is calling to. Do you feel a tug at your heart, but maybe it feels extreme? Are you wrestling with it? It may not be to begin training for the Olympic luge team (but if it is, please call me so I can pray you and your mama through it), but it could be something equally as anxious. Trust. He is working it out for your good. We all know the rehearsed verse below, but this time really believe it. Let it settle into your heart when it comes to the next move He wants you to make.

And we know that for those that love God all things work together for good,

for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

Side note: Youngest has decided he will not be a part of the bobsled team because, and I quote, “It could crack your neck.” So there’s a small victory for me. But he’s decided snowboarding is less neck-cracking and would like to give that a go. So thankful we don’t live in an area with the means to test this.

“We need God as much in the calm as we do in the storm.” Jack Hyles

I have been a Christ follower most of my life. When I was eight years old, I prayed for God to forgive my sins and I “wanted Jesus to come into my heart.” I only understood as much as an eight-year-old can. I loved the stories, and even at that young age, there was something about Jesus that drew me to Him. But for some reason, as a teenager my walk with God became more about rules. In all honesty, I was pretty judgmental of others. I often looked at my faith as a set of rules to follow, thinking if I did those things then somehow my faith was strong. Going to bible college radically changed that viewpoint. I began to learn about different theologies and ways of interpreting scripture, and my faith really developed and became my own. I knew more of the whys behind the things I believed, and started to experience grace instead of just reading about it. I started to experience Christ’s love, redemption, peace, and all the things Christ gives.

I’ve followed Jesus pretty faithfully all my life, but in the last year I feel as though something very radical has shifted in me and my relationship with Him. I think there is something to be said about suffering, about being at the lowest point in your life and needing someone to come to your rescue. In the last few months, during what I consider the lowest and most painful point of my life thus far, I came face to face with just how desperately I needed a Savior. I knew there was no way I could do this on my own. The painful days are slowly fading and I’m finding more joy again, but I never want to lose sight of the fact I still need God every day. I want to always remember God was with me in my darkest moment, and He will continue to be with me even in the mundane.

I am thankful I had to walk through a time when I was able to learn more about being dependent and desperate for someone who is bigger than me, bigger than the situations I face…a God who gives me wisdom when I don’t know what to do. He is a God who gives me words to give to a friend who needs encouraged. He is a God who helps me be more patient, more loving, more generous. No matter what season of life I find myself in, I hope I never lose sight of the fact that I need God. On my good days, I still need Him. On my bad days, I often need Him more. No matter the season, I hope I continually remember how desperately I need God. I need Him to redeem me, restore me, heal me, lead me, and guide me. I need His grace, His mercy, His love, and His forgiveness every single day.

This week, my friends, I hope you will spend some time thinking about all of the ways you “need” God in your life. Make a list, and try to always remember that no matter the season, we all need a Savior…and we find that in Jesus.

Let all that I am wait quietly before God,

    for my hope is in him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation,

    my fortress where I will not be shaken.

My victory and honor come from God alone.

    He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.

O my people, trust in him at all times.

    Pour out your heart to him,

    for God is our refuge.

Psalm 62:5-8 NLT

We have been spending a lot of time at youth group talking about the need for quality friendships and how to nurture those relationships by essentially loving people well. We spent time talking about the qualities of healthy relationships and how to love people the way Jesus loved. What I know to be true, though, is that despite our ability to love and even our best intentions, we will still have conflict in our lives at some point. Jesus was the epitome of loving well, yet His life was littered with misunderstandings, conflict, and relational tension. We are far less awesome than Him, so we must assume the same will hold true in our lives.

I know most of us are conflict avoiders. While it’s true that we all know a conflict seeker, someone never afraid to point out any shortcoming, or a passive-aggressive friend who tries to confront people with sarcasm, most of us would prefer to overlook negatives about our relationships in the name of avoiding conflict. We would rather “just get over it” when we get hurt or when we see someone living in a way that concerns us instead of confronting people.  Proverbs 19:11 even shows that this perspective is mostly good when it says, “good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.”

The truth of the matter, though, is that situations sometimes reach a point where they can no longer be overlooked. They must be addressed before bitterness takes over our view of certain people, certain places, or simply life in general. Some respond by running away in this moment:  Someone offended me at church so I’ll find a new church.  Someone is difficult to love in Connect Group so I’ll quit going. I don’t like the President so I’ll move to Canada.  All terrible responses.  Wherever we “run” to, there are going to be people, and people bring with them conflict and misunderstandings.

So what are we to do? Ephesians 4:15 says, ^“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” We are to speak the truth in love. Instead of allowing bitterness in, running away, or watching someone walk down a path of destruction, we are to speak the truth in love even when it is difficult. Matthew 18:15-17 gives us a great three-step plan to accomplish this. First, we are to seek the person out one-on-one, face-to-face, and share our concerns or hurt. If they will not listen, we are told to find two to three others to go with us to meet the person again. Not two or three people who will gang up on them, but people who love that person enough to say, “Hey, we are worried about you. This is what we see, how can we help?”

Finally, if they will still not listen, we are told in verse 17 to take the matter to the church. Please don’t rush the stage some Sunday morning and pull the mic away from Pastor Michael during worship to call someone out. Please. Take the matter to a pastor or elder, and allow them to have a relational conversation. The second part of verse 17 says, “And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” Don’t be confused, though. How did Jesus treat non-believers, tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners? He prayed for them, ate dinner with them and, ultimately, died for them.

I pray this week we will reconsider the way in which we deal with confrontation and conflict in our lives. That we will be willing to give grace when needed and willing to speak the truth in love when needed, and regardless of the outcome, seek God for His guidance and wisdom.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing

with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Romans 8:18

I recently had a conversation with someone and they asked about life. I told them, “Things are good, really good! But good isn’t always easy!” It was a comment that reflects a very busy, tiring, yet abundantly blessed season. And I feel like God has been drilling that truth into me. He has been putting to death a way of thinking that life has to be easy to be good. He has been showing me that the best things in life require sacrifice, hard work, sleepless nights, and most of all, trust and dependence on Him.  Marriage, parenting, pastoring, building a house, being a loving human being, etc., are all amazing things to experience and are also amazingly hard. And for whatever reason, that stands in stark contrast to what I always thought life should be like and what I desired life to be like. I want things to come easy. I think everyone does! It’s why we lose heart so easily when we face set backs in our goals or in our obedience into things God is calling us to. We think if we are doing what God wants us to, it’s going to go easy.

Think about the apostle Paul as he wrote the verse above. He sat in a prison as he wrote this. As the words hit the page, his body probably remembered every beating, every stoning, every night shipwrecked and marooned. All so he could walk out the life Christ called him to. All so he could be found in Jesus. And Paul would have gone through it all a thousand times so that he could be with his Lord.

I don’t know what you are “suffering” through right now, but if you are trying to live an obedient life, I would assume you are suffering in some way. If that feels hard right now, I would encourage you to look to Jesus, hold on, and trust that God is present…and if He is present, there’s always good close at hand.

One of my favorite songs right now is a song called “Defender.” (You should check it out if you’ve never heard it before.) I first heard this song at my sister-in-law’s funeral. It was one of her favorites, and as we sang it, I could see why. She was battling cancer, and knew without a doubt that going to God was the one thing that was going to help her through it. My favorite part of the song is the bridge:

When I thought I lost me

You knew where I left me

You reintroduced me to your love

You picked up all my pieces

Put me back together

You are the defender of my heart

This part really resonated with me because I am in a season where I feel lost. Circumstances of life have really caused me to take a time away to reflect and almost rediscover who I am in Christ. If only you knew all of the things that have happened in my life over the past six months, you would understand why. I got to a place where I felt just like this song says. Everything that was comfortable and familiar to me changed. I felt like my heart and life were scattered on the floor into a million pieces. I felt lost, and wasn’t really sure how I was ever going to recover from all of the things that had happened. But God didn’t leave me or abandon me.

When I felt lost and confused, God knew exactly where to find me and meet me. When I felt as though everything had shattered, and I was staring at a million pieces on the floor wondering how in the world I was going to move forward, God stepped in. All of the pieces haven’t been picked up yet, but one by one He has helped me pick them up and put them back into place. It is nice to know that I have a loving God who wants to protect and defend me. He doesn’t leave me in my brokenness, but helps me become new and whole once again.

My encouragement to you, my friends, is to saturate your life with Jesus. When life is discouraging or you feel like you have no hope, the place to find hope is at the feet of Jesus. Trust me, I’ve spent a lot of time there lately. He hasn’t lost you, He hasn’t left you, He is right there with you, He is fighting the battle right alongside you. If you feel like your world has been flipped upside down, He wants to help you pick up the pieces, little by little. We can only find true healing in Him. He alone is the one who can restore us to wholeness. Keep going to God. It has been the only thing that has sustained me and helped me. I am super weak, but that is the moment when God is the strongest. We weren’t meant to do this alone, we NEED a savior and we have that in Jesus. Just keep turning to Him. He wants to be your defender, your strength, and your help in your deepest time of need.

He gives power to the weak

    and strength to the powerless.

Isaiah 40:29 NLT

God is our refuge and strength,

    always ready to help in times of trouble.

Psalm 46:1 NLT

It was early in the morning one day last week. I was warm and snuggled in my bed. I could hear one of my children coming down the hallway toward our bedroom, and I knew he or she would be headed my way. I felt a tapping on my shoulder, and as I rolled over I tried to open up my eyes the least amount possible to see if I could figure out which one of my kids was awakening me. It’s funny how little you can see in a dark room with your eyes barely opened. I heard what my daughter said to me, but it took her repeating it a few times before I realized it was her talking and not one of our boys. Had I opened up my eyes to see her clearly, I would have known from the beginning who it was and processed what she needed in a quicker way.

During our waking hours, living our daily physical life, it’s best if we have our eyes wide open to see what is happening around us. In our spiritual life, it is best if our eyes are wide open to who God is and what He wants us to do. One of my goals this year is to do something I heard Pastor Andy Stanley say. “We want to see people the way God sees them and to love people the way God loves them.” Unless we have our eyes and heart open to who God truly is, we will never be able to love others as He does or see others as He does. We have to be purposed to spend time with God so we can be familiar with His nature. We need to read His Word so we know how He thinks and discover what His love looks like. I just heard a radio program today where the hosts were talking about God and saying things about Him that weren’t true. I wished I could shout to them, “You’re not describing the God I know and the truth that is represented in the Bible!” My guess is those people have never tried to learn about the true nature of God. I don’t want the same to be said about me. I want my actions in life to represent my understanding of what a loving, powerful, and present God I serve. I want to know and love God so that I know and love people.

Mark 6:34 describes Jesus reaction to a group of people that He encounters: “When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

Jesus sees people with compassion. That is how I want to see others. I don’t want to see them with my eyes/heart partially opened. I want to see them in a redemptive and loving light. Isn’t it just the best when we are known and still loved? I’m thankful that God knows me and still loves me. I want to know and love God. I want to know and love others. I want my eyes wide open to who God is and to the opportunities to love others around me. Let’s pray this week that we can be purposed to make time to know God (to read His Word, to pray, to worship), and that our knowledge of Him will spill into every area of our life. Let’s pray for opportunities to see people the way God sees them and to love people the way God loves them.

Have you ever felt like God doesn’t want you? Have you felt like you just don’t have the faith anymore? Do you just feel down and feel like you are letting God down? Do you feel like God doesn’t love you anymore? All of these are feelings and thoughts people fight through. satan is such a jerk! He wants you to feel that you are worthless and not worthy of God, but that is not the truth!

Here is the truth…God loves you so much! He wants you to run after Him, even when times are really hard and you don’t feel it. He wants to be your comforter, protector, guide for life, and father! God sent Jesus, His only son, to die for your sins. God adopted you into His family. He looks at YOU like His own child. We are now God’s heirs.

So He decided long ago to adopt us. He adopted us as his children with all the rights children have.

He did it because of what Jesus Christ has done. It pleased God to do it.

Ephesians 1:5 (NIrV)

He is your “Abba Father” (daddy). I know it is hard for some of you to look at God like a father because the word “father” has such a negative connotation to you. I have been there, but God is not like your earthly father! He isn’t an every-other-weekend dad, not-even-there dad, or always-late dad. He is always there for you, running after you each step that you take. He is the BEST Father! For some of you, you had an amazing earthly father, and if that is you, God is even better than that!

He came to set free those who were under the authority of the law. He wanted us to be adopted as children with all the rights children have. Because you are his children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts. He is the Holy Spirit. By his power we call God Abba. Abba means Father. So you aren’t a slave any longer. You are God’s child. Because you are his child, God gives you the rights of those who are his children.

Galatians 4:5-7 (NIrV)

Today, remember God loves you, He is not disappointed in you, and He is going to run after you. This world, situations, and life are hard, but take comfort knowing that God is your Father! He wants to walk with you through everything! Praying for you this week!

To say that something is holy simply means that it is set apart. We read in 1 Corinthians 3:17 that “God’s temple is holy.” Knowing the definition of holy, that verse makes sense. You do not have to have an expansive knowledge or understanding of God’s temple to see that there is a direct correlation between the holiness of God and the holiness of the place where He would choose to dwell. The temple has represented so much to the people of God but primarily the deep desire of the Almighty God to be in relationship with His people. It was the holy God dwelling with an unholy people, and the place He chose to dwell was in the temple. It was made for God to dwell.

But there is a little anomaly with this verse in 1 Corinthians that has big implications for us today. You see, the temple was a thing of the past, and the physical temple that was built to connect God and His people was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. The destruction of the temple was not just another event in history, it was devastating because it meant that God would no longer dwell with His people. This was a tragedy that cannot be described in words. The temple and the relationship with God that came with it were destroyed. So why in 1 Corinthians 3:17 does it say that God’s temple is holy, if the temple no longer exists? We have to look to the rest of the verse for the answer. The rest of verse 17 says, “and you are that temple.” Huh? Wait a second, isn’t a temple a structure? A building? An inanimate locale that is constructed for God? It was originally, but then Jesus changed all that.

One of the graceful repercussions of Jesus’s death on the cross and resurrection after His death was the promise that He would send us His Holy Spirit to dwell in us. But in order for the “holy” to dwell somewhere, the dwelling place first needs to be holy. This is precisely what the blood of sinless Jesus did for us. It made us a holy dwelling place for the very Spirit of God. This changes things a bit for us, right? This changes the very condition of our bodies. First, they no longer belong to us to do whatever we want with them because they were “bought with a price,” and the cost was Jesus’s body on the cross. This may seem like a loss, but the truth is we are actually being taken back to how we were originally designed. We were designed with purpose, and the purpose was to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Surrendering to this role of being the temple where the Spirit dwells can produce a life that expresses that very existence. The original physical temple was not only a place where God’s Spirit dwelled, it was a place where He was worshipped, honored, and revered. It was a place that was devoted to the service of God.

Your body is no different. You are designed to “glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20). Therefore, it matters to God what you do with your body. It matters to Him what is inside your heart, and what your mind is filled with. It matters to Him how you use your words and how you use your body to serve others. These are not things that come naturally to us, but another promise of the indwelling Spirit of God is to help us live a life that does glorify Him. Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do nothing”

(John 15:5), at least nothing that glorifies God as we should. Let me remind you that God’s love is not dependent upon your ability to be the perfect temple for Him. His love is steadfast but His desire is for you to always be set apart for His glory and your enjoyment of Him. This comes by being the holy temple of God.

And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.”

Luke 15:11-16

 

When I read about the prodigal son, I always think about self-worth, but before we can evaluate what it means to have a healthy sense of self-worth, I think we have to define it. What gives us worth? I think if we look at our culture, one of the first things that jumps out is social media. We constantly upload the best parts of our lives and then compare them to the people around us. The list just grows from there. Our marriage, our job, our house, our kids all give us a sense of self-worth. The problem with this is that all those things are based on earthly merit, which, if you look at the life of Jesus, we don’t see. Jesus didn’t partner with the best and most polished people. He chose fisherman. Zealots. Tax collectors. Even when you take a step back and look at the Bible as a whole, we see that God almost exclusively partners with people who are not worthy of the position He gives them. David was a shepherd and God made him a king. Moses was a murderer with a speech impediment and God used him to deliver the Israelites. He simply values different things than our culture values. This all tells us that God doesn’t define worth the same way we do. So, the question remains, what gives us worth?

In the story of the prodigal son, we see the son leave his father and pursue a sinful life outside of his covering. He walks away from his father and only finds failure. However, as we read below, the father welcomed him home with open arms. Why? It’s not because the son had deserved forgiveness. It’s not because he had a great social media presence. It’s not that he had a great job. It’s because of who his father was. His worth had nothing to do with his accomplishments, but it had everything to do with his father’s love for him. That is the same today. Our worth should be defined by the way God views us…with love and grace. That’s my challenge to you this week. Look in the mirror and see yourself in the same way the father saw his son, and the same way Jesus sees you.

But when he came to himself, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.’” And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.” But the father said to his servants, “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” And they began to celebrate.

Luke 15:17-24

I am a people watcher, and when tragedy happens around us, I see people react in ways that seem uncharacteristic to the way I have known them. For some, the reaction is with grace and wisdom and received positively by the onlooker. Others react in fear, doubt, even anger, and it causes them to lose sight of who they really are by embracing those characteristics as truth about themselves in all situations. Personally, I’ve evaluated myself during tragedy in both of these ways. As far back as I can remember, I was always the optimist. I looked for the good in others and tried to make the best out of any situation. I never found it difficult to have deep friendships, love my family, or trust others. When I firsthand experienced tragedy in my own life, my first reaction was with grace and wisdom only because I had no clue what was normal to feel in the situation. I sought God and completely surrendered to Him every step or action that would be required from me through the resolution process. But what happened in the season after the tragedy is what made me look at fear, doubt, and anger. These characteristics were not only abnormal to me but they made me lose any security I had in my identity. For me, the tragedy was the death of a child. Walking through this kind of loss was so far beyond anything I could understand, and without surrendering it all to His power I could not have walked, let alone stood. I’m still in awe of the decisions that we had to make, but it’s the kind of awe that we could see the Holy Spirit intercede for us and remember the Peace we felt. But the season of grief afterward gripped me and made me feel as if I was incapable of being “me” again. I not only lost a child but also lost friendships, trust in others, and my identity. I had put guards up that I hadn’t realized I built. I went into protection mode but didn’t even realize it or know what I was trying to prevent or protect.

For years, yes YEARS, like five years, I struggled with who I was while dealing with grief. Grief has a way of making you feel like you need to embrace fear, to doubt your choices in life as if those things could change the past. Or even that you could prevent it from happening again. My grief caused me to struggle with friendships. I doubted the type of friend I was and my own judgment on what good friendships should look like or could look like. It caused guilt. I felt guilty about the type of friend that I thought I was becoming…guilt for not connecting with others in the deep way I had felt in the past. I was blessed with more friendships than I lost, but I wasn’t sure how to be a good friend or if I was worthy of healthy friendships. The enemy had me right where he wanted me. Grief brings vulnerability, and I was vulnerable to doubt…and satan was trying to make it spread into every area of my life. Over the last year, God has walked with me as He delivered me from the grips of grief and tearing down the walls I had built.

Just a few weeks ago during prayer before services, Pastor Matthew shared that heaven had been on his mind. He shared a vision of a passage in Revelation about satan standing before God in heaven, day and night, throwing accusations about us to Him. But Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, rebuking the accusations. “I died for that. That too. That was already forgiven. That’s been covered.”  Awesome to think about, isn’t it?! But that spoke to me more than I anticipated. What many don’t know about me is that I have major hearing loss in my left ear. It came about in high school and doctors have never figured out medically why. Nothing had happened to cause it, it just went away. I have gotten so used to it that I actually don’t even miss it. After Pastor Matthew shared his message, he invited us to worship and pray about the truths Jesus is speaking for us to God. As I prayed, God reminded me of my hearing loss. He revealed the purpose in my hearing loss! Jesus is at His RIGHT hand speaking truths about me. Truths that I am capable of hearing from my RIGHT ear. He has silenced the enemy on my left. I just have to stop and listen to what He is speaking to me. Because of the walls that I put up, I was not listening to Him. I just need to choose to listen. Simple enough? Maybe. I’ll be working on that. Join me by taking time to be silent and listen to the truths Jesus has to say about you.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you,  O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

Revelation 12:10-12 ESV

What if?

That is the question that so often wreaks havoc on my mind. What if say the wrong thing? What if I go left when I should have gone right? What if my kids get sick? What if my spouse loses her job? What if…What if…What if?  We can fill each and every circumstance we face with that question. When asked in this way, the question WHAT IF focuses on the circumstances of our lives and our abilities to handle them, and when we ask WHAT IF in this way, we fill our minds and our hearts with fear.

But WHAT IF we asked the same question in a different way? WHAT IF, instead of focusing on circumstances out of our control, we take that question to God and remember His promises?

WHAT IF God is in control of my life?

WHAT IF He really is for me?

WHAT IF He really can calm the storms of my emotions and circumstances?

WHAT IF I do the best I can to walk this day in faith and trust the outcome to God?

WHAT IF He really does love me?

This flips the WHAT IF question right on its head, and turns our hearts to the one who can really do something about all the circumstances that are out of our control.

For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you,

“Do not fear; I will help you. Do not be afraid, for I myself will help you,”

declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 41:13-14

Years ago, I heard that a marriage could be illustrated like a triangle. Imagine God at the top, with you and your spouse in each bottom corner. As you pursue God individually, you begin to close the distance between each other – each day getting a little closer. Even when you are not specifically addressing marriage issues, but are just focusing on your own relationship with God, you begin to learn how to live and love like Jesus.

I’ve found that to be true in my own marriage. My wife and I have been married for over 15 years, and I can honestly say that most of that time we have had a happy marriage. But in recent years, we have experienced a closeness that I know is a direct result of each of us pursing God in our own individual lives. When you do that, you really can “stir one another to love.”

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.

Hebrews 10:24

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Proverbs 27:17

We have taken our “stuff” to God – not blamed each other. So much pressure is relieved when you know that ultimately only God can meet your deepest needs. We don’t look to each other to do what only God can do. There is so much freedom in that, because then we are able to enjoy our spouse for who they are, not who they aren’t. Celebrate what they bring into the relationship, instead of focusing on what they don’t. That only happens when you die to yourself, when you stop putting yourself as a priority. God will begin to mold you into a single unit with Him at the top. When that happens, look out for great things to happen as you continue to be a force for the kingdom of God.   

Sign up the kids for their own Good Friday service HERE.

If you spent any time watching the Olympics over the past two weeks, chances are you saw the same commercials over and over again. My kids have latched onto two commercials and it is the soundtrack/tagline of their lives right now. The first was the ad about Walmart home delivery, highlighted by the song Ring My Bell. My son now walks around randomly singing the (wrong) lyrics: “ring my doorbell…ring my bell.”  The second, which both my kids seem to enjoy, is the “Avocados from Mexico” ad. They find it hilarious, in perfect unison and with hilarious inflection in their voices, to sing “Avocados from Mex-E-Co!” Not surprisingly, two questions we’ve gotten this week are, can we order something from Walmart and can we get avocados the next time we go to the store?

Marketing at its finest, right? Simple and repetitive. Then I read this passage from John 15:12-17, where Jesus is addressing His disciples: “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.  This is my command: Love each other.”

Moreover, if you flip back two chapters to John 13:34-35, you see Jesus say, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Why does Jesus repeat Himself?  Did He run out of material to teach? No, it was because He wanted His disciples (us) to remember it. Simple and repetitive. It’s what every great teacher does. Complex topics are simplified and repeated to promote understanding and follow-through.

In Joshua 1:8, we are told to “meditate on (the Word of God) day and night” so we will follow through with what it says. In Deuteronomy 11, we are told to keep the Word of God close at all times, talking about it always so neither we nor our children will fall away from it. Even in

Acts 2, in the example of the perfect church community, the followers of Christ are devoted to discussing the Word daily. The multi-million dollar marketing strategy of simple and repetitive is nothing new. In fact, it appears to be the number one strategy given to us in the Bible to reinforce our faith, build our understanding, keep us on the path God has set for us, and remember the promises of God in our lives.

I pray this week we will be purposed to be repetitive in our Bible study, scripture memory, and prayer…so we can experience the deep faith and understanding that will allow us to be unshaken as we walk through this life.

Was there ever a time in your life when you depended on just your feelings to make a huge decision? Let me ask it another way. Was there ever a time you had a feeling that something was so very, very right, and then when you did it…it ended up so very, very disastrous?

One thing I’ve learned over the years is this: Feelings lie. They lie to us all the time. There was an old country song that went, “How can it be wrong when it feels so right?” The truth is, there are a ton of wrong things that feel so right at the moment. I am the pastor that couples come to when they want to get married. I ask, “Why are you getting married?” They almost always say, “We’re in love.” And “It feels so right.” People can get into wrong relationships and then realize they made a huge mistake. Quick decisions may seem harmless but can leave you broken and scarred years later.

If you want to have fewer dead ends and failures in your life, look at what the Bible says in Proverbs 3:5-7. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the LORD and turn away from evil” (NLT, second edition).

Do you really want God’s blessing on your life? Then you need learn to depend on God’s wisdom and not what your feelings are saying or what your gut is telling you.

So, do you want to know how to get God’s wisdom? You pray. You ask. You talk to God, and you let Him speak to you by reading His Word (the Bible). That’s how you get God’s wisdom.

The Bible says in James 1:5, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (NIV).

God wants to protect you from making dumb mistakes. God wants to protect you from hitting dead ends or going through failure after failure in your life. God really does want you to succeed. He really does want you to make wise decisions with your time, relationships, and money.

If you want to receive God’s blessings, you’ve got to get God’s wisdom. If you want God’s wisdom, then you’ve got read your Bible.

There is something so sweet about the taste of true rest. I love those moments when you have worked yourself super hard and then later you are given the opportunity to slow down and rest. I mean truly rest. You can sit, sleep, relax, knowing the job for the day is done. I believe it is the hard work that makes you appreciate the rest all that more. The contrast of those two things brings out the sweetness that rest can be. This is certainly true of physical rest, but I think this can also be very true of spiritual rest as well. For me, there has always been this gigantic weight of not measuring up. I have spent nearly my entire life in religious pursuits hoping that I would gain a better standing with God and others. That was until God revealed to me the power of being a son.

I have a son. He is young so I am still learning the ins and outs of raising a boy, but God has taught me so much about myself through the perspective of fathering a son. I see so much of him in me, and I have learned that my love for him is never based on any of the good or bad that he does. Sure, I get frustrated with him at times for not listening and obeying, but my love is not dependent upon any act that he does or does not do. I guess you could say it is steadfast love, to use a spiritual term. However, my steadfast love is like a drop of water in the ocean of love that God has for me. And here is what this awareness of God’s love produces in me…rest. Sigh. Can you feel it? Can you taste the sweetness that it is to rest in the love of God?

In Matthew 11:28, Jesus describes Himself as “gentle and lowly in heart.” This description of Jesus matters because it gives such amazing context for what Jesus is trying to communicate in these verses. Jesus is communicating that He is approachable, calling us to rest in Him in Matthew 11:28-30, specifically from two major components of our restlessness. First, the burden of sin, and second, the weariness of fruitless toil, as one commentator put it. Both of these have plagued me at times, and created in me a mentality that I need to work my way back to finding life in God once again. The truth that this verse reveals is that Jesus has given us a new “yoke” to carry, the yoke of sonship. As it says in Romans 8:15, “You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” Rest, my dear friends. Rest as a child of God, knowing that there is nothing that can separate you from His love (Romans 8:35-39). Make the choice to stop trying to earn your way back into His love, and rest in the truth of what it means to be a son or daughter of the Most High God.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

James 1:5

Have you ever needed something but were too afraid to ask for it? I love this verse because I can think of so many examples where I needed God’s wisdom but didn’t ask for it.

I think we all naturally want to be independent and do things on our own. Have you ever had to ask someone for help? Have you ever not been able to complete something on your own, and you are left with no choice but to ask for help? I know I have. I don’t enjoy that feeling. It’s crippling. Asking for help can feel like giving up or it can feel like you are annoying. With other people this may be true, but with God it is different.

Read James 1:5 again. God isn’t like us. He doesn’t get annoyed with us or get bothered by His children when they ask for help. He wants to be gracious with us and to give us His blessings in all ways. Think of the situations in your life where you need supernatural wisdom. Then ask God to give it to you, and He will. He will give you more than you need, and won’t hold it against you when He helps you.

My soul clings to the dust…

Psalm 119:25a

I find it amazing how attached to this earth I am. Everything within me loves the temporary. I know the eternal is better, but my desires are rooted deep in what the Bible would call my flesh. Food, sex, comfort, money, the easy life…all things that if caught in the right moment I would, and have (like Esau), traded the better and longer lasting joy for the more immediate and temporary joy. Now comfort and pleasure aren’t bad things. They’re a problem when they become what drives our decisions, when they trump the eternal…when we trade our birthright for a bowl of stew (Genesis 29:25-34).

This “clinging” to the temporary is an ever-present reality in the life of every person, even those rooted in Christ. Our hearts just love what’s immediate. But what sets the believer apart is the desire for it to change and the recognition of need for help. In the first part of Psalm 119:25 (see above), the psalmist talks about this desire he sees in himself. But he continues with a prayer: “give me life according to Your Word!” (25b).

He continues in verses 26-32: “When I told of my ways, you answered me; teach me your statutes! Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to your word! Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law! I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set your rules before me. I cling to your testimonies, O Lord; let me not be put to shame! I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart!”

The psalmist’s answer to clinging to the dust, his recognition of his love for the temporary, is a desire to choose God’s ways over his own and a prayer for the help to do it. And over time and through a dependence on God, the dust can begin to slip through our fingers…and we can hold on to Christ and His ways.

We are excited about welcoming guests on Easter and want to create the best possible experience for them. That’s why we’ve added a 7:00 AM service on Easter Sunday. In order to even out attendance, we are asking you to sign up and preregister your children for the service you plan on attending.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt lonely or like an outsider. (If you are supposed to be working right now, blink twice for yes.) I’m assuming almost everyone answered in the affirmative. It seem to be one of the aspects of life we all have in common. Sadly, though, I believe many times we are the ones who put ourselves in situations to make us feel that way, and there are two reasons why we tend to do so.

First, we have too much dirt on ourselves. We know every mistake of our lives, every sin, every stray thought, and we are slow to forgive ourselves of those faults. We assume our view of ourselves is everyone else’s view as well. As a result, we deem ourselves unworthy of meaningful relationships. Second, we may have been hurt by those around us, so we build walls. We convince ourselves that if we build a wall strong enough to keep people out, we will never hurt again. Scripture does not back up this strategy and belief, though.

Proverbs 18:1 says, “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.” In other words, it is not wise to isolate yourself. We find this truth early in the creation story of Genesis. God is creating left and right: the waters are good, the land is good, the animals are good, the sun and moon and stars are good. The first thing God says is “not good” is Adam’s isolation. Adam was surrounded by all kinds of “good” things, but God knew it was not best for him to be devoid of human relationship. From that point forward, everything in scripture tells us not to seclude ourselves (1 Thessalonians 5:11, Proverbs 13:20, John 15:13, Hebrews 10:24-25, 1 Corinthians 7:5, to name a few).

Maybe I don’t need to convince you that you need friends, but finding good friends has nonetheless eluded you. This quote stuck out to me this week: “I went out looking for a friend and found none. I went out to be a friend and found many.”

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 gives us a beautiful picture of friendship in action. It says, ^“Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.  If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.  Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone?  A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.”

My prayer for us this week is that we would all go out of our way, in vulnerability, to help others accomplish more than they thought possible, to encourage people who fall, to comfort someone who feels alone, and to help someone overcoming an attack. We are not meant to live alone nor are we meant to keep others at an arm’s length. Instead, we are encouraged to invite others into our lives. God will most certainly use them to bless us in our time of need.

In the same way, let your light shine so others can see it. Then they will see the good things you do. And they will bring glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 5:16 (NIrV)

I went grocery shopping with my toddler a couple weeks ago and put him in one of the big firetruck carts. This cart is huge to push around. I took a corner too tightly and a display of lunchable desserts was right there. I ran into it and knocked the whole display over. So frustrating! I started to pick up the display, and this lady stopped and helped me. Then another lady came over and started to help me also. The last lady who helped me pick up the display said this same scenario happened to her and no one stopped to help her. So she stopped to help me. That made my day.

It made me stop and think. How many times do I put my blinders on in the grocery and not realize someone needs help or just a smile? I am not condemning anyone for running into the grocery, I totally get it and do it all the time. I just was challenged by God. What if I slow down and see people when I walk into the grocery? What if when I am standing in a long line to check out, I just take a deep breath? What if I thank the cashier for ringing me up? What if I smile at the person who looks like they are having a horrible day? What if…? Do you think that would change their day? I have to tell you, those two ladies stopping to help me pick up that display made my day!

This world is full of such busyness and sadness, and not a whole lot of Jesus. What if you brought some Jesus into their life just caring about them? That’s what I want to be…a light for people. Am I still going to have those days when I walk into grocery and put my head down? Absolutely. I might be that person who you need to smile at because I had a bad morning. God is so amazing and full of so much grace and will just lay those moments out for you.

This week, ask God to be a light for a person, and if you are having bad day, ask God to have someone be a light for you. Praying for you today!

Have you ever heard or felt like God was telling you to just be still? This past week, while another staff member was praying over me, something he said seemed to sit with me the rest of the day. I prayed about it and felt like God was making those words repeat over and over in my head. God used Pastor Phil to speak something over my life that I needed to hear. God was telling me that I have to just sit in this season for a bit. Can I be honest? I don’t want to! I just want to get through the grieving process as quickly as possible. I don’t want to sit here anymore, I want to “get over it.” I’m tired of crying, I’m tired of sleepless nights due to anxiety, I’m tired…I’m just tired. This season has been tough. Since October, I have experienced a lot of heartbreak and pain. Life has felt at moments like it has been spinning out of control and chaotic. And God is telling me to sit here? Confusing, right? Why in the world would I want to sit in the chaos?

But, just like He always does, God is leading me in the middle of it. The truth is, grief is not something you “get through.” It’s a process. God simply said to me yesterday that it is okay to be exactly where you are. I’m a thinker, and I want to figure everything out and try to see what comes next for me. Yet in this moment, God is telling me to just be, to sit still in His presence, to cry those tears, and to allow Him to walk me through to healing.

Be still, and know that I am God!

Psalm 46:10 NLT

Since I feel as though God is calling me to sit and be still, I wanted to have more context on exactly what this looks like, so I turned to the Bible. I can use a lot of help in this area because sitting and being still are not easy for me. I have read the above verse so many times, but as I dug deeper I learned so much more. When translated from its origin, “be still” means to cause yourself to become weak or cause yourself to let go. So what I feel God is calling me to do in this moment is to be okay with my weakness, to be okay with the grieving process, to be okay with the fact that I am human and I don’t have it all together. Tears are a good thing. Sorrow and sadness are a part of life. While I sit in His presence, I need to surrender all to Him. I need to stay here for a little while so that God can show me His strength, His goodness, His faithfulness, and His kindness. I need to sit here in this moment so that I can experience the healing and restoration I need. In this moment, I feel as though God is reminding me that when I sit in His presence, when I surrender all I am going through to Him (sometimes multiple times a day), that is where I can find freedom and the much needed rest for my soul. I do not have to deal with this on my own. I am weak and desperately need a Savior, not just in this moment but at all times. This process is tough and one I would like to avoid altogether, but I know it is a necessary part of life, and I anticipate some great growth in this season of sitting, listening, and allowing God to show up in a BIG way. My dear friends, I want to encourage you today not to give up on your situation. Don’t run from it or just try to “get through it.” Look at it as an opportunity to sit and be in the presence of God. Sometimes the best thing we can do for ourselves in these moments and seasons is to just sit in God’s presence and allow Him to do what only He can. Praying that as you sit at the feet of Jesus, He reveals His goodness, His sovereignty, His grace, and anything else you may need that only He can provide today.

This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.

Hebrews 4:15-16 NLT

I am currently in a season of waiting. Waiting is so hard. My four-year-old has trouble when she has to wait five minutes for me to turn on Paw Patrol. As adults, we like to think that we aren’t as bad at waiting as a toddler, but sometimes we are. It doesn’t make it any easier that we live in a world that is constantly trying to eliminate wait times in every aspect.

What happens when you have been praying the same prayer year after year after year (10 years to be exact) and God isn’t answering it? It can be so easy to begin to lose hope and to fall into that dark hole of self-pity. I have been in that hole plenty of times, and it can be hard to get out of that dark place. I can tell you that you can NOT climb out of that pit on your own. You need God and you need the Body of Christ. Thankfully, God has always placed people in my life at the perfect time to minister to me, encourage me, speak truth and life, and to lift me up out of that pit.

I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;

he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.

Psalm 40:1-3

I know that God wants to use the suffering and the pain for His glory, and I know that His timing is perfect, but sometimes the waiting can be numbing. I am a very independent person, and I tend to internalize emotions and pain. I don’t want to talk about it and I just want to go on with my life. This is not how God wants us to deal with our pain and struggles. He wants us to lean on Him and to lean on our brothers and sisters in Christ. God has placed AMAZING people in my life to lift me up and to come alongside me and cry with me, pray for me, and love on me in ways that I have never experienced before becoming a Christian. My pain is not in vain and neither is yours. God will use your struggles for His kingdom!

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you,

as though something strange were happening to you.

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings,

that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

1 Peter 4:12-19 ESV

“We are designed for struggle.” In a recent interview on NBC for the winter Olympics, retired figure skater, Olympic gold medalist, and broadcaster Scott Hamilton spoke these words. Scott has had to endure many things in life, including beating cancer four times. When asked how his struggles in life had impacted him, this is how he responded, “We are better off and more in touch with who we are as individuals in the struggle, much more than we are in our good fortunes. There is always something on the other side of struggle if we choose for that to happen. You have to treat the horrible things in life with the same respect and dignity that you handle the best things that happen in life.” What an incredible perspective changer this was for me. If I am honest, I would say that my view of struggle is not often one of optimism. The human side of me deeply sighs at the thought that struggle produces anything productive in me. The last thing I want to do is struggle. But as Scott alludes to in his words, there is something certainly powerful about what happens when we experience struggle.

Struggle leaves us with a choice, and I think we can either approach struggle with purpose or approach struggle with passivity. The passivity route has been my story for a large portion of my life. It always seemed like the most rational choice in that moment, and it always extinguished the will to try. I often became stuck in the struggle and lacked the desire or fight to move forward. So I did nothing with it. More recently, by observing those who have struggled well and asking the Holy Spirit to help me understand the purpose in suffering, I have begun to see a new hope in these seasons. Suffering is awful. I am not minimizing the devastation of pain. However, even though I still do it poorly, I have learned that growth comes in the fight. Growth comes in choosing to find purpose in the struggle. As Scott said so well, struggle not only teaches you about yourself, it teaches you reliance upon God, and ultimately reveals your deep need for God. Suffering has a natural way of producing a better version of ourselves. A humbler version. A version of ourselves that seeks to find God as our strength.

The Lord gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.” But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the Lord. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the Lord by sailing to Tarshish.”

Jonah 1:1-3

We all have likely heard the story of Jonah at some point in our lives. In summary, we find that God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh to ask them to repent. Jonah says no, because the last place he wants to go is a place like that…let alone to offer them grace. (In my mind, for some reason, I always imagine Nineveh is a synonym for Las Vegas.) As we know, Jonah says no, gets swallowed by a fish, gets spit out by said fish, tells Nineveh the good news, they accept it, and that makes Jonah furious. He ends up moping around in the desert, and God gives him a large plant to give him shade. That’s where the story picks back up:

But God also arranged for a worm! The next morning at dawn the worm ate through the stem of the plant so that it withered away. And as the sun grew hot, God arranged for a scorching east wind to blow on Jonah. The sun beat down on his head until he grew faint and wished to die. “Death is certainly better than living like this!” he exclaimed. Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?” “Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!” Then the Lord said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?”

Jonah 4:7-11

The end of this story is always the most interesting part for me. God seems to destroy the one thing that is giving Jonah peace in life, which obviously makes Jonah upset. Have you ever been mad at God for taking something that He gave you in the first place? It’s heartbreaking. I can only imagine how Jonah feels at this point in his journey. But what God says next amazes me. God tells Jonah, “Are you the one who raised up this city? Why should it upset you that I offer grace to my people?”

God loved Nineveh, just like he loves the worst of us. What’s it to us what He does with His people? Not only should we celebrate when God gives grace to the world around us, we should go spread this good news to the people who God is pursuing. God loves His creation in a radical, unexplainable way. This week, be challenged to do everything you can to show the world the grace God has for us, and then celebrate when people see heaven.

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)

 A few years ago God gave me a phrase to reflect on. Be a Mary more often than a Martha. I wrote it on a ceramic tray and displayed it in my dining room as a constant reminder. Anyone close to me knows I enjoy serving others. I enjoy creating an atmosphere that allows people to feel as important and valued as I see them. Especially by preparing a meal. Food brings comfort in any situation.

Serving can be hard work though and can be especially frustrating when those that live with you don’t care nearly as much as you do. Can I get an amen from every mom out there?! I find myself relating to Martha because of this. She just wanted to show Jesus that she valued His presence in her home. But Jesus so kindly brings her to Him. I just picture Jesus putting His arm around her, while shaking His head “Martha, Martha” as if they had been through this before. “You are anxious and troubled about many things”. He sees her, He knows where her heart is but reminds her that His presence will always offer the “good portion”.

So why the phrase Be a Mary more often than a Martha? Because Mary chose the good portion. It reminds me that finding myself in His presence more often will allow that Presence to be a bigger part of my serving. I want to be more like Mary. I want to ignore what is going on around me when His presence is invited into the places I’m at. I want to be so enthralled in Him that it doesn’t matter what environment is created around me. I choose the good portion. I want the Presence that can’t be taken away

]]> Travis Keirns http://yourlcc.org/?p=8916 2018-02-18T16:21:17Z 2018-02-22T10:00:04Z

Being fully present in our current culture can be a challenge. Just to prove this point, I’ll share with you that it was necessary to make it a rule in our house that you can only use one device at a time. You can’t be playing a video game on an IPod while watching TV. You must choose one or the other. Sounds ridiculous that we would even need to make a rule like that, but we did! I felt like I was telling the kids, “You must be fully present with whatever media device you are using!” Unfortunately, I’m just as guilty as our kids when it comes to being fully present. I will catch myself looking up things online while they are trying to have a conversation with me. Or I’m folding laundry while helping them with their homework. We live in a culture that bombards us with information and options, and also tells us that we should be multi-tasking or we are wasting time. Because we know this about our lives, it’s hard to remember that the words “ever present” in this verse are true:

Psalm 46: 1 says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever present help in trouble.”

The verse doesn’t say that God is “kind of present” or “sometimes present.” It says that He is “ever present.” He is always and fully our refuge and our strength. What a comfort this truth is.

Psalm 46 came to my mind earlier this week as I was worshiping. I was thinking about some of the different things that I have been facing in life. A few issues that I’m facing seem to keep lingering. They don’t seem to be going away and they aren’t very fun to deal with. As I was thinking about these issues, I was just talking to God about them and once again releasing them to Him. I feel like God reminded me of the verse above and told me that as much as the issues I face seem to be ever present, His refuge and strength are even more evident and ever present.  As much as it feels like my problems aren’t going away, the truth is His help isn’t going away. We serve a God who is fully engaged with what we are facing in life. I’m thankful and humbled by that truth.

Each of us are facing unique situations this week. Even though our situations may vary, the source of true help is the same. Take comfort in knowing that the God who created you and knows you best is the One who is ever and fully present in each situation you are going through.  He desires to be your refuge and source of strength. Let’s allow God to fill that role for us and to guide us through life.

Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless.

    Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.

Psalm 10:17 NLT

As many of you have now realized, I have been in the middle of a very difficult season. I have experienced so much pain and heartbreak over the past four months…all things that were either thrust upon me because of the decisions of others, or just circumstances that were completely out of my control. I have been struggling. I was having a really rough morning on Monday. We had gathered together as a family over the weekend for the first time without my sister-in-law, and truth is, I just missed her. I missed seeing her face light up when she talked to my daughter, I missed being able to sit next to her while eating dinner, I missed talking to her about parenting and all sorts of other things we used to talk about. I was feeling worn out, weary, and drained. I’m tired of hurting, I’m tired of grieving, I’m tired of feeling like this season is never going to end.

Monday morning is prayer and worship time for the staff. We start our week off listening to worship music, praying for the needs of the church, praying for each other, and just sitting in the presence of God. I love that I get to start my work week this way. This past Monday, I needed it…and God knew that. Pastor Michael led us in worship. With the first words he spoke, I simply whispered “God, I just need You this morning.” It was all I could muster up. My soul was so weary. I felt like I had absolutely nothing else to give in that moment. As we sang song after song, it was as if each one was chosen specifically for me, to remind me of who God is and what He says. At one point, my best friend on staff told me that God told her just to come sit by me, and when she did we immediately embraced and I again began to weep in that moment. But the best part came at the end when Pastor Matthew spoke prophetic words over each of us. The words he spoke to me were exactly what I needed. I needed to know that all of my pain and heartbreak are not in vain, but that God really is laying the foundation for the ministry He has in store for me. As I reflected on the events of Monday, I realized that my prayer was answered. All I said was that I needed God, but boy, did He show up in a big way that day. God not only heard me in my desperation, but He answered. He used friends, music, and tears to bring me comfort, peace, and encouragement in a very desperate and dark moment.

What about you? What is weighing you down today? What is going on in your life that has you feeling like you are in the pit of despair? I want to encourage you today to take a moment to sit in the stillness and quiet. Put on worship music, find a spot where you can be alone with God, and pour your heart out to Him. If you are praising Him for what He has done, do it with exuberance. If you are desperate like me and just need to hear from Him, ask. What I know, friends, is that God is indeed there, and when we call to Him, He will answer. God knows where you are and what you are going through. He alone is the one who can bring us peace in those moments and keep us going. I hope that you have an incredible encounter with God this week where He gives you exactly what you need for this moment.

The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help.

    He rescues them from all their troubles.

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;

    he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

The righteous person faces many troubles,

    but the Lord comes to the rescue each time.

Psalm 34:17-19 NLT

We love gathering together with you all for our bi-monthly worship nights called The Chapel. The next Chapel will be on Wednesday, March 7 at 7:00 PM. RSVP for childcare by clicking HERE.

Ladies, our Women’s Ministry, the Current, has bi-monthly events designed to help you develop relationships with other women at LCC. Join the Current for a night of food, fun and connection Friday, March 16 at 7:00 PM. Let’s discover together how God has given each of us good gifts.   RSVP HERE.

Yesterday I was having a bit of a yucky day. Recent events have been overwhelming and I’m heartbroken. I’m hurting for others who have had to experience death once again. If I’m being honest, I sat in that “yuck” for a while…and you know what it did? It made me miss out on some other moments that could have been more fun. But that’s what I do. I know it’s not God’s best for me. However, I didn’t stay there. I didn’t wallow in it for too long.

Even though Jesus conquered death by going to the cross for us, this life is still hard and full of our human emotions! When we lose someone, goodbye seems too long for us. When we’re hit by grief, we go back and forth, fighting with our emotions. One minute we can be angry with God, then we remember truth and can feel peace for a minute, then it dives down again. Grief is messy! Grief is heavy and deep sometimes. When you’re in it deep, you need someone else to walk along beside you and speak truth into you.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;

he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

Psalm 40:2

God has lifted me out of the pit many times! In fact, when I started my journey with Christ, that’s exactly where He found me…deep, deep in the mud and mire. If you are in this kind of place, please tell a trusted friend, get into a connect group at LCC, or contact me and I’ll be that friend who tells you good is coming. Death has been defeated through Jesus Christ! It’s not the end! God has better in store for us as believers.

When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it.

Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that

his hands remained steady till sunset.

Exodus 17:12

I love the story of Moses holding up his staff. You can read about it in Exodus 17:8-16. As Moses’ arms got tired from holding the staff up, his friends were there to hold it up for him, so that they were able to defeat the Amalekite army! What a beautiful picture of the body of Christ coming alongside another believer to help in their time of need!

When you get tired and defeated, ask that friend for prayer. There have been many times when my connect group family has prayed me through because the hurt was too deep! So deep, that I couldn’t get the prayers out myself, instead only tears. This life is too difficult to do alone! Pray for those around you who are hurting or going through a difficult situation. Reach out to them. And join a connect group! If you truly want to experience the body of Christ coming alongside of you when you can’t hold up your “staff” anymore, just like Moses, this is it.

Death is a part of this life. Having support is necessary, and will help as you go through the process of loss or difficult circumstances. God gave us people to do life with. Let Him help you out of your “yuck.” His love never fails!

Can you remember when you were dating or just getting to know your spouse? I imagine you spent hours learning all kinds of things about them – like their favorite color, favorite food, their dreams and goals for life. And if you were like my wife and me, we talked for hours about everything under the sun. I felt like I knew her better than anyone on this planet – and my assumption was there was no one who knew me better than her. So, we married.

It was then I decided to make my goal, until “death do us part,” to never stop studying my beloved wife. I’m blessed and continually thankful she still takes time to study me. But in many marriages, attention to each other fades. Spouses stop listening to one another. We begin to assume we know what our spouse is going to say. So how can we prevent this from happening? How do we continue to study our spouse?

• Spend time together – Give your spouse the quality time they need, even if it isn’t their love language! When I say “spend time together,” I don’t mean with her nose in a book and his face in a television show. I get that we all need time to decompress from our busy days. We all need to relax, read, or watch TV sometimes. But sometime in your day – take the time to really be WITH your spouse, preferably without the children. Make it priority.
• Have a Conversation! – Ok, now that you’re spending time together, take the time to talk! Ask about each other’s day. What was the best or worst part of their day? What is God teaching them? Ask how you can pray with them. Share your heart, your struggles, and your dreams. If you don’t take any time to share your heart, your struggles, and your dreams, you won’t connect at that heart level. God’s Word says to, “Encourage each other every day while it is ‘today” (Hebrews 3:13a NCV).

• Plan frequent date times – This is not the average day-to-day spending time together. This is a time to just be a married couple…to hold hands, go out for dinner, or go to a movie. My wife and I go out for lunch every week. Not expensive. Just a time to connect in a continual dating relationship. You need to connect weekly as a couple.
• Pay Attention – What I ultimately want my wife to know is she has my full attention. When I give my wife my full attention and focus, it’s like I give her a piece of my life. Those focused moments of sharing are very precious to her because I’ll never get that back again. They are pieces of my life. That’s why the single most loving thing you can give your spouse is to pay full attention to him or her. It’s one of the most important ways you say, “I love you.”

I want to protect my wife’s heart. I want to continue to know what makes it beat, especially the things that make it beat faster! I have found the more I study her, spend time with her, and really get to know her, the more she trusts me with her heart. Proverbs 31:11 says, “Her husband depends on her, and she never lets him down” (CEV).

In 2013, I had the opportunity to travel to China to visit the Chinese Church and pass out Bibles. I recently came across my thank you letter that I wrote to those who supported me.  It reminded me of the sights, sounds, FOOD, scenery, and amazing experience I had passing out Bibles in China. I needed to be reminded of the truths God taught me, so I thought it would be good to share. (I have edited the thank you portion out of the letter.)

“My story in China didn’t quite match up with what I had anticipated. But like God always does, He shows up in ways and places you would least expect Him to. Before we traveled, I had heard stories shared of village churches packed to the brim, some with 100 people, some with 3000 people. And as I prepared mentally for those 4 days we would spend in the field, I rehearsed the invigorating pace of meeting thousands of people and handing out thousands of Bibles. But God had something different in store for my three companions and I.

The trip was fast and exhausting as I had expected, but it was not from handing out Bibles, but from many hours in planes and cars. Each day held just about 8 hours of travel as we traversed along the Nujiang River, up and down the mountainside roads. The scenery was awe-inspiring and ever changing. We often commented at how quickly the foliage would change from tropical to alpine. We saw coffee farms and snow cap mountains, bamboo thickets and pine trees. It always took our breath away and it always left us exclaiming how a picture would never do it justice. The vast expanse of God’s creative ability was unforgettable.

But just like God created the vast expanse of the heavens to bring us to worship, He also created the atom and other small things to show us the depth of intimacy and delicacy in which He works. Here is where my expectations were blown out of the water. Around small tables on small stools, in small smiles, and small groups of people singing hymns, the greatness of God was on display. In small villages hours outside of civilization, 100 people would pack out a tiny brick building, and they would sing and perform and wait until the moment arrived that they received the very thing they had walked miles to receive, their very own Bible.

It was through both the small and the big that God showed up to my friends and I. It was in the vastness of His creation and the vastness of His church in China that God showed His grandeur, but it was in the intimacy and smallness of a handshake and a smile that He showed His heart. And I daresay…I will never forget it!”

Recognizing the spiritual AND physical side of obeying God has been on my heart a lot lately. As I considered what to write this devo about, I couldn’t hide from the fact that I am right smack dab in the middle of living this principle out.

My son has been experiencing a lot of spiritual warfare. It is clear by the things he is saying that the enemy is trying to make him believe so many lies about himself. My wife and I realized we were faced with three choices: we could not say too much and just pray about it, or we could deal only with the physical responses in our son’s life, neglecting the spiritual side of it. We have chosen a third option. We are attacking the issue with prayer. We are vehemently speaking into the spiritual world about our son’s soul. We are asking God to intervene in our son’s heart and impress the great love, grace, and compassion of Jesus into his mind. We are striving to completely cover him in prayer. We are placing his heart into the mighty hands of God, trusting that He can do a work in my son that we could never do on our own in the physical world. AND we are dealing with the very practical, physical aspects of his life. We are striving to teach him appropriate behavior, language, and responses to daily life. We aren’t throwing our hands up in the air, saying, “Well, we’ve prayed about it, what else can we do?” We address the physical issues that arise, one by one, and keep trusting God while we put one foot in front of the other.

Let me tell you, it’s been exhausting. If you’ve ever prayed with every ounce of strength you have, you know what I’m talking about. If you’ve ever dealt with an out-of-control child, you know what I’m talking about. Waging war in both the physical and spiritual worlds zaps a lot of your energy. But we are not about to give up on either front.

We don’t know the outcome. We can’t see the other side of this struggle. There is not a perfect formula for parenting because each child is unique. There are not many guarantees for parents, are there? But we press on. We lift up our hands and praise a faithful God who will carry our sons and us. Open your heart to obedience by doing what God calls you to in the physical and by seeking and inviting Him into the spiritual as well.   

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:10-12

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness,

no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God

and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

Romans 12: 14-15 (NIV)

Forgive: verb (used with object), forgave, forgiven, forgiving.

1. to grant pardon for or remission of (an offense, debt, etc.); absolve.

2. to give up all claim on account of; remit (a debt, obligation, etc.).

3. to grant pardon to (a person).

4. to cease to feel resentment against: to forgive one’s enemies.

5. to cancel an indebtedness or liability of: to forgive the interest owed on a loan.

Forgive. What does that mean to you? How does that word hit your soul? What emotions does it conjure up? For me, it reminds me of how far I have come in my walk with Christ in this area. It also reminds me of my past, and how hard my heart could be toward people who hurt me. To be completely transparent, as I am writing this right now, I have some extreme bitterness and unforgiveness in my heart. I am sure that is why God is calling me to write about it.

As I was reading through these definitions of forgiveness, I was instantly reminded of how mind-blowing it is that God forgives us for our sins, and that once we repent, our slate is wiped completely clean. Just let that sink in for a minute. For me, I sometimes brush things off and don’t let them impact me like they should. God calls us to forgive just as He forgave us. Even when they don’t deserve it, even when it is hard, even when we are still so angry, even when everything is telling us not to…even then…we are called to forgive. God is the protector of our hearts, and when we have unforgiveness in our hearts, we can’t love well.

Friends, spend some time with God this week and ask Him to reveal any unforgiveness that is lingering. Ask Him to help you forgive this person. I am praying for our hearts to be softened and that we will be real with God, so He can help us forgive better.

Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you

seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.

Luke 17:3-4

Six months ago, my sister-in-law was diagnosed with cancer for the second time. This time it was stage four, and it completely baffled the doctors. She had essentially a zero percent chance of it returning, but it did. The doctors were still determined to try everything they could to battle and beat it. Not only did she have an amazing group of doctors, she had people praying. I’m not talking about a handful of people…there was an army of people praying for her all over the country. I myself prayed the boldest I had ever prayed in my life. I prayed and came to God with complete confidence. I thought for sure God was going to heal her here on Earth and we were going to see a miracle. She was a warrior for Jesus, and if there would have ever been a story someone would use for His glory, this was going to be it. But a few weeks ago, things went downhill fast and she passed away. The cancer took over her body and she just couldn’t fight anymore.

The past few weeks, I have found myself all over the place. My very first reactions were anger, disappointment, and confusion. I was so incredibly angry at God. All of the “why” questions have swirled over and over in my head. Why didn’t You heal her? Why do my nephews have to grow up without their mom? Why does my brother-in-law have to live life without the one he loved so deeply? Why do we have to walk through life without her? Can’t you imagine what an incredible testimony that would have been, God? How can this situation possibly be for our good? In the moment, I couldn’t possibly see how this could all turn out for good. This loss affected so many people and I just couldn’t understand why this had to happen the way it did.

But just as He always does, God showed up. He continues to remind me of this:

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.

    “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,

    so my ways are higher than your ways

    and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9 NLT

In my very limited perspective, I think that I know what would have been best. I don’t see the bigger picture like God does. Even at this very moment, God is looking at both the present and the future, and all of the good that is going to come out of this situation. I don’t have all of the answers to my questions, and in all reality, probably won’t until I myself meet Him face to face. But I’m learning that I don’t necessarily need answers in this moment…I need God. I need God to meet me right where I am, angry, confused and all. I need more of God’s peace and comfort to fill me during this time of grief and pain. I simply need to know that He is there.

Do you find yourself in a similar place? Maybe something has happened in your life that has left you angry and confused. My encouragement to you is that it is okay. What is more important is that you seek God in the middle of it. Suffering stinks, and it is hard and painful, but God is still present and He wants to hold you and be there with you through the process. I know this because that is exactly what He is doing for me in this moment. Go to God with your anger. Bring Him your confusion. Tell Him how deep the pain and heartbreak are in your life. He wants and longs for you to bring all of it to Him. After all, He is big enough to handle it. In the process, allow Him to speak to you, to comfort you, to help you and sustain you. I don’t know why we have to go through so much suffering, but I am thankful to know that I have a God who not only cares but has a perfect plan in the middle of it. I don’t know why my sister-in-law had to die, but what I do know is that I am already starting to see how God has used it for good. I know He’s got this…I just have to choose every day to trust and believe it.

You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you.

Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.

Matthew 5:4 The Message

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.

John 16:33

It is such a constant struggle in this world, dealing with the difficult circumstances in front of us while longing for the peace of Heaven. God’s promise to us in Heaven is there will be no more tears, no pain, and no heartbreak. Doesn’t that sound amazing? I don’t know about you, but when I am going through something painful, I want it to go away as quickly as possible. I have learned that God doesn’t usually move as quickly as we would like. Instead, He uses these opportunities to “grow” us in our faith. As you go through those difficult times, ask God to open you up to what He wants you to learn from the situation. There is always a godly perspective He wants to show us if we’re open to it.

Often times, when I can look back at the situation from a distance and with a fresh perspective, that’s when I can see the blessings. Everything we go through, difficult or not, is an opportunity for us to see the power of God move. When we can look back with a fresh perspective, we can also see how we could handle things differently in the future. We can take the opportunity to try it God’s way the next time the situation arises. I know too often I can get in the way of my own mess. Feelings and emotions can often overtake you if you let them! That’s when you have to reset your focus on God and what is true. As Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:5, we have to take “every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.” Take those thoughts about the situation to God and see what He says about them! Our God is so big that we can’t understand His majestic ways! But isn’t that what we need God to be? We don’t want a God we can understand. God’s ways are perfect, even when we don’t like or understand them. The quicker you get at this realization, the quicker you can act appropriately the next time a difficult situation arises.

Keep growing in your faith, and keep allowing God to mold and change your ways to be more like Him. The next time a difficult situation comes along, try to remember God IS in control, and see what you can learn along the way. With this mindset, you are more likely to let God lead the way instead of your own human heart and emotions. He loves us and He is for us!

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the LORD.

“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.”

Isaiah 55:8 NLT

‘for we walk by faith, not by sight.’ 2 Corinthians 5:7

Are we looking at the “signs” of the world instead of what’s clearly laid out before our very eyes? We listen to the shouts of the world and others’ opinions of what we should be doing instead of listening to the still, steady voice of God. We walk awkwardly along our paths that we’ve chosen because we aren’t confident in what God wants for us, at times forgetting to include Him in the decision on what path to take in the first place.

I took this photo close to our new property some months ago. And while God’s hand has been in the process of building our new home, I have had moments where I believed the “signs, the ones telling us that we can’t do it, the ones judging us, the ones that told us we couldn’t afford it. At times I actually believed the “signs.”

And then God…

In His infinite Grace and love, He would remind me that He is my center line.

And then God…

Reminded me that He laid this out for us, specifically for us. And to keep our eyes on Him.

And then God…

Sent others to lift us up, to pray for us, to support us, to love us.

And then God…

Made finances work out to bless us beyond belief, even though we don’t deserve it.

Take a look at your own journey, your road. Are you paying attention to the “signs”? Is it creating confusion? Are the signs pointing you in a direction that wouldn’t be the direction God would send you? Are these signs breeding bitterness and resentment? Is the clarity of what God wants you to do clouded by those around you? What decision(s) are you putting off? What do you need prayer for to continue on your journey, your road? Message me with prayer requests. I’d love to join you in prayer about your paths.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:6

He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his names sake. Psalms 23:3

I grew up around horses, and occasionally my family and I would take our horses trail riding. Most often when it comes to water, horses have no problem drinking out of a trough or pail that you provide for them. These things, however, are not things that you pack with you when out on the trail. Therefore, in order to water a horse, you lead them to a source of water. It will most likely be a stream or small pond you come across on the trail, and from my experiences, each and every horse is a little different in their response to the water. I have found that horses can be pretty temperamental with how they take to water. You have horses that fearlessly plunge into the water and seem to find it quite therapeutic and refreshing. It’s hysterical to watch these types, because for them water is an oasis of fun and they seem to thrive wherever there is water. Then you have the reluctant but willing types who don’t seem to love water, but their survival instincts tell them they are thirsty and need to drink. Finally, you have what I would call the skittish or no-way types I always got stuck on the back of for some reason, that either panic at the sight of water or absolutely refuse to touch it. These types usually throw you off at the attempt of getting near the water, or require you to dismount and literally pull them to or through the water. It’s the classic, “You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink” scenario.

When I read John 4:14, this is the imagery that comes to mind for me, particularly with the way this verse starts out. It says, “WHOEVER drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.” I think this word “whoever” is such a key word because it indicates not all who are offered water by Jesus will take a drink. Jesus is clearly communicating that there is water available, and not just any water but a “living water” (John 4:10) is available to whoever is thirsty and wants a drink. Now we know from the context of this story that Jesus is not referring to literal water, because he says earlier in this chapter that the actual physical water the lady was drawing from the well would only quench her thirst for a short time. He then makes references to the “living water” He wants to give her so she will never be thirsty again. What is this living water? Well, Jesus tells us later in John that the “living water” is the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39).

As we have been learning about in our series on the Holy Spirit and discussing in our connect groups, the Holy Spirit is not an optional drink that we need to consider drinking when life makes us thirsty. I know what it is like to thirst. We all do. We all need security, comfort, peace, hope, encouragement, conviction, wisdom, direction, and much more…and there is no other water source in life that provides like the Holy Spirit does. His water supply is endless. It will never run dry, and WHOEVER needs and receives what He has will “taste and see” that what the Holy Spirit offers is so much better than what anything else offers. But we must drink. God is leading us to the water but we must choose to drink. Let’s choose in our moments of need to be a people who are like the fearless horse plunging into the water, knowing it is an oasis. The Holy Spirit is our oasis in this difficult life. Become a “whoever,” and drink the living water.

The Stand (LCC’s Men’s Ministry) will meet on Friday, February 23 at 7:00 PM. We’ll have an evening of food, fellowship, teaching, and worship. Sign up by clicking HERE.

That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Mark 4:35-41

What’s always funny to me about these verses is the fact that the disciples knew better than to freak out like that. I mean, at this point in their journey with Jesus, they had already seen Him turn water into wine, cast out demons, heal a paralyzed man, and even raise a widow’s son from the dead! But when this storm comes along, look at their response. Was it one of faith, courage, or empowerment? No. It was fear. That just seems so crazy to me. But when I take a step back and evaluate my own life, I can see the same fear is all too often evident in my own life. I find myself being fearful rather than being faithful.

Last Sunday we introduced a song called “Tremble,” and the opening verse is one of my all-time favorites.

“Peace, bringing it all to peace

The storm surrounding me

Let it break at Your name.

Still, call the sea to still

The rage in me to still

Every wave at Your name.”

This is the reality. As humans, our first response is often fear…fear of the unknown, fear of sickness, even fear of death. At face value, this is completely reasonable because that stuff is indeed scary. But the truth is this kind of fear has no place in the heart of the believer, because God the Father bankrupted heaven to send His Son to redeem His people. His Spirit dwells within us. And because of that, we don’t have to fear the wind and waves. The storms of life, and even the storms that rage in our hearts, are called to peace by Jesus. That’s who He is.

Growing up, I always found my identity through the things I did, the sports I played, the clubs I belonged to, the friends that I had. I never really thought much about who I really was until adulthood, when most of the activities that I belonged to weren’t available anymore. As a teen, I was active in my church youth group, and participated in leading Bible studies and going on retreats and mission trips, but after leaving for college I slowly realized that I had developed more friendships than I did my relationship with Christ. Don’t get me wrong, my faith grew because of the environment I was a part of, but I didn’t know how to identify myself in Christ until many years later. In fact, I still struggle with finding my identity in Christ instead of the places or seasons I find myself in.

Since I was legally old enough to be employed, I had a job. Even after having children, I identified myself as a “working mom” and never a “stay at home mom.” But when I found myself in an adverse season of losing a child and expecting a new child, God made it clear that my purpose in that season was to be home with my kids. But I just couldn’t identify with that title. For years, I wavered and doubted who I was because I couldn’t see how me being at home gave me any purpose. I didn’t do “stay at home” well. I always found other things to do away from home, other ways to occupy my time. Most of these things were volunteering in any capacity at church or within my kids’ school system. I realized that I felt needed when I chose to fill a role, and I could identify with that. It gave me purpose. This school year was the start of a new season for me. My youngest would be in school all day and I was beyond ready to start looking for employment. But after five years of not being gainfully employed, I was rejected as a qualified candidate in several applications, and started to lose sight of who I was again. I let myself believe lies about who I was instead of the truths that Christ qualified in me. Even after taking employment in ministry, I doubted whether I was adequate for the role.

Through seeking God daily, opening my heart to hear from Him, and hearing Him speak to me through others, I am finding my qualifications that He has given me. I’m feeling purpose again. I can identify myself in Him. God has designed each of us for His purpose and He wants us to seek Him to have it revealed in us and through us. This year, I will grow in choosing His purpose for me. Will you join me?

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,

for those who are called according to his purpose.

Romans 8:28

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified,

and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Romans 8:30

“I’ve shown you the best way, so don’t whine to me if you choose another way and it doesn’t work out well.” These are words I’ve spoken what seems like a hundred times to my kids. There is clearly one way, whether that means one safe way or one easy way or just one correct way, to get something done…yet they are determined to do it their own way. At some point, as parents, we have to be confident we have given all the information we can and pray our kids take it to heart and use it properly.

I had to laugh the other day as I was reading in Acts 20, and saw that Paul used essentially the same line on some of the leaders from Ephesus. In this account, recorded in Acts 20:13-38 (NLT), Paul is making one of his many evangelistic tours to check on churches he had planted and people with whom he had shared the Gospel. At one stop, he invited the elders from Ephesus to meet with him to share some parting words, because Paul knew, via the Holy Spirit, that very difficult times were ahead, including imprisonment, mistreatment, and possibly death.

In what he thought may be his last conversation with this group, he shared that he had faithfully served God and delivered the good news about the grace of God through Jesus, and that he was willing to endure whatever hardships he must face because, “… my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God” (Acts 20:24 – NLT).

He was determined, he was proud of the way God had used him, and he was not fearful about the future. Instead, he was intent on serving God to the very end. What an inspiration he must have been to those elders. My favorite part, though, comes a couple verses later when Paul continues his conversation by saying in verses 25-27, “And now I know that none of you to whom I have preached the Kingdom will ever see me again. I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault, for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know.”

Paul has a parent moment. He says, “Look, I’ve told you the truth, the right way to do things.  I’ve busted my tail to teach you, guide you, and be the best example possible for you. If you mess it up now, I don’t want to hear anyone whine about it.” The same message is true for all of us. We know the truth…it has been demonstrated to us and taught to us. For many of us, we have experienced the truth through the Holy Spirit and God visibly moving in our lives. We must take responsibility, just as Paul told the elders of Ephesus to do, and ensure we are living out the Gospel we know to be true.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.

Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

Proverbs 3:5-6 NLT

This past weekend, I was teaching the kids some “What if” questions based on the Bible story that Pastor Phil taught. Pastor Phil and I were going through the questions before Sunday morning. One of the questions he came up with was “What if I believed God to do the impossible?” After he asked it, I started to have thoughts in my head that the impossible is hard to pray sometimes (but never once said this out loud). Immediately, Pastor Phil came up with another question: “What if I trusted God’s plan?” I actually started smiling and laughing a bit. God knew my thoughts, He knew that He needed to have Pastor Phil ask that second question right away. What if I trusted God’s plan?

Trusting God’s plan means laying it all out there for Him. Praying like you have never prayed before. Knowing that He knows best! God’s plan is ALWAYS GOOD. It might not look good to us here on this earth, but He knows what is best for each and every one of us. Is God’s plan easy? Can you understand it all the time? The answer to both of those are no, but I know God loves you.

I don’t know what you are going through; I don’t know what you have seen in your lifetime. I am just challenging you today (just as God did to me) to TRUST GOD’S PLAN. Pray for the impossible even when it looks impossible. Praying for you today!

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.

Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.

Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7 NLT

“Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

 

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

 

 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

1 Corinthians 15:51-58

This series of verses reminds us that the resurrection changes everything! It reminds us our time on earth is but for a season.

The cross without the resurrection is shattered hope. The man who was supposed to deliver the whole of mankind ended up dying without overthrowing the Roman government. He left His followers alone, but not for long. His resurrection three days later confirmed and fulfilled all that had been spoken of Him from the very dawn of creation. And it fulfills and reveals our hope as well. For as the verse above states, we shall be changed. This life isn’t it. We will only be here for a little while. This is not our home. Let that encourage you today. Speak it over every struggle. Repeat it after every challenge.

When your heart is heavy…we shall be changed.

When sickness overtakes your body…we shall be changed.

When depression threatens your joy…we shall be changed.

When you feel lonely and forgotten…we shall be changed.

If you’ve been abused and neglected…we shall be changed.

When your patience is thin and you determination falters…we shall be changed.

Because Jesus made a way for us…we shall be changed.

Because of Jesus…“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

Hang on, you can make it. And one day, you will be changed!

If you would like to listen to an encouraging song reminding you that a day is coming when you will not have to Fight Anymore, give this one a listen: https://open.spotify.com/track/5cEkusc3gj2K4QDQbAb9Ms?si=lyPk2R3jS_eXwvMnzcxx0g

Did you set some New Year’s Resolutions? I know I did…some that I am trying again from last year and a few new ones for the upcoming year. As the calendar turns over, it is getting real. All those things I told myself I wanted to do January 1 are now becoming less of a priority. It isn’t because I don’t want them, it is just because it gets tough. I have lost the reason I first made those goals.

I came across this verse and it has inspired me again to regain my momentum.

For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.

Jeremiah 31:25

In the same way, I can feel weary in my walk with Christ and my goals for 2018. God promises to satisfy a tired and weary soul. He promises to restore the languishing soul, and replenish it with a new fire and a new want.

If you are struggling to hold on to those goals you set January 1, hold tight to the promises of God and get back on the horse. Re-light that fire you had in January. Let God restore your desire for your goals. Pray that He will continue to strengthen you when you get tired.

I came across Jonah 2:8 during my 30-day read through the minor prophets. If you are not sure what a minor prophet is, let me break it down a bit for you. To begin with, a prophet is generally a person who speaks God’s truth to others. They had the very important role of guiding the nation of Israel (a people chosen by God through whom Jesus Christ would be born) and establishing the church. There are 17 prophesy books in the Bible and they are divided into the major and minor prophets. The title of major and minor has nothing to do with status or ability, rather those titles relate to the length of the books. I dedicated 30 days to reading through the 12 minor prophet books, and the book of Jonah is one of those books.

In Jonah 2:8, I read a verse that spoke so loudly to me in the season of life that I am in. For me, this season is one of evaluation and refocusing. I have come to realize through God’s guiding that I have spent a lot of time with my focus in the wrong place. I have placed my focus on me rather than on God. What this produces in my life often is anxiety, insecurity, lack of contentment, and even vanity, because much of my life is being concerned about me. Consequently, what I was choosing to do was “forsake” all that God had to offer me when I looked to me instead of Him. If you were wondering, here is where I got the idea of using the word “forsake.” We read in Jonah 2:8 that “Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.” The Message version reads like this: “Those who worship hollow gods, god-frauds, walk away from their only true love.” Wow! That is just packed full of some powerful stuff. So let’s just break it down some.

When Jonah uses the phrase “pay regard,” he is essentially saying that you are worshipping something, specifically idols in this case. To worship idols simply means to give excessive attention, reverence, or focus to something other than God. That’s precisely what I was doing. I was excessively being concerned about me, and by doing that, I was forsaking or abandoning the opportunity to receive from God the blessing of His love that He had promised me. Foolish yes, but thankfully God opened me up to this truth and reminded me that, “God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life” (Psalm 54:4). By choosing to place the focus on myself, I was expecting that I would be capable of taking care of my own needs. Not possible and not healthy. God in His steadfast love promises to provide for my needs. This can, and always should be, my hope. Focusing on anything else besides God for my provision will always leave me feeling hopeless. My friends, rest today in the steadfast love of God, and don’t forsake the hope that can only be found in Him. Place your focus on Him.

God gave me a word to use for this year. “Choose.” The year is still young, but this single word has already revealed things to me that make me just want to keep digging deeper into scripture to reveal all that I can “choose.” After I realized this was my focus word for the year, I decided to make a list of things that I might need to choose: hope, joy, peace, patience, faith, trust, presence, strength, steadfast love. I tried to quickly make a few references to scripture for each area. What I came to realize is that one stood out and was a part of multiple “choices.” Steadfast love. Whenever I found it in scripture, it usually included something about hope, covenant, joy, and faithfulness. I wanted to bring more authentic meaning to this by defining steadfast and love, since these words are found in scripture so many times together.  Merriam-Webster defines each this way:

Steadfast /sted fast/- adjective- 1. firmly fixed in place: immovable; not subject to change 2. Firm in belief, determination, or adherence: loyal — steadfastness-noun

Love / ‘lev /- noun- a. unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another: such as 1. The fatherly concern of God for humankind 2. Brotherly concern for others b. A person’s adoration of God

I just love the picture this paints in my head. Our God is immovable, loyal, unselfish, and benevolently “in love” with us! Why is that a big deal? Because there is nothing we can do that will change how much He loves us. He gives us all of Himself at every moment…we just have to accept it. And when we return that back to Him, the blessings that cover us are finally revealed.

Now when I read “steadfast love” in scripture, I use it as a reminder that God’s promises are immovable, loyal, unselfish, and benevolent. It’s just another way for me to connect with scripture, and be reminded over and over again how much I am loved. If you are feeling distant from God or doubting His love for you, I challenge you to look up every scripture with “steadfast love” in it and read each one. Count how many times it shows up in scripture. Allow each verse to be a declaration over you.

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ~Lamentations 3:22

Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. ~Proverbs 3:3

Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand. ~Psalm 17:7

All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and testimonies. ~Psalm 25:10

I will choose steadfast love this year. What will you choose?

I was reading 1 John last week and this verse stuck out to me:

No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us

and his love is perfected in us.

 1 John 4:12

Have you been working on loving well? Since Matthew has cast the vision to LCC to love well this year, it has been on my heart and mind. And wow, loving well can be difficult! The more we talk about it, the more it seems like God provides us opportunities to show love. By “opportunities,” I mean that we have interactions with difficult people who we don’t necessarily want to love at all! Loving well includes being purposed to keep a soft heart toward people even when we feel wronged, aggravated, or frustrated with them. That is tough and not always fun to do. But that verse I started off with, that verse puts some things in their place.  You see, I need God to abide in me. I need His Holy Spirit in my life at all times. I know myself, and I am unable to function if I don’t have the Holy Spirit living inside of me. John 16:13 says the Spirit will guide us in all truth. I need that! So I need to love others and love them well.  When I do that, God abides in me, and His love is shown in the way it was designed. Let me be clear, God doesn’t need me to be able to show His love; He is fully capable. But this is a way that He has chosen for His love to be visible to others. When we walk in obedience and love others with a pure heart, God is lifted up and praised. The opposite is true as well. When we choose to not love well, God isn’t lifted up and praised. As Christians, we are God’s reflection to this world. We are the tools that He has chosen to use to reach others. We have to take that responsibility seriously, and it begins with loving others well.

Here are some things I’m working on doing in order to love well:

*Being purposed to catch myself when I am starting to “badmouth” someone, either in my mind or in the words that come out of my mouth.

*Being aware of the people around me when I am out in the world. A smile, a kind word, patience – these all go a long way in showing love.

*Putting myself in other’s shoes.

*Thinking about others before myself.

*Caring for the people in my life with a loving heart instead of a grumpy heart.

*Sending texts, calling, reaching out to the people God has placed in my life…investing in them.

I’m not doing all of these well (or some of them at all yet!) but I’m trying. What is God calling you to do in order to love well? I encourage you to take some time to think about it this week and to start the process. Let’s be the tools that God has planned to use to reach others in this world. Let’s start by loving well!

How great is the goodness
you have stored up for those who fear you.
You lavish it on those who come to you for protection,
blessing them before the watching world.

Psalm 31:19 (NLT)

I struggle with insecurities and self-doubt in almost every aspect of my life, but especially with my job. The questions consistently start to creep in. Am I really where God wants me to be? Am I making a big enough impact? Do I have what it takes to get our youth ministry to where I know it needs to be? Is the time, stress, and heartbreak that comes along with investing heavily in people’s lives worth it? What do people really think about me? With each question, the doubt builds and builds and builds.

So this past Wednesday, I walked into the Chapel, LCC’s Worship Night, with all of those questions running through my mind. Am I enough? Can I do this? God, do you know what you’re doing? Pastor Michael called us up front, invited us into this worshipful atmosphere, and the band began the first song, Here as in Heaven. And what are the first lines of that song?

The atmosphere is changing now
For the Spirit of the Lord is here
The evidence is all around
That the Spirit of the Lord is here

As I looked around me, I saw my beautiful wife who I somehow suckered into marrying me and who is my number one fan despite my many flaws. Evidence of God’s goodness. Beyond that, I realized I was literally surrounded by 30-40 youth in full blown worship, seeking God with all their hearts. Evidence of God’s goodness. I felt God ask me in that moment, “Do you need any more evidence than this?” Do I understand God’s plan? Nope. Have all my questions been answered? Nope. Do I feel qualified? Nope. Can I see the evidence of God’s goodness and leadership in my life? Yes.

I share all of this to encourage you this week to find the evidence in your life of God’s goodness.  Some days it may feel difficult to find, but I have no doubt it is there. As you do this, remember the advice Paul gave to his young protégé Timothy when he said, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power…” (2 Timothy 1:7  NLT)  Find your power and strength in the evidence of God’s goodness.

Have you ever had those moments in life when you think “if someone was in my brain they would be scared? What if they knew my thoughts? It would shock them!” Lately I have been struggling with this. Not only worry what people would think of my thoughts, but my biggest worry is what God would think of my thoughts. What if I told God I was worried He wouldn’t answer my prayer? What if God would get mad at me and walk away? What if I disappoint Him? There are so many more what ifs.

What if instead of worrying about what God thought, I would actually take some time to pray and talk to Him? What if I open His Word and speak His promises out on my life? My friend said to me, “Speak out loud His promises He has for you. It makes satan go away. He can’t compete with the Word of God and the truth that is in it!”

Friends, God is so good and He loves each one of us individually! He knows what is best for us, our family, our friends, and the people we are praying for. Some situations are out of our control and look crazy to us, but we don’t know what God is doing in the middle of those situations!! Give God whatever is going on in your brain today. Ask Him to show you His truth in the Bible. Praying for you as you do this!

“”My thoughts are not like your thoughts. And your ways are not like my ways,” announces the Lord. “The heavens are higher than the earth. And my ways are higher than your ways. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts. The rain and the snow come down from the sky. They do not return to it without watering the earth. They make plants come up and grow. The plants produce seeds for farmers. They also produce food for people to eat. The words I speak are like that. They will not return to me without producing results. They will accomplish what I want them to. They will do exactly what I sent them to do.”

Isaiah 55:8-11 NIRV

Do you ever feel like you aren’t good enough? This is exactly what satan wants you to think. He wants you to think that you don’t deserve God’s love and that you can’t be used by God. Those are all lies. God loves YOU, and He wants to use YOU. I think we all need this reminder in our lives. We all deal with insecurity in some area of our lives, and we need to be reminded that we are who HE says we are. I have been struggling with the feeling of inadequacy, and I have been holding on to the lyrics of this song by Kristine DiMarco, I Am No Victim.

I am who He says I am
He is who He says He is
I’m defined by, all His promises
Shaped by, every word He says
I am who He says I am
He is who He says He is
I’m defined by, all His promises
Shaped by, every word He says

The first time I listened to this song, I felt so overwhelmed by God’s promises and I just wept. I felt God reminding me that I am who He says I am, that I AM worthy, and I AM good enough. In today’s world, it is so easy to get caught up in trying to be perfect, and we fall into that comparison trap, which can cause us to feel like we just don’t measure up. Don’t let satan steal your identity! You are a child of God.

He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, 

according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace,

with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1:5-6 ESV

I challenge you this week to spend some time with God. Maybe turn this song on and worship, or just ask God to remind you of His promise that you are who He says you are…and He will. I pray that we would continually remember this truth this week, and when those feelings of unworthiness creep in, we would instantly run to God.

What If…Devotional – Younger Version

I believe in miracles. I also believe that God still works in the dramatic. But I’ve seen people grow cold because God didn’t do something dramatic or miraculous for them (on their timetable). I sometimes wonder why people always look for the super experience in life. For example, married couples come to me frequently and say their marriage has grown cold because they no longer have the goosebumps they once did.

I believe God loves mundane. Did I get your attention? In between the dramatic revelations, God loves when we do the day-in, day-out fundamentals. What are those fundamentals? Author Beth Moore gives us the answer below so eloquently.

“Prayer. A daily time in God’s Word. Praise and worship. Attending church. Serving a church body. Tithing. Acts of generosity. These are the fundamentals, and they’ll never change. We can make all the excuses in the world for not practicing this one or that, but they represent the backbone of obedience. We often want the mystical while God often insists on the practical.”

G. K. Chesterton wrote of a God who “is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

Beth Moore goes on to say, “God likes order. He likes repetition. A God of fundamentals, He brings up the sun every morning and the moon every evening, but His creativity with that order is gorgeously displayed in the changing sunsets and sunrises surrounding them. The same is true for us. Faithfulness in our Christian walk requires order, some black-and-white fundamentals, but within that order is glorious room for color and creativity.

God is not tired. Nor is God tired of you. He delights in your attention even when you practice them much like you did yesterday. He waits for you to awaken, and He anticipates His time with you. When you or I ignore Him, He is disappointed. He laughs when you delight Him. He listens when you speak to Him. He honors you when you persevere with Him. In all the changes He is making within you and me, He rejoices in the few things that call for blessed sameness.”

Let’s stay faithful, you and I. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9).

“Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct…?”

Exodus 33:16

What sets us apart as Christians? What makes us distinctly Christian? Is it conservative politics? Is it upright morality? Is it having parents who are Christian? Is it our church attendance? Is it maybe our biblical knowledge that defines us as Christian? While these are good things, they are not the distinctions of a Christian.  So what is it? What is that one thing that makes a Christian a Christian? Christ’s presence…the Holy Spirit.

We can try to say it’s our good morals, our charity, or even our church attendance that makes us Christian, but in the end, what it comes down to is our relationship with God. It’s not that clean living or attending church or biblical knowledge are bad things…but they are products of, and tools for, fostering a relationship with God.  Being in God’s presence is the goal of every situation and circumstance of our lives.  And the truest mark of a Christian is the desire to be in God’s presence every second of every single day.

I have walked through so many seasons where I have tried to define myself as a Christian by doing all the right things, by having the right theology, by knowing the right people. But I am finding nothing matters if Christ isn’t present. And none of these good things that should be part of a Christian’s life could even happen if Christ were not present.

Is it not God’s presence in our lives that makes us distinct among all the peoples of this earth?

With the start of the New Year, most people come up with resolutions for the year. They usually involve ways to better themselves in the coming New Year. As important as it is to look for something in yourself that you’d like to see changed, we as Christ followers should go to God and ask Him what He wants us to change. Not only will this make God’s heart glad that we came to Him first, but it will also give us an answer on where we should start with change.

Instead of making a resolution that I most likely will break, I always take time at the beginning of the year to ask God to give me a word for the year. Give me something to strive for. I felt pretty convicted when God gave me the word REST. I had to laugh. But deep in my spirit I knew this needed changing. I’ve been running at breakneck speed for a while now. Running a home and getting multiple children where they need to be, along with my other responsibilities, is not an easy task. By the end of the day I am worn, frazzled, and feeling like a failure, all because I am trying to do too many things.

LORD, you will give perfect peace to those who commit themselves to be faithful to you. That’s because they trust in you.

Isaiah 26:3

Peace. Rest. Those are definitely words that I want to describe my life. I am sure you do, too! I am in the process of making those things more likely to happen. Obviously I can’t control life, but I can control some things. For instance, I can say no to things, even though they may be good things. I can say no to things that will make my schedule busier than it already is. I can ask for help with the kids. Sometimes we need to ask for help from others to fit in the rest we need for ourselves.

Not only am I striving for physical rest, but God also made it clear I need to rest in Him more. I’ve been struggling lately, wrestling with unanswered questions that only God knows! I am asking God to help me set those aside so I can get some of the spiritual rest He wants for me. He knows how that will make me a better version of myself. He knows, because He desires that for us. God designed us for rest in Him.

Seek the LORD and the strength he gives. Always seek him.

Psalm 105:4

So I am trying. I am seeking God. I need His help and strength every minute of the day. If you can relate and are seeking rest, ask God to help you. Ask Him to show you the areas of your life where you need rest. It may be many areas of your life, but our God is bigger than anything. Remember He is in control and desires to have a relationship with us. Seek Him, and all will fall into place.

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:1-5

I have come to realize that while sin is obviously damaging to the heart of a Christian, sin that we are not actively battling is even worse. When I get complacent with the sin in my life, it makes it really hard to spend time genuinely connected to the Lord. I’m by no means saying that I have to be perfect to connect with God, but when I become complacent in sin, or even try to justify my sin, the results are devastating. It’s hard to be a good husband, pastor, friend, and follower of Christ when I feel that separation of the Lord.

This verse really illustrates that feeling in a tangible way: “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” I can honestly say that in this season of my life, I am hungry for correction. I’m hungry to be disproved and to even have my sin exposed, and that’s because of the truth of this passage. I know that I will never have a life that is completely free of sin, but I think I can strive to lead a life that battles every day against sin…one that finds complacency unacceptable. That’s the point of this parable that Jesus taught. We are to abide in Him so that He can abide in us, and through the process of pruning dead branches (which means to cut out the sin in our lives) we can bear the kind of fruit that Jesus spoke about.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

Hebrews 12:1-2, emphasis added

The Winter Olympics are coming up in about a month, and I’m excited for the uniqueness these games bring to our living rooms each night. The bobsled teams racing down the track at blurring speeds, ski jumpers soaring through the air, speed skaters meticulously planning their passes, and curling teams playing the most entertaining game of shuffleboard of all time. I was reading a little about the Games this week, and found that the average Olympian trains four hours a day for 310 days a year for six years before making it to the Olympics. All that translates to over 7,000 hours of training for an event that could last less than sixty seconds. Incredible!

These athletes trained for years upon years to perfect their skills, hone their discipline, and build incredible endurance. Similarly, I believe we need to do the same as we run the race set before us by God. The apostle Paul said as much in his encouragement to his young protégé Timothy when he wrote “train yourself in godliness” (1 Tim. 4:7 HCSB). Living the life of faith can truly be a grueling race at times when we face seemingly unsurmountable obstacles, but if we keep our eyes on Jesus and the examples He set for us, we can find the endurance needed to keep running.

First, a little definition. Endurance is defined as the power to suffer patiently an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way. That is a much richer definition than I would have given, but it puts into perspective what is meant by the above verse. At times during the race God sets before us, we will encounter unpleasant or difficult situations through which we must suffer patiently without giving way. But how do we do it?  The answer is found in verse two: “by keeping our eyes on Jesus…” and the example of endurance building He set for us.

We build our endurance for the race through taking care of our bodies (rest, Sabbath), consistent and ongoing prayer and Bible reading, service to others, and worship. Each of these disciplines were put on full display by Jesus during His time on earth and helped Him endure more than anyone else in human history. Think about it, He was born to a poor unwed mother in a stable, His life was threatened as a baby to the extent He had to leave the country, He was raised in the undesirable town of Nazareth, and many believe His father died when He was young. Many times He had no place to lay His head, and He was hated and opposed by others, including family and people from His hometown. He was accused of being insane, demon-possessed, and a blasphemer. He was betrayed by a close friend, left alone by other friends, and taken to court on false charges where he received a bogus trial. He was whipped, beaten, spit on, cursed at, laughed at, and was executed as a common criminal by crucifixion…yet He endured it all for us.

My prayer this week is that we can all keep our eyes on Jesus and the example of endurance He set for us when we feel worn out, defeated, and on the verge of quitting our race.

I have been reading a book about the spiritual battle that we Christians are fighting. It is called “Stronger than the Struggle” by Havilah Cunnington. I’m only three chapters in, but it has already taught me a lot about my personal battles that I fight against satan constantly. The writer is also doing a blog/study to go along with it, and she said something that really stood out to me: “Satan has already experienced heaven and knows how glorious it is. He is also aware that he will never get to go back and because of it wants to do everything in his power to prevent the rest of us from going as well.” Crazy to think about, isn’t it? Satan had his chance. He was in the physical presence of the almighty God, but he threw it all away out of selfish ambition just so he could receive the praise that only God truly deserves.

There is a very real force that is doing everything in its power to prevent me from drawing closer to God. Satan wants the glory, and he will do everything within his power to cause us to turn from God. He wants us not to focus on God, but rather our own talents, desires, and abilities. The devil doesn’t know everything about us like God does, but he knows enough to know what will tempt us, what will cause us to fail, what will cause us to be proud or catch us in sin. He is evil and is constantly trying to destroy us. I don’t know about you, but that is not someone I want in my life. I don’t want to give power to someone or something that only seeks my destruction. But he is very real, and he is constantly looking for ways to destroy us, our relationships, and our faith.

So what do we do with this knowledge? We have to have a battle plan. I’ve really learned a lot in the past few months about being purposed about walking closely with God. How do we fight back? Know the scripture! Satan is full of lies, but we can combat that with the truth we find in God’s Word. For me personally, I have been physically speaking out the truth of God whenever I can tell there is a lie satan is trying to throw out at me. For the lie that I’m not enough, I remind myself that “I am enough!” For the lie that says I am worthless, I say “I am a child of God!” There is a truth in scripture for every lie satan tries to throw your way. Another way to fight is by spending time with God in prayer and worship. The more time I spend with God, the more I learn and know about Him. I can test and know for sure if it is God or not just because I have spent the time with Him.

There is a real battle going on that we often times don’t realize or see, but we can be prepared. We can fight well! The victory is already God’s! Jesus claimed it when He died and rose again. But we still have to live here on earth and fight. It is our responsibility to join the army of God and fight alongside Him, knowing that in the end we will receive the victory, too. Take time this week to make a battle plan and keep fighting, my friends. The road is hard, but the prize at the end will make it all worth it.

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

2 Timothy 4:7-8 NLT

 A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. 

Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.

Ephesians 6:11-13 NLT

I’ve never heard the audible voice of God, but I know when God speaks to me. He speaks to me through the Holy Spirit. He speaks to me during my prayer/quiet time and reading God’s Word. The Holy Spirit gives me suggestions. He puts impressions in my mind and gives me direction. He speaks to me and quiets my spirit. My favorite part is when the Holy Spirit teaches me.

Jesus says in John 14:26, “The Holy Spirit … will be your teacher and will bring to your minds all that I have said to you” (Phillips).

In the New Year, many people look for a fitness or personal life coach, someone who knows a great deal more about a subject than they do and can help them achieve their goals. People spend thousands of dollars on these coaches. I already have a life coach. And I’ve had this life coach for more than 50 years. His name is the Holy Spirit. I constantly ask God, “What do you want me to do next? Holy Spirit, what do you want me to do about a particular situation?”

In the passage above, it says “bring to your minds.” The Holy Spirit will speak directly to your mind. As I said, I’ve never heard the audible voice of God. I don’t need to. God doesn’t need to speak to me audibly when He can go directly to my mind.

There is only one problem with His “bringing to your mind.” If the Holy Spirit is going to bring God’s truth to your mind, you need something in there to bring out. That’s why you need to regularly be in your Bible. When you are regularly reading, studying, and filling your mind with God’s Word, you are storing God’s truth in your mind, and that’s when the Holy Spirit can bring it to mind at just the right time.

Have you ever read the Bible and felt or even said, “I didn’t get anything out of it today”? This may surprise you, but I don’t get earth shaking thoughts every time I read the Bible. But what I’m doing is storing God’s truth in my mind. Your mind is like a computer with limitless storage for memory. Your mind is storing up things you’ve seen or heard – every magazine article, every commercial, every bad joke, every TV show or movie. It’s all stored in your mind. You need to balance your mind with the truth. The Holy Spirit can bring God’s truth to your mind and direct you in the way you should go.

If you have yet to establish a quiet time habit with God (prayer and Bible study), begin today!

Devotion – What If?

Devotion – Younger Version

God’s timing and perspective is a hard thing for me sometimes. It is so funny…you think I would understand it fully, because my husband and I had to wait so long for our son. There are still times when I think “Really God, do you understand?” He does understand, and He knows what is best for everyone. HE KNOWS WHAT IS BEST! Such a hard statement, but so true.

Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible.

But with God everything is possible.”

Matthew 19:26 NLT

I was reading my devotional this morning by Christine Caine called “Unashamed,” and she said something amazing. “If there’s one key to watching the walls in your life fall, to moving forward in freedom, to seeing the promises of God at work, then this is it: You must learn to believe the truth of God’s Word over the facts of circumstances. You have to look to God, not at everything around you. Only then can you see what’s going on from His perspective. We have to see that wall torn down even before it is. We have to believe that God is faithful to do what He has promised.”

We always want to put our human perspective on things because that’s all we see. That’s when we need to stop and seek God’s truth in the Bible, and see what His promises are. Also we need to ask God to help us see His perspective, and give us peace in the middle of the crazy situations we have in our heads.

Today, whatever is going on…stop, and write down the situation you are going through. Ask God to help you, ask a friend to pray with you. Bringing our situations out into God’s light helps us see God in the middle of it.

Do you remember when you were first saved and that feeling you were ready to conquer the world…that feeling of being on fire for Jesus? I remember having this feeling that no matter what would come my way, I would be okay, because I had this amazing heavenly Father who was in control and would take care of me.

Last Sunday, I was worshipping with the K-3^rd graders, and there was a young girl in there praising Jesus like no one was watching. She was singing at the top of her lungs, and she didn’t care what any of the other kids in that room were thinking. It absolutely warmed my heart, and in that moment, I felt God say to me, “This is what I want from you!” It is amazing how much God teaches me through Sunday School. Isn’t it amazing that God uses the everyday to speak to us? God wants us to do everything with passion, and in everything glorify Him. I feel like I have been in a season that has been lacking that passion, and I have been kind of just sitting on “autopilot” and trying to get through each day. God doesn’t want us to be on “autopilot.” He wants us to have life and have it to the fullest.

This reminds me of the story of David and the Ark of the Lord, when he is dancing and singing for Jesus and his wife is getting embarrassed. I just love David’s heart and his response.

“And David danced before the LORD with all his might, wearing a priestly garment. So David and all the people of Israel brought up the Ark of the LORD with shouts of joy and the blowing of rams’ horns. But as the Ark of the LORD entered the City of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked down from her window. When she saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, she was filled with contempt for him. They brought the Ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the special tent David had prepared for it. And David sacrificed burnt offerings and peace offerings to the LORD. When he had finished his sacrifices, David blessed the people in the name of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. Then he gave to every Israelite man and woman in the crowd a loaf of bread, a cake of dates, and a cake of raisins. Then all the people returned to their homes. When David returned home to bless his own family, Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him. She said in disgust, “How distinguished the king of Israel looked today, shamelessly exposing himself to the servant girls like any vulgar person might do!” David retorted to Michal, “I was dancing before the LORD, who chose me above your father and all his family! He appointed me as the leader of Israel, the people of the LORD, so I celebrate before the LORD. Yes, and I am willing to look even more foolish than this, even to be humiliated in my own eyes! But those servant girls you mentioned will indeed think I am distinguished!” So Michal, the daughter of Saul, remained childless throughout her entire life.”

2 Samuel 6:14-23 NLT

My desire for this year is to be more like David and the little girl on Sunday morning. I want to be the type of person who focuses on Jesus alone and doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel,

for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,

to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Romans 1:16 ESV

It’s hard to live a life of balance. So many people live in the extreme. We see some people addicted to the Internet, and others shun it altogether. Anorexia to gluttony, workaholics to laziness – it’s one end of the spectrum to the other. Sometimes it is even true with good things, things God wants us to utilize. But we become rigid and legalistic, and in trying to honor God, we lose sight of Him and His heart. At the core of any extreme is our own neediness, and our desire to fill those needs with anything and everything but God Himself. We can get so caught up in “religiousness” that we follow after an idea of what we think God is, and it doesn’t look like what we find in the Bible.

The balance and perfection of God is one of the things I love about Him. So holy and majestic He couldn’t show His face, yet became man so we could become like Him. The protective God of the Old Testament shielding the pathway of His Son, is the same God who is a loving Father forgiving the adulterous and befriending the tax collectors in the New Testament.

Balance may not be easy to achieve, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. Difficult doesn’t mean impossible with God. I pray we seek to honor Him by reflecting Him and His balance more accurately in all areas of our lives. Evaluate your life this week, and ask God to reveal areas where you may be a little extreme. May the Holy Spirit empower you to do what is necessary to restore balance into your life.

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.

1 Corinthians 6:12 (ESV, emphasis mine)

“History repeats itself.” I hear this often, and the older I get the more it proves itself to be true. Last year for Christmas my son asked for a Rubik’s cube. The popular 80’s toy was on my nine-year-old son’s wish list and I was excited about this! I remembered getting so frustrated as a kid trying to solve it, and thought it was a trick with no real solution. With the current craze of fidget spinners and fidget cubes, I loved that the Rubik’s would be something that could actually challenge him in a way he thought was fun. I love math and love puzzles that can use math in a fun way. My son is the same way. He received the Rubik’s cube for Christmas, and we both became obsessed with trying to figure out how to solve it. Having the vast internet at our fingertips, I searched “How to solve a Rubik’s cube.” We found a tutorial that taught us a pattern to look for, and following that gave us the solved Rubik’s no matter what the starting pattern was. We sought to memorize this pattern, and would challenge each other to see how well we knew the pattern and who could apply it properly and solve the cube. That was a year ago, and because we worked so hard to commit that pattern to memory, I can still solve a Rubik’s cube even though I haven’t touched one in months.

I feel like my life can look like a Rubik’s cube…usually scrambled, with each side a mess, but occasionally you can see some things matching up where they are supposed to. With dedication, I can get one area “solved,” just to turn a corner and have a whole different mess to figure out. Just a little meddling in that mess and I can completely mess up what I already solved. For the Rubik’s, the solution pattern guides you past seeing a mess, and has you look for what is familiar. Jesus gives us the same kind of guidance in the New Testament. With dedication and making the Bible our pattern of habit, we can find our solution in any mess that we are in. With continued study, we can look at any situation and be confident in the truths that Jesus gives us to come through the situation with His solution.

Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us,

guard the good deposit entrusted to you.

2 Timothy 1:13-14 ESV

At the beginning of each new year, I pray for the upcoming year. I ask God to show me how to grow with Him. I ask for a reference for the year, a purpose if you will. What can I work on throughout this year? Sometimes that becomes a focus word for the year, sometimes it’s a phrase or specific verse. This year, I have a focus word. It is “choose.” It seemed weird to me at first and not at all spiritual. But the more I prayed about it, it became clearer. This will be a year of learning about my choices, how to “choose” what I get or take from every aspect of life. Right now I will “choose” to see His pattern for my life. I will “choose” to commit that pattern to memory. I’m actually excited to see what other things He will have me “choose” this year!

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own.

Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life!

Proverbs 3:5-8 MSG

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you

all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

John 14:26

This past year, I chose to take on the challenge of doing the plumbing in my new house. It has been quite the undertaking, let me tell you. All that I thought I knew about plumbing fell just short of what I needed to know to do the task well. At each step of the job I have realized why I am NOT a professional plumber. It has stressed me, stretched me, and frustrated me in many different ways…and yet I am still making progress and it is getting done. As much as I would like to say it’s because I have become a master plumber that things got done, I have to attribute it more to the people who have come by my side and helped me. It amazed me how much I benefited having someone there to help. Someone to bounce ideas off of. Someone to help me think through my plan of action. An extra hand that was needed on occasion to hold a pipe that seemed just inches out of my reach. I worked better, faster, and felt less overwhelmed by the task when I had help.

So, I am going to say the obvious…having help simply helps.

Plumbing is a task, but nothing in comparison to living for and reaching this world for Christ. It is a life and calling that, if you try to do it on your own…well…just isn’t possible. But with help, with the Helper, with the Spirit of God in us, we get the help we need to be all that He calls us to be. When we need reminded of who He is, the Spirit is there. When we need comfort or encouragement, the Spirit is there. When life is confusing and you don’t know which way to go, the Spirit is there. In every way and at all times, the Spirit of God is with the people of God, to walk with them and help them live for God.

A new year for me almost brings a fresh start, a new beginning. I don’t know about you, but as we approached 2018, just the thought of going to a new year brought hope for me…the realization that the first day of the year could almost be seen as a new chapter in my book. I think the biggest reason for this was because the last three months of 2017 were difficult. I walked through probably one of the toughest seasons I have ever experienced. I was definitely looking forward to new beginnings as we walked into 2018. I longed for a fresh start and a change.

Even now, as I write this two weeks into the new year, something has indeed shifted for me. I almost feel like that day was, in fact, a fresh and clean start for me. I feel like myself again. I’m excited for what is to come, but for some reason I’m also able to look back and truly see some of the things God was doing, even in the midst of a very difficult season. That’s the cool thing about God…our pain is not in vain. When we persevere and walk through the difficult seasons, God is honored, God is glorified, and if we allow Him, God changes our hearts and our minds. I often have seen how my most difficult seasons are my greatest testimonies. Don’t get me wrong, I hate that we have to walk through them, but the fruit on the other side is incredible.

Sometimes in our walk with Christ we continue forward, but it is always good to look back. It is good to take a moment and think about all of the ways God was faithful to you. As I think through the past few months, I see great growth in my heart, my mind, my relationships, and even my faith and walk with God. As I move forward into 2018, I really do anticipate a lot of change in my life, in who I am, but it’s all good stuff because I am growing in my identity in Christ. I did not like walking through that difficult season, but now I look forward with great anticipation for the future because I am completely confident that, no matter what happens, God is with me.

I want to encourage you this week to think through those seasons and situations in your life that were difficult. Think back to all the points in your life where God was faithful or came through in a big way. Focus and reflect on all God was able to do and teach you in those seasons. Take time to write down all the ways God has been faithful to you. Write down the miracles you have seen Him do in your life or in the lives of others. Take time to really reflect on how God was with you through every season. I hope that by writing out and looking at all of the ways God was faithful, that on those days when you need it most, you will have a constant reminder of the truth that God loves you, He has a plan for your life, and He is always with you, no matter what comes your way.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

 I push myself forward toward the goal to win the prize. God has appointed me to win it. The heavenly prize is Christ Jesus himself.

Philippians 4:13 NLT

I’ve been stressed lately. Cold, dark-cloudy skies, and icy streets translate to me…I can’t run outside. Running outside is my de-stressor. My wife has even come to realize, if I don’t run outside, I get a bit grumpy. I don’t like feeling that stress. I am wise enough to realize that my stress (trivial as it might be) doesn’t compare to the pain and stress many people are feeling.

How do you handle stress? How do you de-stress when you’re exhausted and overloaded? Do you watch something on Netflix or meet a friend for coffee? Or maybe you’re like me, you go for a run or workout. Those things are ok for immediate relief. But none of these things are going to provide the total relief you need. Watching a movie, drinking coffee with a friend, or running won’t de-stress your soul. It will rest your physical body, but it won’t rest your spirit.

God is the only solution for resting your soul. Only He can give you that inner peace that ultimately de-stresses you. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 RSV).

God doesn’t say, “Read a self-help book, or go get a massage.” God says when you’re overloaded and stressed, go to Him to find rest. What you and I both need when we are stressed and overloaded is more time alone with God. Here is how you do that. Matthew 6:6 says, “Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace” (MSG).

If you’ve never done this before, or you haven’t done it in weeks or months, the New Year is a perfect time to begin. I like to begin my time alone with God in silence. I turn on the coffee pot…and begin praying. I pray for my day, my family, my ministry. I just talk to God using simple language. I cry out to God and cast my burdens on Him. I read some from the Bible and seek His direction. And then I finish my prayer time thanking God for the many, many blessings He has given me the previous day.

Try it. Don’t run on empty today. Call out to God for help. Come to Jesus, and He will give you rest.