Awesomeness!

Psalms 107:14-16

"He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness,
and broke away their chains.
 Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for mankind,
 for he breaks down gates of bronze
and cuts through bars of iron" NIV

Sounds Like Super Hero Awesomeness to me!!!!! :)

Definitely Something To Be Thankful for!

Go God!

Look, Ask, Believe!

Do you believe in the mighty power of God? I'm not talking about just the little things in the day like all the lights turn green on your way to work.  Although... those things are awesome! :)  I'm talking about the big stuff like healing the sick, stopping the sun, or a small pot of soup that feeds a thousand people.

This idea of God's power has been rolling around in my head lately.  I have been asking myself..."Do you really believe in the power of God?"  "Like part the waters, power of God?"  There is also this song on the radio that has been grabbing my attention lately.... Greater by Mercy Me.  There is one line that jumps out at me every time.

"And greater is the One living inside of me
Than he who is living in the world"

Now the song mainly talks about the battle to believe that God loves us and is bigger than our sin that tries to pull us down. It is a great message!  It stirred up more in me the question of something greater than just our sin.  I think it is easier for us as Christians to believe the message that God is greater in our internal world than our external world.  I know I fall into this thinking.  However, the Bible is full of story after story of how God showed His mighty power and intervened in real tangible external ways. 

I think as much as it is important to remember how God works in  our hearts, it is just as important to remember that God performs REAL LIFE miracles too.  It is easy to think to ourselves "That was in Bible times" " Or that happens only out in the mission field".  

There is so much pain in the world.  Sometimes things don't seem to work out for even the truly righteous God fearing people.   We start to lose faith in the mighty God we serve forgetting that He see's a bigger picture.  David talks about this in Psalms when he was struggling to believe.

•   Psalms 77:11-15 - " I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
  yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
   I will consider all your works
  and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”
   Your ways, God, are holy.
  What god is as great as our God?
   You are the God who performs miracles;
  you display your power among the peoples.
   With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
  the descendants of Jacob and Joseph" NIV

 This whole chapter in Psalms is a beautiful reminder of what to do when we struggle to believe that God is more powerful than anything we are facing and can Literally move mountains, part waters, and heal anyone of His choosing. 

I wonder sometimes why we don't see God's power more in our lives or in others lives? Maybe the real question is are we looking for it? Or have we become apathetic.  I know I am guilty of this a thousand times over.  

Now I know God isn't just some Jennie in a bottle to make all our wishes come true and we live in a sinful world. But I do believe that we miss out a lot more on God's power in our lives and all around us because we aren't looking.  We forget how truly and literally powerful our God is.  And some of us have given up all together asking God to do anything of real tangible nature because we struggle to believe. 

What would our lives and churches look like if we really asked and believed in the greatest power ever revealed to man and the universe?  What awesomeness would we see if we really with every fiber of our being believed in God's unsurpassed, supreme, matchless power?  Those words also apply to His love as well.  

Okay... So do you hear me?  Are you listening?  Do you understand the gravity of what this means?  

We have the greatest Hero of the Universe who is not only on our side, but loves us with a unfathomable unfailing love, AND has the power to extinguish or bring to life a solar system with one breath!!!!  He ALWAYS works for our good NO MATTER WHAT!!!! 

Are we looking, asking, or believing? Lets do what David did and remember what mighty amazing things God has done AND is DOING!  Lets see what looking, asking, and believing in our God can really do!

Out of the Mud, Onto the Rock, Given a New Song!

Psalms 40:1-3

"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" NIV

Is this picture in Psalms not unbelievably beautiful! 

May your day be Blessed with a song in your mouth for the Amazing Loving Father who saved you! 

Amen!

Instructs Even the Sinner

God never waits for us to be perfect

to lead us.

Such a beautiful verse!

Psalms 25:8-9 

"Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
 He guides the humble in what is right
and teaches them his way" NIV

Trees, Dirt, and Eternal Glory

The great outdoors.... Ah yes I love the woods and going camping.  So Fun!  This has been the reason I haven't blogged for over a week. I signed up to go camping with the church school's Senior Survival.  It is where the school takes the senior class out into the woods for 5 days and teaches them survival skills as well as ties them to life skills and spiritual skills to reach the world for God.  

So I was super stressed before the trip.  Not because of the woods, but because of the teenagers.  :)  I don't know why I volunteered, they caught me on a super good day or something. :)  Because normally I'm terrified of youth work especially teenagers.  For some reason I'm scared they won't like me or will rebel and i won't have the guts to keep them out of trouble.  But this must be the year that God feels like stretching me by getting me to volunteer for things I never would before (thinking of the Triathlon running thing as well) :)

So the whole car ride there my heart was pounding and I was starting to panic a little.  I road with another women I know from church that has been through many a camping trip with these girls and assured me the whole way that things would go fine and I had no need to worry.  That helped some and it was nice to know she was along too in case things got crazy :)

Long story short, 2 days in I started my monthly friend 2 weeks early, my hormones were a little wonky, and I was getting emotional about reading a simple Bible verse.  The girls were starting to complain about everything and I was feeling way inadequate.  After a good talk with the other woman on the trip and few shed tears, God showed me that He was with me and I needed to focus on what He thought of me and not what the girls thought. 

By the last day, I finally realized that God had a plan for not only the girls but for me too.  We were all physically and emotionally spent, but most everyone was glad they made it through and overall had a good time.  

The last morning I got up the courage to do a worship a short worship with the girls, sharing a verse close to my heart. So I shared that my best friend in junior high was terminally ill with leukemia. One night before she died she wanted her mom to read her a verse.  Her mom opened the Bible to this verse, but couldn't bear to read it so she searched for other verses till my friend begged her to read the first one she opened to. 

•  1 Corinthians 4:16-18 - "   Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" NIV

I compared this to our experience of the days in the woods and life.  And as I said these words to the girls I was realizing myself how true they are.  We cannot control life.  It will give us whatever it gives us.  The difference between Christians and others in the world is that we have hope in Jesus, that inwardly we can be renewed and we have eternal life.

It's not about what goes on around us that matters it is what goes on within us in our hearts with Jesus that makes all the difference.  I realized that my beautiful friend had realized this before she died and found comfort in these verses.  And I realized at that moment that God had worked in my heart as well as these girls.

Whether these verses had impact on them I don't know, but I hope in a small way one day it will come back in their memory and give them strength when they face some of the hard times of growing up and what life will throw at them.  Fixing our eyes is the key to peace and change within. Focusing on Jesus and what is unseen is what gives us life from within despite what goes on around us externally that we see.

The girls decided I was okay at the end, and I decided it was a good thing for me to go despite my fear.   So the woods was fun, hard, and wonderful all at the same time. This momentary trouble a step closer to the eternal glory God has in store for us. Trees, Dirt, and Eternal Glory AMEN!

Bird House & A Plan

 

What do you do when your week doesn't look like its going to work out like you planned?  Do you panic? Do you get depressed and feel defeated? Do you make a bunch of calls or talk to bunch of people to try and turn the things back around to what  you think it should be?

I'm going to be completely honest..... that is usually exactly what I do most times probably in that order :)

I'm a melancholy perfectionist with at touch of OCD and ADD and probably a few other conditions thrown in there I don't know about yet. :) hehe

I can be a crazy control freak sometimes.  Lets face it a lot of us can be sometimes, when we feel like life is spinning out in a direction we did not plan.  As women, we get good at multi-tasking and predicting cause and effect to work the situation to our benefit.

This week has not turned out at all the way I planned. I am doing contract work now. So I am the person that goes all over the city to work wherever I'm needed.  This means that sometimes places don't need help and I don't have work.  Now this next to never happens, because my job is pretty high demand.  However,  this week my work schedule totally tanked. At the beginning of the week I had no jobs and I had only gotten a few hours here and there so far.

On Monday I was like "Well, maybe its a fluke day".  By the end of the day and no news from my staffing manager, I was starting to feel the panic set in. By Tuesday morning I was starting to sweat....... Then it dawned on me...... God has got my back.  This is what I'm saying all the time.

I realized there is no way I can control this situation and God may have other plans for me this week than the regular work schedule plan I'm used to. So I decided to let go and enjoy the free time I was given this week and trust that God will work things out.  By Tuesday evening my staffing manager emailed me that November is nearly full for work for me again.

So yesterday I only had 4 hour job in the morning and had the afternoon free.  Gorgeous day in low 70's the trees are turning colors, just awesome!  I get home and start cleaning out my garage, listening to some great music getting things done.  By 3:30pm my nephew comes by and wants to hang out with me as I'm cleaning up and by 4:30pm the neighbor kid comes over and we are in full woodworking swing, the three of us.

I had found in my garage a woodworking kit for kids, that I had bought 3 years ago, for building a bird house.  by 5:30pm the boys 7 & 9 had successfully made the bird house and were beaming, super proud.  What a joy!

The real thing I realized is that if I had been working, I would have missed the whole thing.  Also, I am beginning to see the neighbor boy underneath his shy exterior longs to be noticed and longs for someone to spend time with him.  His folks are split and busy, so he gets shuffled around sometimes and not as much quality time.

As I step back and look at God's plan for my week.  I am dumbfounded and totally humbled at Gods perfect plan this week.  If I had let the panic set in and worked myself into a frenzy, I would have missed out on such a beautiful thing of hanging out with these boys.  I would have missed out on how God is trying to show His love and reach into the lives of my nephew and his friend.

I know it may sound silly, but as I type this blog, tears run down my face at just the wonderful and perfect love of our God.  I so wish that I could impress on everyone's heart that reads this how truly awesome and loving our God is.

• Isaiah 28:29 -  "All this also comes from the Lord Almighty,
  whose plan is wonderful,
  whose wisdom is magnificent" NIV

So Wonderful & Magnificent Is HE!

Be blessed today and let God be the director of your plans.  It may look like the day or week is falling apart, but don't panic, trust God,  you never know what amazing jewels you will find.  God's plan is Always better than ours.   :)

More Than Enough

So I know I don't talk a ton about being single. Mainly because God fills my life with so many other things worthy of mentioning over the single life.  When it boils down to it my fight with God over being single is what, bent my knee to finally totally surrender to our loving God.  Since then, I started asking myself  "If I don't get married and have kids, what legacy do I leave?"  "What is my life worth on this planet?"

My mission/purpose without God was do what the world is doing.  Get a good job, a husband, and make a family.  Now these are not bad things, but when achieving these things above all else including God, they become idols.  They become life sucking obsessions that drive a person to do unhealthy crazy things, rather than life giving beautiful things.

I never could wrap my mind around God being enough for me until I hit rock bottom in my obsessions over this.
It doesn't change my desire for these things, but changes my perspective on the purpose for my life.  Letting go of these things and giving them to God, made space for God to come in and be enough for me.  My plan and tight grip was killing me from the inside out. God's plan and my open hand brings me joy and peace beyond what I could ever understand or dream of before.

After I surrendered, my focus has turned to God and being fruitful in Him. Showing others the love of God.  I have been reading again this week John 15-16. Jesus lays out so beautifully how to abide and surrender to Him. How we are called to be fruitful by letting Him work in our lives, and how this will bring joy & power in His name.  He doesn't mince words though and is clear that trouble doesn't go away, but that we can have peace in trouble because He has overcome the world.

• John 15:16-17 - " 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." NIV

• John 16:33 - "“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" NIV

I love these verses! These verses tell me, don't believe what you see.  Know that Jesus has overcome everything we face so we can have peace in our trials of life.  This gives me purpose beyond my own my own life and and my desires.   To have the courage to love and bear fruit with Gods strength!  

By no means am I perfect in loving others.  My sinful nature still gets in the way sometimes.  But I'm getting better because of God's work, and my heart is filled more with joy over God's love.  He is becoming more than enough.  I am getting to see how He works to make my life fruitful when I keep my eyes on Him and let Him work in my life.

I know for some of you this may seem cliche' or hard to grasp.  You may feel like you are terrified of letting go of your dreams in your life for fear you will be left with nothing.  I know your pain and frustration and remember how acutely painful it was and sometimes still is to see your friends all get your dream.  It may seem impossible for you to be happy without it and darkness may seem to be your constant friend.  I am over the hill telling you, Jesus IS enough! I know it to be true! Let Go and see what love He pours out on your heart! 

There may still be husband and kids in the mix for me & even for you, but even if not God IS enough!  And the joy in abiding in Him and watching how He works in our lives to bear fruit is beyond anything we can imagine or dream ourselves!