One cool weekend!

I've had four really cool moments of enlightenment this weekend. You know, moments when you stop and realize, hey, God is majorly working in my life. Moments that you don't experience everyday, but ones that you can't stop thinking about. And I think, what was the neatest thing about them is they all related to things I need at this particular moment in my life.

Friday night I had a long, in-depth conversation with a great friend about God. Plain and simple, we talked for hours about faith, and the church and the future and lots of things in between. Let me just pause and say, if you don't have people in your life you feel free to talk to about God, you're really missing out. Wonderful moments in my life come when I can put worldly things aside and focus on the true meaning of life. It's true that, as humans with different backgrounds, we won't always agree with the next person, but in the end, we are all searching for the same thing...for our purpose. And, even if you agree or not with someone, I believe times like these are important times of motivation and encouragement. Maybe, it's just an eye opener that we could be or need to be doing more, or maybe it's just nice to hear that someone else is going through similiar struggles. So, moment of enlightenment--talk with others about Christ. Share your joy. You'll be amazed what it does for you!

Saturday night I spent some time visiting with my grandma and her roomate's daugthers after my birthday party. These 2 ladies are very sweet and display a wonderful attitude of faith in all they do. They shared stories with us of a lady they had met at a conference who had faced unspeakable hardships in her life and overcome them through the grace of God. This story made me think of someone in my life who also faced a hard life and lived her life up to the very end praising and thanking God for every bit of it...my grandma Esther. Once again, I ended my evening on a positive note thinking of how amazing God is when we let Him use us and be the head of our lives! So, moment of enlightenment--Adversity in our lives will come and go, but God will always be there! Trust in Him for everything!

Robert delivered another powerful message this morning from I Cor. 10. It was entitled "The way of escape". I won't go into great detail,(maybe in another blog), but I will say this. It overlapped much of my conversation with my friend Friday night and my conversation with the ladies Saturday night. In short, we can't make it on our own, but only through Jesus who has provided the way. God will never give us more than He knows we can handle, but He allows us to experience things and He allows there to be evil in the world and He allows there to be a Hell b/c He knows we need to be motivated to do what He wants us to do. If we weren't afraid of evil or Hell, then there would be plenty of reasons to live "worldy lives". But, before we truly start maturing and growing in Him, God knows we need to be motivated to study His word and live the life we should be living. So, moment of enlightenment--We must study God's word to get to know Him and his plan for our lives and then, when we truly love God, we will keep His commandments and they will not become just something we "have" to do, or a burden, they will become a joy!

And, lastly, I saw another young person give their life to Christ today; a tough decision to make, but one that will forever change him. I saw real joy on his face and the faces in the crowd. My moment of enlightenment came when I realized that, in one weekend, I experienced the whole of God's plan. I experienced what life is all about. In life, we experience hardships and temptations and trials...we question and we discover things about God and about others and about life...we realize God has a plan that He wants us to know and once we do, He has a promise for us if we accept it. And then, our walk begins........

Emergency Phone Numbers

When in sorrow...........call John 14.
When men fail you.....call Psalm 27.
If you want to be fruitful....call John 15.
When you have sinned....call Psalm 51.
When you worry.......call Matt. 6:19-34.
When God seems far away......call Psalm 139.
When your faith needs stirring..........call Hebrews 11.
When you are lonely and fearful.........call Psalm 23.
When you grow bitter and critical.......call I Cor. 13.
For Paul's secret to happiness..........call Col. 3:12-17.
For understanding of Christianity.......call II Cor. 5:15-19.
When you feel down and out.......call Romans 8:31.
When the world seems bigger than God.......call Psalm 90.
When you want courage for a task......call Joshua I.
For how to get along with fellow men.....call Romans 12.
If you are depressed.....call Psalm 27.
If your pocketbook is empty......call Psalm 37.
If people seem unkind.....call John 15.
If discouraged about your work....call Psalm 126.
For dealing with fear......call Psalm 34:7.
For security......call Psalm 121:3.
For assurance....call Mark 8:35.

Emergency #'s may be dialed direct. No operator assistance is necessary. All lines to Heaven are open 24 hours a day! Feed your faith, and doubt will starve to death.

Beautiful Words

Kingdom Comes

-Sarah Groves

When anger fills your heart ~ When in your pain and hurt ~ You find the strength to stop ~ You bless instead of curse ~ When doubting floods your soul ~ When all things feel unjust ~ You open up your heart ~ You find a way to trust ~ That's a little stone that's a little mortar ~ That's a little seed that's a little water ~ In the hearts of the sons and daughters ~ This kingdom's coming ~ When fear engulfs your mind ~ Says you protect your own ~ You still extend your hand ~ You open up your home ~ When sorrow fills your life ~ When in your grief and pain ~ You choose again to rise ~ You choose to bless the name ~ That's a little stone that's a little mortar ~ That's a little seed that's a little water ~ In the hearts of the sons and daughters ~ This kingdom's coming ~ In the mundane tasks of living ~ In the pouring out and giving ~ In the waking up and trying ~ In the laying down and dying ~ That's a little stone that's a little mortar ~ That's a little seed that's a little water ~ In the hearts of the sons and daughters ~ This kingdom's coming.

"He will give you all you need from day to day if you live

for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern."

Matthew 6:33

Attitudes

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference

between lightning and a lightning bug." -Mark Twain

Here's a thought....How was your "attitude" today? Would you say, for the most part, you let the world see a positive attitude from you or a negative attitude? Our attitudes can make or break a friendship, a relationship w/ family or co-workers, even The Church. Often, we stand in judgement of attitudes of others, but maybe overlook our own completely. Words are probably some of the most important factors in how someone views us or we view others, but so are attitudes.

Basically, it comes down to are they positive or negative. Negative attitudes, as with negative words, affect our relationship with God and can even cause us to turn away from Him. Be honest, who would you rather spend the day with...someone who is joyful or someone who is negative. I understand that we all go through ups and downs...believe me I understand! But it should be a goal to have a good attitude in all that we do. God has given us so much and even at our low points in life, we need to remember and reflect on this. A negative attitude really hurts in the Church. Satan loves to put dissention and problems in the Church which leads to nothing good. But, how does it look for a person who professes that Jesus came and shed his blood for them, to spend their days complaining and arguing and being down on everything? How can we win people to His kingdom that way? I believe God works best through positive attitudes. When we say we will stand strong and fight the worldy evils, when we bounce back from hurt and problems in our personal lives and still give God glory, and when we show that we have a reason to be happy, we will further our purpose here on earth and others will see God through us.

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in

very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but

made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made

in human likeness."

Phillippians 2:5-7

Hyprocrisy Hurts

There is a sweatshirt I'm wanting to buy that simply says, "In this world, not of it." Isn't that a cool saying for the Christian? Yes, we do live in this world. It's beautiful...most of the time. It's a place that is familiar...always nice. But it is our temporary home. The older I get, the more I actually look forward to leaving this place. Don't get me wrong, I love living and hope I have a lot of life left to live, but I'm growing towards yearning more and more for Heaven. I think that is what we should all be yearning for.

Too many of the worlds views are creeping into everything that is good and holy. It's extremely difficult to be a christian in the world today. Or maybe I should say, it's extremely difficult not to be a hypocrite christian in the world today. Satan is constantly creeping into everything we know. He's in our media, our books, our homes, and, sadly, our churches. There are so many people attending churches today just to "look good" or "get a quick, good feeling about themselves". But, the rest of the week, they are living however they feel like it and putting God aside until the next Sunday. I truly believe that God is more disappointed in the "luke-warm" christian than the non-christian. At least the non-christian hasn't claimed to "know Him".

This is something that I struggle with. It's not easy for me to quote scriptures and constantly witness to others. I try to be a good example, but I know I let too much of the world influence me, and, therefore I don't know who might be looking at me as a hypocrite. As christians, we simply must start putting Christ first in everything we do. If we fall victim to Satan and his worldy teachings, we are telling others that we don't truly believe in what we say we do. This is our struggle, but it's also our job. Don't keep the message of Heaven to yourself. In some way, let the world see what you stand for and leave no room for being deemed a hypocrite!

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but

only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."

Matthew 7:21

"Show me the way not to fortune and fame,

Not how to win laurels or praise for my name-

But show me the way to spread "The Great Story"

That Thine is The Kingdom and Power and Glory." -Helen Steiner Rice

Just Imagine

We can only imagine what Heaven will be like. There are many pictorial clues in the Bible, such as many mansions, streets of gold and endless praises to God. I recently had a funny conversation with someone where she told me that in her youth group as a child, the youth all spoke up that they thought the sound of singing praises to God or having one big worship service for eternity sounded kinda boring. The fact is, we don't really know what heaven will be like, but, we are promised that it is the greatest thing that anyone will ever experience and, the truth is, our worldy human minds will never in a million years be able to comprehend the greatness of what it will be. Just think of the ultimate, most wonderful thing you have ever experienced here on earth and realize that it would be nothing in comparison to what we will someday have. And face it, there is only one other alternative. That's reality!

Heaven should be our ulitmate goal here on earth. We should be looking to it everyday of our lives. We should be telling others so they know what the future holds and they can see the path they need to take in their own lives. The world isn't fond of hearing there is a heaven and hell anymore. Either that, or they think, as long as I live a good, nice clean life, I'll go to heaven. (Even if that means they never take even one day a week to praise theOne who will be sending them there, or never once talk to Him in prayer, or never once open His instruction book for living that life). The truth is, God is a just God....he wants us to live a just and good life. He is a jealous God....he wants us to live for Him and only Him, not for the pleasures of this world. He is a forgiving God....but to get his forgiveness, He has given us rules to follow. See, that's where the world stops and closes their ears to. We can't just take one little verse we hear over and over and think, Ok, I'll live by this and I'll go to Heaven. There's much more to the story. In fact, there is 66 books to the story. We all want to believe that little aunt Lulu went to heaven b/c, for the most part, she was a "good person". Sadly, I wish that were true, but if aunt Lulu didn't follow God's plan...His instructions...then will God truly know her come Judgement Day?
It is not our role to judge, so we don't have the job of saying that one does or doesn't go to Heaven. But it is our role to live by example and to spread the Hope. We must show others that there is an eternal future coming one day, and there is a right path and a wrong path. My hope is that we will choose the right path and seek out the will of God for that path.

I can only imagine What it will be like When I walk By Your side I can only imagine What my eyes will see When Your face Is before me I can only imagine
[Chorus]:Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel Will I dance for You Jesus or in awe of You be still Will I stand in Your presence or to my knees will I fall Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all I can only imagine
I can only imagine When that day comes And I find myself Standing in the Son I can only imagine When all I will do Is forever Forever worship You I can only imagine

-Mercy Me

Living a Godly life in an ungodly world

This subject eats at me everytime I think of it and it seems to be brought to my attention a lot lately. I think it especially stems from the sermon I heard this past Sunday where I was definately made aware of the fact that much of what I do and watch is a form of idol worship because I put it higher than God in the scheme of my daily life. We don't often like to think of watching television as idol worship, but it can be! ANYTHING that we exalt higher than God in our lives is. It really puts me to shame when I think of it and not only that, but some of the things I allow myself to watch or jokes I allow myself to laugh at or whatever the situation may be...well, it's just sad that the world says all of this is "ok" and "go ahead...it doesn't hurt anything!"....Well, sadly it does. It hurts the one person who gave His life for me. It hurts the one person who didn't have to give me life, but He did.

However, my topic has to do with Halloween. Now, don't get me wrong...I like Halloween and all the candy and all the cute kids dressing up and stuff. I don't follow it as a "devil" holiday, but I do have to admit there can be evil associated with it and nowadays especially, we have to be careful to keep it "fun" and innocent for the kids. My problem is the fact that so many people these days are putting Christians down for saying they DON'T celebrate the holiday. They have harvest parties at their churches and the kids dress up as Bible characters. What is wrong with that?? Absolutely nothing. I was really upset after watching a recent episode of The View. I don't tend to watch this often as I think the overly liberal views are too much. But I happened to be watching one day and the blonde, who is often deemed "too conservative" or "too christian", began talking of getting her child ready for Halloween. Then Rosie and Joy chimed in, and then they asked the visiting host and she said her family doesn't celebrate Halloween...they do as I mentioned earlier. Well, you would have thought she was the devil then. All three ladies first made faces, then they began questioning her, then they laughed and made a joke about thinking the blonde was "the christian one". Let me just tell you this truly offended me and saddened me at the same time. I'm sorry, but when did being christian and expressing that you do something sweet and innocent become the silly, wrong thing to do?? So she doesn't celebrate it. So she wants to keep God in the forefront of everything she does? And, then I watched an episode recently of that "New Christine" show, that basically didn't paint the best picture of going to church or taking your kids to church. It was all meant to be fun and innocent, but once again...I was saddened. Once again, I realized just how much "the world" has taken God and the importance of Godly things out of the focus of life today. It's being made a joke in the media, it's getting taken out of schools and politics. Kids today are told it's more important to go to a football game on Sunday than to church. Is it no wonder a blessed nation once built on Godly values is slowly becoming not so blessed these days??

I didn't write this entry to slam Halloween, because I'll be the first person passing out candy! I didn't write it to slam all t.v. and all of pop culture, because I'm the first person turning on LOST and going to concerts and movies. I'm just trying to point out that, as christians, we have responsibilities to God. It is important that we put God first in everything, not only for our personal life, but also because the world is watching and listening to us. As many say, we might be the only Jesus someone ever knows.

"He will give you everything you need if you live for Him and

make the kingdom of God your primary concern."

Matthew 6:33

"Only one life, soon will be past. Only what's done for Christ will last." -author unknown

And finally...the healing.

First the storms, then the tears, then, if we can choose to trust God like He wants us to, we forgive. Then comes healing. When we make it to this point, we have decided that only through the power of God and His love for us, can we let go of the pain and decide to let Him heal our aching hearts. We choose to give it all to God and let Him lead our lives the way He wants to. The Savior wants to, "heal our broken hearts...take us in His arms and bring us home."

Satan wants us to live with the constant questions and doubts in our mind. He wants us to have the inner struggles and turmoils we face in this life, for this makes us weak and puts doubts in our hearts and minds. He wants us to live with, "self-doubt, anger, depression, shame, addiction and fear". But Paul warns the Christians in Eph. 4:27, "and do not give the devil a foothold". He will make it hard for you to get to the point of asking for healing, but we have the power to overcome even the toughest storms he throws at us. Jesus wants to heal our hearts and release us from this captivity if we are but willing to let Him have the control.

The world is telling us that we, through our own strength and power have the abilities to overcome anything. But that's not possible. Why do you think so many gain the world, but still suffer in so many ways?? The only way that we can be released from the darkness of the world is to give it all to God. Let Him have the power over your life and your heart will be set free....for eternity!

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is not easy. In fact, it might be one of the hardest things we face as christians. However hard it may seem though, we must forgive those who hurt us. I previously wrote of the book "Captivating". In that, Stasi Eldridge writes, "Bitterness and unforgiveness set their hooks deep in our hearts; they are chains that hold us captive to the wounds and the messages of those wounds. Until you forgive, you remain their prisoner." I think of the example of the Amish community again. How incredibly hard would it be to forgive a man of such a monstrous act? But they did. They obviously found great strength in their faith. Why can't we sometimes over smaller things than that?? "Forgive as the Lord forgave you." Col. 3:13

But, as the book continues on to say, forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling. If we wait to forgive until we "feel" like it, we never will. After we choose to forgive, our feelings will still take time to heal. She puts it, "Forgiveness says, It was wrong. Very wrong. It mattered and hurt me deeply. And I release you. I give you to God. "

There have been many cases I can think of in my life where there was a need for forgiveness. It's hard. It's especially hard when you don't feel it being reciprocated. However, it is commanded of us as christians, no matter how hard it is. Thankfully for us, we have Jesus to give the pain to. He, and only He can heal us from that pain and truly release us from those chains.

"But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in Heaven will forgive your sins, too."

Mark 11:25

"Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them quite so much."

Tears

We are often told that tears are a sign of weakness. Sometimes, we are made to feel bad for crying or ridiculed for showing an emotional side. Lately, I have had a hard time controlling the tears. I completely understand the source of my pain, but it is still hard to show that side of you. Sometimes I feel depressed for getting so depressed.

I have been reading a great book by Stasi Eldridge titled "Captivating". She devotes a small section of the book to tears. She poses the question of why do women feel the need to devote so much energy to suppress the pain and keep up a good appearance when Jesus himself was a "man of sorrows acquainted with grief" (Isa. 53:3) She says grief is good and it helps to heal our hearts. How many times do we think of it that way?? How many times are we thankful for the pain?

Her solution is to "let the tears come. Get alone, get to your car or your bedroom or the shower and let the tears come." She says we need to feel; that it's ok to feel anger (Eph. 4:26), remorse, fear, that there is no emotion we can bring up that Jesus can't handle.

And then she responds by saying, "Grief is a form of validation; it says the wound mattered. It mattered. You mattered. " But that's not the end of the story. Then comes forgiveness. And then...we ask Jesus to heal us. I'll talk more about those last two points later. For now, I'm leaving with this thought....It's ok to let the tears come. God recognizes our tears and sends us comfort in many different forms. But we have to accept that he wants to help us. We have to ask and be willing to receive. Isn't that the pattern for everything in the christian life?

I will praise You in the storm

I've had a bad morning. Make that a bad week. Why is it so easy to forget God during the hard times and praise Him in the good?? As the song says, shouldn't we praise Him in the storms too?? There are so many biblical examples of this kind of strong faith, but I think went it comes to our personal lives, we don't recognize we're capable of it that easily.

The burdens that we live with everyday lead our hearts and mind to stress and depression. We all feel it and struggle with it daily. But, what we need to remember is this life is temporary and will never fully satisfy us. We are constantly yearning for what God has promised us b/c we were made for that. The hard times will get us down. The stress may seem unbearable. But if we keep our eyes on God and His desires for us, we will always have the hope of what our hearts desire the most. The one thing that will fully satisfy and keep the pain away for good. Eternal life with Him!

Just in Case You Forgot

• If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.
• If God had a wallet, your photo would be in it.
• He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.
• When you want to talk, He'll listen.
• He could live anywhere in the universe and yet He chose your heart.
• And that Christmas gift He sent you in Bethlehem?

Face it, friend, He's crazy about you! -Author unknown

The Mountain of God

"Even though the journey's long and i know the road is hard

you're the one who's gone before me you will help me carry on

and after all that I've been through now i realize the truth

that i must go through the valley to stand upon the mountain of God"

-Third Days' "Mountain of God" lyrics

This year has been the biggest valley of my life! I feel it everyday. Not a day goes by where I don't feel the sadness and the emptiness. But I'm so oftened reminded by so many wonderful things that life is about this, the ups and downs. God hasn't promised it will be easy, but He's promised He'll never leave us.

Today I was reminded of two wonderful things. First, I was reminded of my act of obedience and the awesomeness of the power of God. I saw someone who we've been praying for for a long time give their life to God and I cried. A thousand emotions were going through my mind, but mostly happiness. Happiness for this boy, for the family and for the body of Christ.

Secondly, I was reminded that how we choose to live our days here on earth is truly a reflection of our mindset. Satan is always going to send someone or something to us to bring us down. We have to be prepared to realize that we have the power, through Christ who has given us the Holy Spirit, to overcome it. I haven't had a good year. In fact, it doesn't seem to get better, but I need to realize that I have a promise from God.....and, as Caleb said in the Old Testament....that's all I need!

Greetings!

Welcome to my 2nd blog!!! This is a place for me to journal my thoughts and beliefs, my attitudes and my frustrations, and my stories about God. God has blessed my life greatly and I want to thank Him for that. But, as a christian living in the world today, it is a constant struggle to live the life, talk the talk and walk the walk. I'm hoping to use this as a means for personal growth in my own life. And if it blesses someone else along the way, all the better!