Tags

CHRISTIANITY, CONFIDENCE, FAITH, HOLY SPIRIT, JESUS, LOVE, RELIGION, TRUST

I’m back after a little hiatus…hopefully, I’ll have time to actually write from now on. But this morning’s email devotional was a pretty good one to share.

The Potter’s Wheel By Leslie Snyder So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel.  But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O, house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand…” Jeremiah 18:3-6

I like to get my hands messy. Maybe that’s what led me into ceramics class in college. As the only one in the class who wasn’t an art major, I was well out of my comfort zone. Throughout the semester, we learned about types of clay, textures, and techniques. But what I really wanted to do was use the potter’s wheel.  Our instructor made it look so easy. Sit down at the wheel, roll up your sleeves, throw down your prepared clay, get it wet, start the wheel, press the clay, and create a cool-looking bowl, jar, plate, or whatever you wanted! When it was my turn, I went to the wheel and threw the clay on it… but missed. It hit the floor. I tried again. This time I hit the wheel. Success! Now I had to shape the clay into a “hockey puck” that was completely even and centered on the wheel. Hours later, I was frazzled. My back hurt from being hunched over the wheel, my shoulder was sore from throwing the clay, my fingers were cramped from kneading the clay, and my wrists seemed frozen in place from pressing hard enough to make a “hockey puck.” It took me the rest of the semester to create something – anything – worth taking home. Creating a masterpiece takes time. It takes patience, creativity, vision, and forethought. That’s how God described His role in Jeremiah’s life. God is the potter, Jeremiah (and we) are the clay. Isaiah 45:9 states, “Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’” and Isaiah 64: 8 reads, “Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.” So often, we want to be control, telling God what we want Him to do in our lives, how we want Him to answer a specific prayer or how we want Him to work something out. But who are we to tell our Creator what to do or how to answer a prayer or how to respond to a request? Like Jeremiah, our role is to be the clay. This means we are to patiently undergo the processes of preparation, centering, shaping, and refining at the will of our Creator, and not the other way around.

GOING DEEPER: Today, don’t resist the will of the Creator. Patiently allow God to mold you into His image and into a tool He can use for His glory. FURTHER READING: Romans 9:21; 2 Timothy 2:20; Genesis 1:27

For Those Who Are Worn……

Tags

CHRISTIANITY, FAITH, FEAR, GOD, HOLY SPIRIT, JESUS, LOVE, Moore Oklahoma, PEACE, PRAYER, RELIGION, TRUST, WORRY

This is dedicated with prayer to those in Moore, Oklahoma as well as all those whose “soul feels crushed.”

The Chaos in Me – Part 1

Tags

BLESSING, CHRISTIANITY, FAITH, GOD, HOLY SPIRIT, JESUS, PEACE, PRAYER, RELIGION

Saw this yesterday on Facebook and even shared it. Thought it was a great saying for people who are really going through a hard time. Tucked it away in the back of my mind for me but didn’t REAAAAAALLLY take it to heart now. Why not? Well, I’m NOT having STORMS….no “bad” times….no crisis like some I know & love. No sorrow. No fires in my house. No heartaches….Crazy busy, but it’s aaaallll gooood.

Uh, duh…someone had put blinders on me, trying to fool me into thinking I was in control again. That I was independent. That I didn’t NEED any help from The Helper. That I might be in danger of moving away from Him, step by step, until I became either self-sufficient or broken or bitter or…..

I’ve still been running at breakneck speed because…well, there’s still a lot going on. Two graduations (high school and college) coming up within the next month with all kinds of events and projects associated with them. And although I didn’t travel to be with them, both my father-in-law and my mother have had surgeries this past week. I’ve been praying for them but didn’t think it was affecting me very much. I can handle it all on my own, remember?  I realized this morning that it was….

FINALLY I sat down to journal this morning. I’ve been feeling pretty guilty about neglecting my quiet time and my relationship with God.  I’ve definitely seen Him working in my life and around me but haven’t “felt” Him. I know that “feelings” aren’t everything, but I’ve been missing that component of our relationship. I’ve been DOING for Him but not BEING with Him. Even reading the Bible has not been the “conversation with the Living God” that I wrote about before but had become something to check off on my “to-do” list.

After I had journaled and talked to God for a while (it was great by the way), I picked up an email devotion that I had printed out back in January. Obviously, I didn’t read it very well. *insert sarcasm*

This is what caught my eye:

Because the chaos isn’t from my circumstances. It’s inside me.

To be continued….

I’m a HUGE Second-Guesser…

Tags

CHRISTIANITY, CONFIDENCE, FAITH, GOD, HOLY SPIRIT, JESUS, PEACE, PRAYER, RELIGION, TRUST

I just love it when God works things out according to His Plan.

I had been struggling with a recent decision of mine. I had to choose between 2 things. In my heart I felt that God had led me to one particular choice so I felt that I was doing what He wanted.  In fact, when I expressed my second-guessing, someone involved encouraged me by saying “you need to believe that you did exactly what you were supposed to do.”

But the decision I made wasn’t what I really wanted or even what I thought (in the back of my mind) would be the FINAL outcome.  So…..even though I had peace about my decision, I still kinda second-guessed myself. Had I really heard God correctly? Unfortunately, I tend to do that a lot….but less than I did.

I just prayed that He would sort it out according to His Plan….what He really wanted. That doors He wanted closed would be closed and doors He wanted opened would be opened.  And of course, that’s exactly what He did.

I could be wrong, but I have an idea why it happened that way. But in any case, this is just another step in the journey of trusting God…..even if it makes no sense at the time and even if I don’t have faith in myself. I just need faith in the Faithful One.

I’m sure what I just wrote makes absolutely no sense to you with all its ambiguity and vagueness! But that’s OK…..just wanted to acknowledge His Power and that HE is control. Always. Hallelujah for that!

From the Inside Out

Tags

CHRISTIANITY, FAITH, GOD, HOLY SPIRIT, JESUS, RELIGION, TRUST, WORSHIP

“In my heart and my soul, Lord I give You control. Consume me from the inside out.”

Those words are easy to say but harder to REALLY mean them. There have been many, many, many, many times that I’ve prayed this with all my heart as I sang them.  I really do DESIRE this but have to admit that I always struggle with the C-Word - CONTROL!  Constantly, constantly, constantly.

The hardest part of being on the worship team is sometimes feeling like a hypocrite as I sing certain words.  It all comes back to “feelings” for me. I am such an emotional person.  I don’t always “feel” the way I think I should or the way I have in the past.  Although I realize that the Faith Walk is about obedience and surrendering and trusting, etc., there have been so many times that I have “felt” the Spirit, “felt” EMOTIONAL, etc.  and when I don’t “feel” something, I feel (oooops….see? Can’t get away from it!) that I’m not close to the Lord or that I’m doing something wrong or not in His will, etc.  That I’m not DOING enough…not reading my Bible enough, not studying hard enough, not praying enough, not being DEVOTED enough.

So I sing this with faith. Faith that He who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it. He can transform me from the inside out and will as long I continue to have faith and trust.  It’s not up to me. It’s not due to my work or my emotions. It’s all about Him. It’s about His Grace, His Light, His Glory. It’s about worshipping Him even when I don’t “feel” it simply because He is worth of praise.

Viewing the Cross with a New Perspective

Tags

Christ, Easter, FAITH, JESUS, LENT, Messiah, PERSPECTIVE, RELIGION, Resurrection Day

Easter morning, I got up early while it was still dark to make some preparations for the luncheon I was hosting.

I looked out my kitchen window at the still visible moon and gasped!

What a sight and encouragement on Resurrection Day! Look at my photo carefully….and I’m not talking about the fact that the moon looks like an Easter egg….although it does!

I realize that there was a physical/logical reason for this cross radiating out from the moon – somehow viewing it through the window glass reflected something that did not appear in reality when I opened the door to view it.  Some may laugh at me and lump me in with the folks who see the face of Jesus on a cracker. And maybe they would be right to do so.

But I don’t care.  I take it as a gift. A gift of celebration. A gift of encouragement. A gift to remind me that He is there.

ALWAYS.

A gift to remind me that the cross itself was a gift of love.  A gift to remind me that He doesn’t always work the way I think, the way I expect or even the way I might like sometimes. Jesus certainly didn’t some 2000 years ago.

Our pastor had encouraged and invited us to NOTICE our Lord during this past season of Lent. We heard sermons reminding us that Jesus doesn’t fit into our box, that those in His day didn’t understand who He was because they had conflicts between who they wanted Jesus to be and who He really was. That we, too, can have that same personal conflict and preconceived notion of who Christ REALLY is. And what His Kingdom really is.

So maybe it makes perfect sense that to see the cross, what it represents, who Jesus really is, and what He wants for us and from us, we might need to view it with a different perspective……through a “window” that reflects something different than what WE view as reality – through FAITH. In 2 Corinthians 4:18, Paul tells us:

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.

I recently read that Abraham “functioned in the visible, temporal world with an invisible, eternal perspective.” This perspective affected every decision he made. What perspective are we using for our decisions?

Maybe seeing the face of Jesus on a cracker isn’t so crazy after all….

When You’re Tired of Being Torn: Why He Came {A Good Friday Reflection: The One-Piece Life} by Ann Voskamp

Tags

Ann Voskamp, Christ, CHRISTIANITY, Good Friday, JESUS, Lord, RELIGION

My friend sent this fantastic blog post from Ann Voskamp, author of the best-selling book One Thousand Gifts. It totally wrenched my heart and had me sobbing. Thank you, Jesus!

When You’re Tired of Being Torn: Why He Came {A Good Friday Reflection: The One-Piece Life}

March 29, 2013

When You’re Tired of Being Torn: Why He Came {A Good Friday Reflection: The One-Piece Life}

Our Pastor calls to ask if I’d do one of a few dramatic monologues for Good Friday service— a moment through the eyes of the mother of Jesus? So I write down words… and imagine the mother of our Lord… fingering the bloody tunic of her Son.

Read more…..

It’s Friday….But Sunday’s Coming!

Tags

CHRISTIANITY, Easter, FEAR, GOD, Good Friday, HOLY SPIRIT, JESUS, RELIGION

I’ve posted this before, but it’s become a tradition for me to listen to this great video on Good Friday….by Dr. S.M. Lockridge! And if you haven’t listened to That’s My King by Lockridge….here’s 2 for the price of 1. Both POWERFUL videos.

Journey or Destination?

Tags

CHRISTIANITY, FAITH, GOD, HOLY SPIRIT, JESUS, PRAYER, RELIGION, TRUST

Another email devotional that I wanted to share with you. It’s right where I am right now……

By Mike DeVries

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Philippians 2:12-13

We live in an instant society, don’t we? It seems that we can get anything we want, how we want it, when we want it. A few weeks back, I was looking at upgrading a bit of our backyard landscaping, so I decided to head over to Home Depot to see what I could find. Now mind you, I’m not very good at gardening. I seem to have quite a knack for killing anything living and green. Perhaps you know what this is like as well.

As I entered Home Depot and asked someone for help, I was directed to the outside patio where I was met with a myriad of foliage options, all full-grown and ready to plant. I found an employee who was willing to help. I asked, “Not that I’m ready for this, but where are all the seeds? Do you still carry those?”

“Sure. But no one really uses them anymore. Too much work.”

Really. Fascinating.

It seems we live in a society where we want the instant result, off-the-shelf, and ready to go – but rarely are we willing to personally put in the effort required for the results we desire. We want the destination; we just don’t want the journey.

Oddly, we approach our faith in much the same manner. We want wholeness now. We want freedom now. We want peace now. Somehow we’ve bought into a myth that says once we embrace life in Jesus, it’s over – mission accomplished, we’ve reached the finish line. But what if embracing life in Jesus is just the start of the journey? What if, rather than crossing the finish line, all we’ve done is take a step across the starting line? This is what I needed to hear right now! Although I already know it, there are times when I just can’t SEE any progress and get frustrated and discouraged by it. I think “What am I doing wrong? Why am I not a ‘better Christ-follower’? Why am I not doing great things for the Lord? Why am I not fulfilling my purpose and call? Where’s my faith?”

This is the experience of the people in the scriptures. Faith wasn’t about having all the right answers, or arriving at some final destination, but was about being in process. It was about interacting with the present and living God, always growing in their understanding of this God. That is why Paul writes what he does in Philippians 2:12-13.

He tells the followers of Jesus that just as they had done in the past, so they should “continue to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.” In other words, don’t think you’ve arrived, but continue to wrestle with what it looks like to live this salvation kind of life in the here and now. He tells them to do this with “fear and trembling,” or with a sense of awe and importance, because to live this way is to expand the dream God has for this world – His good purpose for all things. This is the best explanation of that verse I’ve ever heard….speaks right to me. I always wonder what that means….”“continue to work out their salvation with fear and trembling.” WRESTLING…I say again WRESTLING…. with what it looks like to live this salvation kind of life in the here and now. Yeah, that part I’m pretty good at….Now to continue to submit and allow Him to continue to work IN me and THROUGH me and to remember this is a journey….

So, as you journey this week, approach your faith as a work in progress, asking yourself the question, “What might it look like for me to live the good news in the here and now?”

GOING DEEPER:

How might your life change if you could admit that you were in process – on a journey – rather than already at the destination? What areas are you currently in process with?

FURTHER READING:

Genesis 32:22-30; Acts 15; Philippians 2:12-13

Related articles

• work out your salvation with fear and trembling (believinginchristjesus.wordpress.com)
• Work “out” your salvation- don’t work “for” it (andrewejenkins.wordpress.com)

Myth: “If I commit my life to God, he’ll make me a missionary to Africa.”

Tags

Africa, CHRISTIANITY, FAITH, FEAR, GOD, HOLY SPIRIT, JESUS, Mike Yaconelli, RELIGION

I had copied and pasted this a couple of months ago and didn’t credit the source. From the looks of it, I think it came from here.  But just know that I so resonated with the sentiment. Maybe you will, too.

Jeremiah 29:11

I had the dream again last night. I’m walking down the aisle of my church, but there’s no wedding march playing (sigh), just the off-tune ramblings of the church organist struggling through another verse of “Just As I Am.” A preacher is there waiting for me, and so is my mother, sister and third-grade teacher, Mrs. Boulter. (Remember, this is a dream.) It’s at the end of a revival service. The preacher asks those who want to “commit themselves wholeheartedly to God’s purposes for their lives” to come to the front of the church. In my dream, I tell the preacher I am ready to do whatever God wants me to do. Everyone is so happy. Mrs. Boulter is happy. I’m happy. The organist is happy.

louris.yamaguchi / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

The next scene, however, is something altogether different. It’s nighttime. And I’m stumbling around inside this primitive hut with a mosquito net wrapped around my head and body, blindly swiping at insects with a gigantic King James Bible. I try to scream, but it’s useless. A small town girl from Ohio has turned into an unwitting missionary. In the middle of Africa. And I’m miserable. I wake up the same way every time—drenched in sweat, with the sheets twisted around my head, clutching the phonebook.

I know it’s only a dream. Still, I’ve heard the stories. If you “give it all up to God,” something terrible will happen to you to test your faith and see if you’re really a good Christian. It would be just my luck to have to quit my job and leave my family so God can ship me off to Africa to be a missionary. And I’ve never even been outside Ohio.

I’m a Christian. I want to be totally, unapologetically obedient to God. But if I give God my entire life, I’m afraid he’ll do something extreme to prove a point. He might take away my boyfriend to see which one I love more—”him or Him”? Worse yet, what if something happens to my family because I said God could “have it all”? My mom will get cancer. Or my best friend will be killed in a car wreck. (You know, those things you never say around the donut table in Sunday school, but they’re legitimate fears.)

I love God. And sometimes I’m this close to giving him everything. But in order to prove my love for God, I feel like I have to do something drastic. And I’m not ready for that yet.

—Kate

Let’s be honest—most of us are afraid of God. And we should be. He’s the all-powerful King of the universe. In comparison, we are helplessly powerless. But because we fear him, we hold back from him a few things we feel we can’t live without, afraid that he’ll strip them from us. A relationship. A job. A standard of living. Health. Dreams. It’s scary to know that God wants what’s best for us—because it may come at a price.

Anyone who’s familiar with the story of Abraham and Isaac knows that sometimes God asks us to give him what we’re clutching protectively to our chests. What if God asked you to give up what’s most dear to you? What would you do? How would you react? The danger is camping out in that line of thinking. If you continually live in fear of God and what he will do if you surrender your life to him, you likely won’t surrender. The Bible teaches, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18).

God’s will is always tied to who he is. (Read that again.) The rumor that God is a sadist in the sky, waiting for some unsuspecting woman to give her life to him just so he can toy with her, is a twisted myth. That’s not how the Bible describes God. It’s not his nature.

Instead of fearing him, if we believe he is a loving God, we will be convinced all his plans for us will be full of love and for our good. If we trust the Father, we will trust his plans for us … even if they take us through difficult times, down roads we wouldn’t otherwise choose or even to the “Africas” we fear the most. Life with God may not always be “safe,” as we’d define it; but he will always, always be good to us. Our lives are in good hands.

“The real issue in life is not the search for God’s will; it is the search for God. The issue in faith is not knowing what God is doing, rather it is knowing that God knows what he is doing. The issue of faith is seeking God’s presence, not God’s plan for my life, because there is no plan outside of my knowing him.”

—Mike Yaconelli

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11

See also

Psalm 34:8; Psalm 84:11; Philippians 1:6

Photo credit: louris.yamaguchi / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND