Spacious Place

Missed Something...

2011-10-09T07:22:00.000-05:00

Earlier this year, I read a phenomenal little book called "Union and Communion" by Hudson Taylor. The LORD really used it to speak to me about how He sees me. We journeyed through Song of Solomon and the story laid out in chapter 1 has become very dear to me. Just like that bride, I so often say that I don't look like I'd like to look for my Lord. I'm dark, world-scorched, and yet... He thinks I'm lovely!

That's where my conversation with the LORD began this morning. Oh, how I wish that I obeyed Him better, proclaimed Him louder, looked more like Him... BUT, rather than get lost in those thoughts, I remind myself that He loves me and He thinks I'm lovely. Then, rather than turn away from Him and hide my face, I can look at Him unashamed and listen as He speaks to me through His Word.

I was a little surprised when I felt prompted to go to these verses from Song of Solomon. After all, I'm studying in Ephesians. But, I'm so glad that I did! Did you know that, according to Philippians 3:1, it is not irksome that the Lord tell us and teach us things over and over? I love that! Because, I had missed something when I had been in this passage before... Verse 5 of Chapter 1 records the bride saying, "I am very dark, but lovely..."

She believed what He said about her! I have always stopped one step short of this! I have no problem with the "I'm dark" part. There are a million things about myself that I wish were different for Jesus' sake! I'm learning to believe that He thinks I'm lovely. But, did you catch what she says? "I am very dark BUT lovely" (emphasis mine). She took what He said about her and believed it about herself!

As I wrote once before (http://spaciousplace-karrie.blogspot.com/2009/08/rose-colored-glasses.html), I thought the Lord wore rose-colored glasses where I was concerned. Not true. When God speaks something, it IS. He spoke the world into being (Genesis 1). His Words do not return to Him void (Isaiah 55:11). My response needs to be like that of Mary when the Lord sent Gabriel to tell her that she had been chosen to be the mother of Jesus, "let it be to me according to Your word" (Luke 1:38).

I am so-loved, even in my world-scorched condition, that God sent His Son to die for my sins (John 3:16, Romans 5:8). He says that, because of Jesus, I am holy and blameless in His sight (Ephesians 1:4). Because of Jesus, I am lovely!

Come on friends, you've seen it before. A woman who has lived her life thinking that no one found her attractive acts the part. Her head stays low. She has low self-esteem. BUT, when all of the sudden, she comes to believe that someone thinks she is beautiful, things start to change! Her eyes lift. Her countenance changes, and she truly becomes more lovely!

Lord, please help me to truly believe that I am lovely. Help me to let that truth resonate throughout my soul this day because I know that as it does, I will become more and more who I want to be for You - who You designed me to be in You. Thank You for wooing me once again with Your Word! You are always faithful and true! I love You, Lord!

One last thing... He thinks YOU are lovely too!

Lean In...Quick!

2011-09-30T11:33:00.000-05:00

I am a visual girl. I am easily distracted by what I see. I also love visuals - pictures - to replay in my mind to help me understand things. God knows that. He created me that way and in His graciousness, He often paints a picture for me of the lessons He's teaching me. This is what He's been showing me...

Last week, we had opportunity to host a number of people out at our farm. Understand that we are a little less than a third done the renovations inside our old farm house. People seem full of curiosity as to what we are doing as we make this house home. I was stressed. The To Do list seemed a mile long and the time short. I was anxious and distracted and as only the LORD can do, I sat down with my devotional book and Bible in hand and turned the page to see that my lesson was from Luke 10:38-42 on Mary and Martha!

The Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:38-42 NIV)

Now we could spend a LONG time on the lessons from this story but the point that the LORD was trying to get through to me that day was that I could get all worried and upset about what people would think and everything that I had to prepare or I could make the right choice and listen to Him. He'd walk me through what actually needed to be done and what's more, He'd walk me through it with joy. I was too distracted to recognize exactly what my response to Him was but, in hindsight, I'm pretty sure it went something like this... "Lord, You don't understand... I need to... They'll want..." and on from there. I spent the whole day flustered. In fact, being flustered gave way to frustration and frustration to exhaustion and impatience... you get the picture. The day was anything but victorious and I collapsed into bed that night feeling a failure.

I am so grateful that the LORD's mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness! The next morning, He woke me early. Once again, I turned the page. The questions asked, "What has Satan stolen from you? What are some 'weapons' Satan has trusted in as he's battled against you? How could you use this knowledge to shield yourself from his attacks?" (90 Days With Jesus - The One and Only, Beth Moore, Day 56, pg. 270)

The LORD replayed the events of the day before and showed me how satan played on my "failures". He used the weapons of perfectionism, condemnation, self-loathing, despair and kept the invading amidst such busyness that it was hard to be still enough to hear the LORD talk me through the attack. Then He showed me how I had surrendered jewels of my inheritance to the enemy. I'd say, "it's too hard" then I'd make a mistake and hear "see, you can't do it". I'd add to that, "I"ll never get it right," and surrender my hope. The invasion of temptation and accusation raged on and on and I kept taking one step back and then another step back, constantly surrendering more and more until I had given up all freedom, joy, hope, peace...

The LORD reminded me of Ephesians 6:10-18, where we're instructed on how to battle and repeatedly told to "stand" against the enemy's assaults. It says, "in all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one" (vs. 16).

Those flaming darts are going to come. Make no mistake about it. The LORD told us they would. And contrary to what I think I believed in my head, we're going to feel them! They're going to assault our emotions and we are going to be tempted to take a step back and surrender ground to the enemy of our souls. But don't do it! Quick! Lean into your shield of faith. With every blow, stand firm behind that shield! The smell of the flame says, "you can't" - lean into the declaration "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13). When you get walloped with "you're a failure" - lean into the promises of Ephesians 1:3-14. Because of Christ, I am blessed, chosen, holy and blameless before God, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, lavished with grace! I've obtained an inheritance! Take that! That's not only leaning into your shield that's learning to weild the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God!

Had I but listened to the Lord and leaned into my Shield the first day, there wouldn't have been so much surrendered plunder to take back, but the LORD used that to paint me a picture of how imperative it is to use my shield and to show me that though satan is a "strong man", amazing things happen when we have faith in "one stronger than he" as Christ "attacks and overpowers him", taking "from him all his weapons he trusted in, and divides up his plunder" (see Luke 11:21-22).

LORD, please continue to help me recognize the weapons that are so commonly used against me. Help me to pay attention to the thoughts that are crossing my mind and take captive all thoughts that don't fall in line with the Truth of Your Word. Please keep me from being so busy that I'm too distracted to hear You as my Commander. Jesus paid an immeasurable price for my inheritance. Help me not to surrender any part of it and lead me, shield and sword in hand, armor on to victory! In Jesus' Name, amen!!

He Danced!

2011-09-24T08:36:00.000-05:00

I learned something new about the Lord this week. He danced! I'm enjoying some wonderful moments with Jesus as I contemplate Him in the book "Jesus - 90 Days With the One and Only" by Beth Moore. The LORD has really used that as a tool this week to show me some pretty awesome things about Him and myself. Listen to this...

In that same hour He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, "I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth" (Luke 10:21).

Oh, how I wish I were schooled in the original Greek and Hebrew languages! I am constantly amazed at how very rich the Word of God is! It is constantly deeper and fuller than I thought. Let me set the stage...

In Luke 10, Jesus has sent out 72 disciples, two by two, to teach and heal. They have come back from the various towns and villages "full of joy" saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name!" (vs. 17). Christ takes a moment to affirm the authority that He has given them and then to teach that there is even greater cause for joy - that their "names are written in heaven" (vs. 20). That is the setting for verse 21. "In that same hour" Christ rejoiced - and not the same word for the joy of the disciples - His "joy is agalliao, meaning 'to exult, leap for joy, to show one's joy by leaping and skipping, denoting excessive or ecstatic joy and delight." (Jesus - 90 Days With the One and Only, Day 53, pg. 254)

Can't you just picture it? Christ was so excited for His disciples to be understanding these mysteries that He leaped for joy! He skipped for delight! God's children were getting it! I don't know why it caught me so by surprise. Jesus dancing with joy. We do it too. We watch our children take their first steps... We've assured them that they can do it... We've cheered them on... and then watched with sheer delight as they've done it! We've been more excited than they were. We've snatched them up, spun them around and rejoiced! We've experienced agalliao!

This was such a profound blessing to me in light of "Road Signs and Guideposts" (http://spaciousplace-karrie.blogspot.com/2011/08/road-signs-and-guideposts-part-1.html). I am learning to tell myself the truth about who and Whose I am. I am learning to dare to believe that, in His authority, I can take great plunder (http://spaciousplace-karrie.blogspot.com/2011/09/road-signs-and-guideposts-part-2.html) and not only is my Lord teaching me and cheering me on, He's dancing in delight with each step I take! Oh, how I praise You, Lord!

Pure Joy!

2011-09-17T08:52:00.000-05:00

Pure joy! The Lord used a single word to show me an incredible lesson! I don't know how many times I have read James 1:2, Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds but it's been many, many times! The problem is that though I read the words exactly as they are shown above, my mind translated it into a faulty, inaccurate version that read something like this... whenever I face trials of many kinds, if I just look hard enough, there's got to be a little bit of joy to be found somewhere. Do you see the error? As I was reading that verse this week the word "pure" jumped off the page at me! Pure. As in 100%. Like the 100% pure cinnamon container sitting in my pantry. Whoa!
With Jesus, it is not only possible but we are supposed to consider (count it up, account for) it as pure joy whenever (at all times) we face trials of many kinds. Not a little bit of joy mixed up with a whole lot of unexpected yuck but PURE JOY! Friends, if we want to do more than survive and thrive when those unexpected, unwelcome experiences of life come our way, we need to change our way of thinking about them. I don't profess to have this all figured out but I know it's going to involve me placing unlimited trust in my Trustworthy God!

He wants me to be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience and let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that [I] may be perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing (James 1:3-4 AMP). He calls me to trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding (Proverbs 3:5 NIV) and exercise a sincere and unqualified faith (the leaning of your entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) (2 Timothy 1:5 AMP). When He says that in all things God works for the good of those who love him (Romans 8:28a NIV) He does, in fact, mean "all" things!

Dear Father, this is a jam-packed lesson in that one little word and I am so far from comprehending how to live this lesson out! Please help me to recognize what I am thinking when life's trials cross my path. Help me to throw off the sentiments of pride that say "I don't deserve..." or "it's not fair..." and remind myself instead that You have a good plan for me and that even in "this" situation, You are working "all" things together for my good. Help me to lean my entire personality upon You - emotions and all - and trust that You have the power to do what needs to be done and the wisdom to know what that is! In Jesus' Name, amen!

Road Signs and Guideposts - part 2

2011-09-17T08:16:00.001-05:00

Why is it so important that we know we're forgiven? I mean really know that there's complete forgiveness in Christ? I believe there are two reasons. The first is that without knowing that are failures can be forgiven, we don't have the courage or the peace in our heart to practice what we've seen and heard in the Word of God (see Philippians 4:9). The second is related to the first and I think it is best summed up in the one word - plunder!

But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.  "Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man...(Mark 3:27-28 ESV)

I've always found it rather odd that these verses came next to each other in Scripture. It always sort of felt like a completely random change in thought! The thing about the LORD is - nothing is random! As I thought about it, Ephesians 6:14-15. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace (emphasis mine). In our battle against the strong man, the gospel of peace - the fact that our sins can be completely forgiven - makes us ready for the battle! These two verses in Mark are so perfectly intertwined! Jesus is telling us that plunder is possible and in the next breath He's answering our knee-jerk reaction "I can't do that! Don't You know how often I fall completely short?!" Jesus is giving us the peace and the courage to take Him at His Word and take some unbelievable plunder from our enemy's house!

So what comes to your mind when you think of plunder? Plunder is the lost, hurting people who have yet to receive that gospel of peace. Plunder is the vast inheritance that the LORD desires to give His people that can't quite believe Him enough to reach out and experience it. What lies have you believed that keep you bound in the enemy's house instead of walking with Christ as a free man? Has he told you that plunder isn't possible?

Who can snatch the plunder of war from the hands of a warrior? Who can demand that a tyrant let his captives go?  But the Lord says, “The captives of warriors will be released, and the plunder of tyrants will be retrieved. For I will fight those who fight you, and I will save your children... All the world will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel.” (Isaiah 49:23-25, 26b NLT)

Plunder is why Christ came!

...and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands.  When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins (Isaiah 53:10b-11 NLT)
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong... (Isaiah 53:12a NIV).

And guess what else! The last part of that verse goes on to say that He makes intercession for the transgressors!  He's pleading our case in the courtroom of Heaven and praying for us to be victorious! It doesn't get any better than that!

Father, so often I find myself battling with unbelief! Instead of remembering that You sent Your Son so that great plunder could be taken from the kingdom of darkness and that we are to be more than conquerors in Jesus (see Romans 8:26-39), I drop courage on the floor and think that You can't possibly be refering to me. How much plunder am I leaving in the enemy camp because I don't take You at Your Word? Oh, Lord forgive me as You have promised and get me going! Faces come to mind of people I love that are bound in chains of lies. May I battle on my knees, Sword in hand, You by my side... and persevere as the plunder mounts! In the Name of Jesus, Amen!

Road Signs and Guideposts - part 1

2011-08-29T10:21:00.001-05:00

Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Mark well the path by which you came...

Jeremiah 31:21 (NLT)

I seem to get detoured a lot on my journey with the Lord. Easily distracted... A short attention span... I am so grateful that the Lord does not find it irksome to keep teaching me, often the same things, over and over again (see Philippians 3:1). Seeing as we're told to set up road signs and mark well the path that we've travelled by, it seemed fitting to set up these guideposts in a place where you might find them helpful to you as you journey.

I didn't walk in victory much yesterday. Instead, I was distracted by worrying about things beyond my control - about "what if's" that may never come to be. I gave in to the shifting sands of emotions like dismay and discouragement rather than building my "house" on the solid rock of God's Word (see Matthew 7:24-29). I woke later than I intended this morning. I was tired and chose to roll over a time or two. The whole truth is that my heart condemned me and hid myself like Adam and Eve when God came to visit with me (see Genesis 3). It's a long road that I'm marking this morning, but if you ever struggle with condemnation, I invite you to grab your Bible and follow these signs...

By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 1 John 3:19-20 (ESV)

For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great. Psalm 25:11 (NIV)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 (ESV)

I heard the whisper, "you'll never get this right. You'll fall again." I hate that I give the accuser of the brethren so much ammunition, but why am I giving him an audience? According to Zechariah 3 God doesn't!

I was given another vision. This time Joshua the high priest was standing in front of the LORD's angel. And there was Satan, standing at Joshua's right side, ready to accuse him. But the LORD said, "Satan, you are wrong. Jerusalem is my chosen city, and this man was rescued like a stick from a flaming fire." Zechariah 3:1-2

LORD, You've plucked me from the fire and I belong to You! My righteousness is like filthy rags (see Isaiah 64:6) but You have clothed me in Your righteousness and You tell me that that is something to "behold".

Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, "Remove the filthy garments from him." And to him he said, "Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments." And I said, "Let them put a clean turban on his head." So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. Zechariah 3:3-5 (ESV)

let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our heartssprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodieswashed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22

LORD, I am not what I'd like to be for You, but You think I'm lovely! (see Song of Songs 1:5-6, 8)

My beloved speaks and says to me: "Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away..." Song of Songs 2:10

LORD, Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love,that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14 (ESV)

LORD, You have proclaimed freedom for me this morning. You have removed from me a spirit of despair and replaced it with gladness! The very things promised to us because of Jesus! Blessed be Your Name, O LORD! (see Isaiah 61:1-3)

(watch for part 2 to show us what we can do as a result)

Let's Talk

2011-07-06T14:53:00.001-05:00

The Lord woke me early yesterday morning. He woke me from a dream where I had been yelling and swearing. Another dream troubled me. I didn't like how I had acted in them and I awoke feeling condemned and ashamed. Was this what was in my heart? I debated going back to sleep but instead chose to come and sit with the Lord. He was wooing me. I made my way to Our spot. From my chair I could see my son sleeping. I watched him sleep and I found myself praying, "LORD, protect him!" Then I thought of Kayleigh (my cousin's child who was tragically killed in an accident less than a week ago). Surely her mom and dad had often prayed for her safety yet they are burying her this week...

"So, why pray, LORD? Why bother?" (I'm not even sure I should open my mouth like that.)

"I'd kind of like to sit down with You and talk this through!" (Like what are You doing?! Demanding answers from the Most High. Surely that isn't an acceptable tone!)

I remind myself that we live in a sinful, dying world. What would make me think that I have earned the right to be immune? I remind myself not to lean on my own understanding.

"Your ways are not my ways..."

I take my seat and start voicing thanks - an acceptable choice - unsure of where our conversation will go but no longer demanding the direction. I think of the approaching day. So much to do. The LORD reminds me of another mother, ten or so years ago, who He woke early on just such a day. The LORD loved her so much that He wanted to spend time with her to prepare her for the day ahead - Thanksgiving 2001... The tape of the story plays through in my mind. He wanted to love on Carole (http://www.faithfulreader.com/authors/au-lewis-carole.asp) and give her an anchor for the day ahead - the day she would lose her daughter Shari in a car accident. Then it hits me! Lose her daughter...

"LORD, I am here - literally in this Our spot because Carole lost Shari." (That was the part of Carole's story that proved in my mind that this lady's relationship with the LORD was "real".)

"LORD, that's what I wanted and I am forever changed! I know there are others - many others - whose lives are forever transformed by the message You delivered through the woman Carole came to be through this tragic loss. Is that an acceptable trade off? My good from her pain?"

I doubt it. For a mother whose arms ache to hold a lost child, it's an insufficient substitute but it is a glimpse of God's redeeming power - His committment to work all things together for good...

I have no answers to the questions I would have demanded from the Most High. But, I have reassurance that He is in control. I have no idea what good could ever be worked from such a tragedy as what my cousins are facing but I do know there are ripples in the water and they carry a long way - even when they're no longer perceptible on the surface.

I return to the question that started it all. Why pray? Why bother? Because somehow, in the dialogue, perspectives change. I change. And I return to prayer for my son - not completely without fear - but entrusting my son to the Hands of the One Who gave His life for me...

What Was I Thinking?

2011-01-30T08:28:00.000-06:00

Who may climb the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place?

Only those whose hands and hearts are pure, who do not worship idols and never tell lies.

They will receive the Lord’s blessing and have a right relationship with God their Savior.

Such people may seek you and worship in your presence, O God of Jacob. Psalm 24:3-6

I'm not sure how to distill the vast wealth of treasures in this verse down to coherent thought, but as I read these verses this morning, it struck me that this is a summary of what the Lord has been teaching me through His Word thus far in 2011.

I've come to the conclusion that the one that we tell the most lies to is ourself. I am quite good at it. I tell myself things like "I'll never get it right," "I can't do it," "it's too hard," "The Lord is disappointed with you..." and these things tempt me to fear other falsehoods like "if you keep messing this up, God is going to give up on you. He can't forgive you endlessly." When these are the thoughts that my mind is dwelling on, my emotions spiral out of control. They start to lead me and I run to idols (for me, food) for comfort, I waffle in unbelief and my prayer life loses it's power. I become a wounded warrior and I cower in the dark. It's not a good place to be and having tasted the difference between darkness and light, I praise God that He lovingingly calls me forth out of darkness.

Philippians 4:8 says, "Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think upon these things."

The Greek word translated "think" here is logizomai. It's an accounting term that tells us to take an inventory, reason, reckon, think on. It's the same word as Paul uses in Romans 4 when he tells us that Abraham believed the Lord and it was "credited" to him as righteousness. So, we are instructed to take an inventory of our thoughts. What am I counting up in my head? What am I accruing as who I am and what I can or can't do?

God wants us to dwell on what is "true". Psalm 25:4-5 reads, "Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." What I can consider truth is greatly effected by my emotions but the truth of God's Word is unchanging. "LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless" (not perfect, but as much as it depends on me, there is nothing between me and God or man that I have not tried to make right) "and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart."

Do you want to receive blessing from the Lord? Do you want to have a right relationship with God our Savior? Read His Word. Hide it in your heart. Find out what is really true about Who He is, who you are and what He can do in and through you. Take an inventory of your thoughts. How do they measure up with the truth of God's Word? Have you become good at telling yourself lies? Let's allow the Lord to begin changing that - beginning today.

Wooing the Wild

2011-01-03T18:46:00.008-06:00

The Lord is showing me so much about His incredible love for us through the three horses that are on the farm we are purchasing! We are making nearly daily trips out to what will soon be our "home". What draws us? Well, in addition to the absolutely beautiful frost on the trees, the wide open spaces, the millions of stars piercing the black, night sky... we are drawn to the pasture that is home to "Angel", "Sunshine" and "Sarah". Angel is somewhere around 15 years old while her 2 colts are around 6 and 7. They have only ever been halter-broke. Due to circumstances beyond his control, the owner hasn't spent any time with them the past number of years and they have grown somewhat "wild". But we love them.

I can't explain why. We just do. And so, over the past number of weeks, we have begun "wooing" them. It's been our delight! We take them their favorite treats and introduce them to new ones. We keep them well-fed and after the events of "By Bit or Bridle" (http://spaciousplace-karrie.blogspot.com/2010/12/by-bit-or-bridle.html), we have made a path through the deep snow for them that leads right up to our barn. Though they don't understand all that we say, we just keep talking to them because they are learning to recognize our voices. I think they're even starting to recognize their names!

When we first started visiting them, we'd have to search the pasture to find them. They'd approach us cautiously and sniff the treats we offered before they chose to sample them. My husband even tied on snow shoes and coaxed them to the barn the first time - bribing them with carrots all the way! But now, they are beginning to stay closer to home. When we approach the lane, we roll down the window and call their names. They gallop to the place where we'll meet to feed them. Much to our delight, they are learning to trust us!

We've started brushing them and they seem to like our grooming touch. Sarah absolutely loves to be scratched behind her ears and Sunshine requires the odd scolding when she doesn't share the food. Though sometimes they back away when we take a hold of them by their halters, they are pretty lame attempts at resistance. We are wooing the wild.

How much more does our Heavenly Father woo us?! He is persistant in His kindnesses to me. He keeps coming to meet me with His hands full of provisions. When I am wandering away from home, He calls my name. He even blazes a path out to get me when the way has grown too deep. Though I don't understand everything He is teaching me all of the time, He just keeps talking gently to me. And I'm learning. I'm learning to trust His touch and even His correction. I'm learning to trust HIM.

I think this will be the theme for 2011. I can see, by watching the horses, that it's going to take some hard work for them to get to really know us. But it's not drudgery to me. It's a wonderful adventure! And I'm sure that this year with my Lord will only be more so! He loves me so much more than we could ever love these old horses! He's committed to working with me, teaching me, grooming me... loving me!

"for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose." (Philippians 2:13) "The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it." (1 Thessalonians 5:24)

And I'm so grateful!

She Knew to Kneel

2010-12-25T11:45:00.000-06:00

Today is Jesus' birthday! I wonder what it would have been like to have been present at His birth... What would I have done when I came face to face with the Savior in the manger? What gift would I have laid before the King?

This Christmas the LORD gave me a tiny glimpse of the Baby in the manger through fresh eyes. My family and I were at the church preparing the set for the Christmas Eve drama production. A friend of my husband's came by the church to help with the construction. His two little children came with him. They don't attend any church, nor have the children had any spiritual upbringing but the most profound thing happened... When they entered the sanctuary, the father pointed to the nativity scene and told his tiny daughter (about 2 years old) that this was Baby Jesus lying in the manger. "Sissy" quietly approached the manger and without a word, she knelt down on her knees and silently peered at the doll that represented Jesus. She didn't reach out for him or remove him from the manger. Instead, she gently folder her hands and gazed in wonder!

How awesome! I was speechless. How did this little one know that there was something special about this baby in the manger? How did she know to bend the knee? What filled her with awe?

Jesus did. Somehow, I think that these tiny children - so freshly knit together by the LORD Himself... so untainted by the fallen world - remember something that we all too often forget... that the Baby laid in a manger was God Himself. He was and is the King of kings and the Lord of lords and there is no more appropriate response than to reverently approach Him, bow our knees and adore Him. May I do precisely that today - and always!

But Jesus asked the children to come to him. "Let the little children come to me," he said. "Don't keep them away. God's kingdom belongs to people like them. What I'm about to tell you is true. Anyone who will not receive God's kingdom like a little child will never enter it." (Luke 18:16-17)

Father, help me to have eyes like this child. Help me not to forget the wonder of the Baby's birth - fully God yet fully man... Help me never to lose sight that Jesus came to earth for the purpose of saving me from the penalty of my sin. May I too reverently and humbly bow before You. May I be full of awe and wonder and may I always affectionately express my love and gratitude for the awesome gift of salvation that You freely offered me. Thank You for the priceless gift, Jesus! It's perfect!

By Bit Or Bridle

2010-12-23T14:54:00.001-06:00

We are in the process of buying a beautiful old farm just outside of the city where we live. There's an old farm house, a huge old dairy barn, several stray farm cats and three delightful, strong-willed, unbroken horses that pasture on the land that is soon to be ours. The horses will continue to roam the pasture land after we take possession of the farm and though they cannot be ridden, my daughter and I couldn't be happier!

Angel or "Mama", as we have affectionately named her, and her two colts have quickly become one of the highlights of our soon-to-be home and we venture out to see them often. They are in dire need of some grooming and TLC and we are all too happy to oblige. We have discovered that they really do love carrots and apples. They don't mind the occasional sugar cube and we just heard that what they really find tasty are bagels! We start out towards them and these beautiful, raggedy, old horses come running to us when we call their names.

Recently, my daughter and I ventured out to find the horses with our arms laden with their favorite treats. We ended up walking nearly a quarter mile out into the pasture through snow that reached past my knees. It was hard trudging but once we reached the hill overlooking a ravine, the horses spotted us and came running. They reached the edge of the ravine and somehow decided that this particular part of the trek was too deep with snow. They stepped back. We called their names. They tried once more but again decided the way was too much work. After looking at us for a few more seconds, they went off another direction - the path of least resistance!

Immediately, a verse that I had memorized a few years ago jumped into my mind! This time, it held fresh, poignant new meaning...

Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. (Psalm 32:9)

Didn't they understand that we had their favorite (and nutritious) treats to satisfy their hunger? Didn't they pause to remember how much they like to be stroked and talked with? How much am I just like them? God holds exactly what I need in His hand. He loves me - even though I require some grooming and have nothing to offer Him. He loves to be with me and He comes out to meet me, calling my name. How many times do I look at the place He is calling me to and wade a step or two in His direction only to decide that the path is too difficult? Why do I not remember - truly understand - that He holds precisely what I need? Not only does He hold nourishment but I enjoy being with Him... So why do I all too often resort to the path of least resistance? What about you?

Father, I confess that I am often just like these horses. My actions beg to be controlled by bit and bridle when You offer me freedom and the drawing of Your love. Please help me to remember - to truly understand that Your way is for my best. Help me not to resort to the path of least resistance and miss out on all of the wonderful blessings and provisions that You hold in Your hands for me. I really do love You, Lord. Keep calling my name. I want to learn to listen...

Remembering...

2010-11-11T14:37:00.001-06:00

My Poppa - A Canadian soldier and his beautiful bride to be!

I almost didn't go this morning - to the Remembrance Day service. I woke exhausted. Numerous busy weeks have blurred together and I just wanted to stay at home. I didn't feel like feeling sad... Can you believe it? I'm ashamed to admit it, but it's true.

I'm not sure exactly what it was that changed my mind... perhaps the fact that both my children wanted to go... perhaps the sight of my grandmother, a veteran herself, donning a poppy and remembering the handsome young soldier who promised to love her forever more than a half century ago... I still can't say , but I'm grateful that something triggered in me to look beyond myself and see the importance of standing with others to say "I remember."

I watched through tears as the soldiers marched into the arena and took their place. So handsome in their uniforms. So disciplined in their stance. As the crowd took their seats, these soldiers continued to stand. While a myriad of wreaths were placed, hymns were sung, speeches were made, there wasn't even so much as a shifting of weight in their ranks. Even in this, the soldiers were giving of themselves so that we could pause and remember.

We sang "O Canada". I wept over the melodic prayer "God, keep our land..." These men were willing to die for me to have the religious freedom to sing those words! My mind wandered to my friend Shannon whose husband Rob spent 18 months away from his wife and tiny son in order to protect our rights and the rights of thousands like us in Afghanistan. What a sacrifice this man made! I watched and observed the cost to his young family. Praise the Lord that he returned home safe! Notice I said "safe" and not "untouched." I thought about a young man named Jordan who survived his injuries thanks to the Hand of the Great Physician. I can't even imagine the call that his beautiful young bride received. How can we possibly express sufficient gratitude to these men or the families of the 116,000 that have said a final goodbye to their beloved soldier? It's impossible... but oh, I'd like to try!

My eyes were rivoted to the young man who, no doubt, has carried a pack for miles on end, and yet so comfortably swung a diaper bag over his shoulder. Another young man used to displaying discipline to the enth degree tenderly correcting a toddler carelessly dropping a toy... I couldn't help smiling as the roar of wrestless little ones got louder and louder. It was the sound of life - the reward of hard-fought battles...

Men and women, real flesh and blood, with families just like yours and mine, willing to lay it all on the line to protect what they love and believe in... I am in awe of you. From weathermen to artillery soldiers, helicopter pilots to chaplains, privates to brigadere generals, I salute you!

I am so grateful that I went this morning! This year, I pray that there will be numerous opportunities for me to say thank you to these men and women for their dedication. I plan to. One heartfelt "thank YOU" at a time! Won't you join me?

The Knots Prayer

2010-10-12T11:13:00.000-05:00

Dear God:

Please untie the knots that are in my mind,

my heart and my life.

Remove the have nots, the can nots

and the do nots that I have in my mind.

Eraise the will nots, may nots, might nots

that may find a home in my heart.

Release me from the could nots,

would nots and should nots that obstruct my life.

And most of all, Dear God,

I ask that You remove from my mind, my heart and my life

all of the 'am nots' that I have allowed to hold me back,

especially the thought that I am not good enough.

Amen.

(Author Known to God)

Last week my father-in-love sent me this prayer. It has been on my heart and mind all week. Perhaps you have some knots in your life. I tend to know they are there by feelings of anxiety, discouragement, feelings of being overwhelmed. A few knots were pulling tight on me even this morning. When knots arise, I'm learning to lean myself on the strength of the Almighty and let Him untie them for me. Here are some of the Truths He used this morning as He smoothed out each knot that had me bound.

Since Karrie is in Christ, by the grace of God...

• Karrie has been justified – completely forgiven and made righteous. (Romans 5:1)

• Karrie is free forever from condemnation. (Romans 8:1)

• Karrie has received the Spirit of God into her life that Karrie might know the things freely given to Karrie by God. (1 Corinthians 2:12)

• Karrie has been established, anointed and sealed by God in Christ, and Karrie has been given the Holy Spirit as a pledge guaranteeing her inheritance to come. (2 Corinthians 1:21;Ephesians 1:13, 14)

• Karrie has been made righteous. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

• Karrie has been blessed with every spiritual blessing. (Ephesians 1:3)

• Karrie has been redeemed and forgiven, and she is a recipient of His lavish grace. Karrie has been made alive together with Christ. (Ephesians 2:5)

• Karrie has direct access to God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:18)

• Karrie may approach God with boldness, freedom and confidence. (Ephesians 3:12)

• Karrie has been rescued from the domain of satan's rule and transferred to the kingdom of Christ. (Colossians 1:13)

• Karrie has been redeemed and forgiven of all her sins. The debt against Karrie has been cancelled. (Colossians 1:14)

• Christ Himself is in Karrie. (Colossians 1:27)

• Karrie is firmly rooted in Christ and now being built up in Him. (Colossians 2:7)

• Karrie has been made complete in Christ. (Colossians 2:1)

• Karrie has been saved and set apart according to God's doing. (2Timothy 1:9;Titus 3:5)

• Karrie has the right to become boldly before the throne of God to find mercy and grace in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

• Karrie has been given exceedingly great and precious promises by God by which Karrie is a partaker of God's divine nature. (2 Peter 1:4)

Perhaps you have some knots of your own today. These precious promises are for every believer in Jesus Christ - the Son of God. You can be free too!

PS. leave me a message if you'd like to talk further about freedom in Christ!

What Do You Want As Your Epitaphe?

2010-10-09T08:05:00.001-05:00

From a healthy, "relatively young" woman, this may sound like a crazy question but this is where my thoughts have roamed this morning. As I was reading God's words through the apostle Paul in Colossians 3, I found myself writing in the margins of my Bible "make me into that, LORD."

The passage reads, "Let the message about Christ completely fill your lives, while you use all your wisdom to teach and instruct each other. With thankful hearts, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. Whatever you say or do should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, as you give thanks to God the Father because of Him." vs. 16-17

A wife must put her husband first... vs. 18

Parents don't be hard on your children... vs. 21

Slaves (employees)... Do your work willingly as though you were serving the Lord Himself... vs. 22-23

In so many ways, I fall short of this but THIS is who I really want to be. I recently participated in a funeral service which, despite the grief of losing a friend, tickled me that her true character was celebrated. I believe she would have been pleased. Then I thought I wonder what people will say about me... My heart desires that they would express the words in the verses above.

Let the message about Christ completely fill your lives... I'm struck how it says our "lives" and not our "heads". If I only learn the message of Christ in my head but never let it filter out into my life, I'm a hypocrite. I spent the first half or more of my life that way. What I said with my mouth didn't show itself in my actions. My life may be the only Bible someone reads. I want to declare it with integrity.

While you use all your wisdom to teach and instruct each other... Immediately, I recognize that my wisdom is not nearly enough to teach and instruct my children or others that the LORD has placed across my path. That being the case, I need to be really digging into God's Word for His wisdom to live by and then I'll have something of worth to teach and instruct another.

With thankful hearts, sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God... The friend of mine that just passed away had a real attitude of contentment in all things. I want to have a thankful heart. I want it to show itself as I sing.

Whatever you say or do should be done in the name of the Lord Jesus... Well, this covers an enormous number of things! I think I can understand it best by "if Jesus were here... would I say this? Would I do that?"

As you give thanks to God the Father because of Him... In all that I say and in all that I do, I want to have an attitude of gratitude!

A wife must put her husband first... I want my husband and those around us to know that I really love him. Love is not just an emotion. It shows itself in our choices and actions. I want it to be evident that after the LORD, he is my number one!

Parents don't be hard on your children... I love my children - more than I ever knew possible! But raising children is hard work - much harder than I ever knew possible! I want to be full of love and affection, consistent in discipline, but never hard on them which the Bible says can cause them to give up.

Slaves (employees)... Do your work willingly as though you were serving the Lord Himself... It even adds working hard to do the job my employer desires even when they are not watching. God is watching. And you know, it also says that God rewards.

What about you? How do you want people to celebrate you? Are you that person today or are there some things that you'd like to change in order that you would be remembered differently. We'll never become something different in the future without taking steps today. I don't know how many years, months, weeks or days I have left to leave a mark upon this earth. I hope it's lots! But one thing is for sure, if I want things like this to be the hallmarks of my legacy, I need to start letting God do some work in me today. And if I let Him, I know He will!

"Whatever"... What a Promise!

2010-10-03T13:30:00.000-05:00

O the love of our Lord! The promises He holds for us! The blessings He bestows! They are infinite! So much more than we would dare to imagine... Don't you just love His Word?! The logos or the whole of it and then the rhema or those scriptures which the Spirit brings to life as He writes them on the pages of our mind and heart. When the Lord gives a rhema, we can trust Him for it! He expects us to act on it just like the good and faithful servant given the talents. When we do, He gives more. If we don't, we run the risk that even the little that we have will be taken away from us.

Awhile back, the Lord led me to 1 John 5. He was taking me on an amazing adventure of "against all hope - hoping" in believing prayer. He is so awesome! I thought that I knew this chapter. O the blessings that pride must keep me from. I read, For the [true] love of God is this: that we do His commands [keep His ordinances and are mindful of His precepts and teaching]. And these orders of His are not irksome (burdensome, oppressive, or grievous). (vs. 3) I love that! When we surrender our ways to walk in His, we really do find that His yoke is easy and His burden is light - no matter the situation. It was when I got to verse 4 that I did a double take. The verse didn't say what I thought it did...

For whatever is born of God is victorious over the world; and this is the victory that conquers the world even our faith. I always thought that it said "whoever". Whatever... what was that all about? I pulled out "Strong's Strongest" concordance. At first, I was dismayed to find that "whatever", or "whatsoever" as the King James Version puts it, was found in the appendix. I had never researched something in the appendix before, but the Lord is faithful. When He has a Word for us, He leads us through to get it.

The word "whatsoever" comes from many Greek words indicating whenever, wherever, whoever, no matter how large, incorporating: if, also, and even though, no matter the kind nor the manner, encompassing a wish or possibility. Whoa! The Lord had asked me to believe Him for something HUGE in the life of my children. In fact, humanly, what I'm to believe Him for is impossible! But the Lord showed, through numerous scriptures, that He was capable of just such a miracle. He's asked me to labor in prayer for it and He's made it clear that it's going to be a long journey, but I know without a doubt that He's given the desire and the plan. So what was this one word "whatever" saying to me?

Whatever wish or possibility born of God is victorious! No matter the what, when, how big, even though, etc.! When God gives it, we can - we MUST - put our faith in it! Who is victorious? The one who believes and trusts in the fact that Jesus is God's Son! Against all hope - hoping - in believing prayer that the Son of the Most High is able!

I do not call you servants (slaves) any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing (working out). But I have called you My friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from My Father. [I have revealed to you everything that I have learned from Him.] John 15:11

Child of God, what has He asked you to believe Him for? Are you acting on it? He's already working it out! Hear Him answer all of your "buts" with "but God..."! No matter how improbable or even impossible it appears, if the Lord gave the Word, He's good for it! Who will be victorious? The one who believes Him for His whatever...

He Knows Our Heart

2010-10-02T13:25:00.001-05:00

The Lord God is so gracious and amazing! He knows my innermost thoughts - my deep desire to please Him intertwined with my often confused notion that somehow I can earn His love. I struggle with perfectionism. Not that I get things perfect - far from it - but an incredible pressure that I place on myself to get "it" right... no matter what "it" is.

One day, in particular, the Lord sweetly showed me a valuable lesson about this! We were enjoying a wonderful day together. Our time in the morning had been so sweet. His Presence lingered almost tangibly as we went through Our day. I was cleaning in the kitchen when I noticed that my two small cutting boards were put away in an unusual spot. Immediately I found myself saying, "oh, my precious baby!" I knew that my little daughter had decided to help her mommy and had put away the cutting boards in this spot because she was unable to reach up beside the microwave where I normally keep them. I was so blessed by the fact that she would want to help me put the dishes and such away.

Then He spoke. "Does it matter that she didn't put them in the RIGHT spot?" No! She had thought of me and tried her best! And I was blessed - even though she hadn't done it how I would have. I knew what He was saying to me. How much more is our Heavenly Father blessed by our attempts - even when the outcome is "wrong"...

His words were such a kindness to me. A friend and I had just talked, about our struggle with condemning ourselves when we didn't do things "right". As if this were not enough, only a little while later, while I was cleaning my children's rooms, I was thanking the Lord for the great enjoyment that I was getting from this day. Again He spoke. "Does it matter to you that you are going behind them and cleaning up after they have already tried to clean their rooms?" You see, they had already made their beds and tidied their desks but I was following behind them doing a more thorough cleaning. And NO, it didn't matter! I was singing and rejoicing in what they had done and it didn't matter a bit that I was doing the things that they hadn't seen.

How much more our Heavenly Father? He sees our hearts! He knows our good intentions! And He knows what we're capable of! He love us. He loves me! And He has assumed full responsibility for me - His daughter! And in His infinite mercy and grace, He rejoices over me with singing... even when He's going behind me cleaning up my messes!

He Leadeth Me

2010-10-01T13:20:00.000-05:00

Oh, I was desperate for a Word! I came before the LORD, longing only to hear His voice and to hear it above the roar of the day before me. I needed my course to be corrected. I had gone off course and I knew it but I didn't know how to fix it. I needed the Master to place His nail-scarred hands over mine and redirect me. I called to Him. I reminded myself of what He had told me... "when you pray, I will listen. You will find Me when you seek Me, if you look for me in earnest." (Jeremiah 29:12, 13 LB) "And if you leave God's paths and go astray, you will hear a Voice behind you say, 'No, this is the way; walk here.'" (Isaiah 30:21 LB)

The LORD took me to Psalm 78. I love that psalm! He has spoken precious promises to me through these verses. Today, these verses held fresh, new insight. Isn't that just like our God?!

"For He divided the sea before them and led them through!" (vs. 13a) I asked Him to please do this with the load that overwhelms me.

"In the daytime He led them by a cloud, and at night by a pillar of fire." (vs. 14) I could trust Him to lead me.

"He split open the rocks in the wilderness to give them plenty of water, as though gushing from a spring. Streams poured from the rock, flowing like a river." (vs. 15, 16) O LORD, I am so thirsty!

"He gave them bread from heaven! They ate angels' food! He gave them all they could hold." (vs. 24b, 25) May I feast on You and be satisfied, O LORD.

"But it was only with their words they followed Him, not with their hearts... They did not keep their promises." (vs. 36, 37b) Oh... I didn't like the sound of that! How LORD?

You see, the LORD has really been teaching me about living intentionally - walking circumspectly. He has had me revisit my core values and the verses that prompted them pretty much daily. He wants them to so resonate in me that they become the signposts of my choices. Yesterday, in the midst of good intentions, I dismissed a pledge that I had made to the LORD as being too difficult to carry out that day. Before long, I also dismissed a knawing in my soul. The result? I spent my energy on a "good" thing and missed out on the best. On top of that, I wasn't the only one who paid the consequences. My children paid too. "...I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life that you and your children may live." (Deuteronomy 30:19) "Again and again they turned away... and limited the Holy One of Israel from giving them His blessings." (vs. 41)

So where does that leave me? In the midst of grace! "Yet He was merciful and forgave their sins... He remembered that they (I) were merely mortal men, gone in a moment like a breath of wind." (vs. 38, 39)

The LORD has shown me the path through the waters of my responsibilities. It's a dry, clear cut path but it takes trust. Each morning, as I sit and wait upon Him to direct the course of the day, He sets the pillar of cloud before me. In the evening, He leads by a pillar of fire. The values that He has set out for me are His. They help me stay the course when the waves pound on the sea of life. I need to trust the Master when earthly "wisdom" would suggest a different course. My heart must choose to follow. I must not forget His power and love or "like a crooked arrow", I will miss "the target of God's will." (see vs. 57) Just like the Israelites, He is bringing me to the border of "His land of blessing", to the land He has made for me. (see vs. 54)

And today... His mercies are renewed. Just like they will be tomorrow and the next day. I'm learning - by His great faithfulness!

Lessons From Philippians 3 - More Reasons to Rejoice!!

2010-09-30T13:42:00.000-05:00

Oh what a word the Lord spoke to my heart awhile back! I've been revisiting it trying to get a real grasp of what all it means but how's this for starters? God does not find it "irksome" to tell me the same things over and over! Praise the Lord! Do you know how freeing that is to me? I get irked all of the time over how slow I am to actually start walking out the things that He's teaching me. My obedience lags so far behind my heart! As all Scripture is God-breathed, listen to these words spoken to us through the apostle Paul...

...delight yourselves in the Lord and continue to rejoice that you are in Him. To keep writing to you [over and over] of the same things is not irksome to me, and it is [a precaution] for your safety. (vs. 1, Amplified)

Does anyone else just find that reason to rejoice?! A God like that is one I can delight in and rejoice to be found in! I am so encouraged by these words. My feelings can get so "off" but as I remember to delight myself in the Lord, my feelings disapate. As I rejoice in abiding in Christ, I am safe-guarded against the enemy. Verse 2 is a really fitting warning to me (the Lord knows me so well).

Look out for those... [legalists]...

I tend to be so legalistic and performance based. Legalism does not lead me to worship God, rather it leads to condemnation of self because the focus is on me and I can't measure up. The Judaizers of Paul's day were dealing with physical circumcision. Today, we are being circumcised to a new nature. Verse 3 says, For we [Christians] are the true circumcision who worship God in spirit and by the Spirit of God and exult and glory and pride ourselves in Jesus Christ, and put no confidence or dependence [on what we are] in the flesh... I not only put confidence in the "good" things I do "for" God but sometimes I think I put even more confidence in the "bad" things I do as I sin against God. I become confident that He could never really love someone like me or that there must be limitations to His love for me and I start to act like it. Jumping ahead to something Paul says in verse 15, if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also. And this is exactly what He's been doing for me!

The Truth is that NOTHING can separate me from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39)! The Truth is that all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6)! For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned... (John 3:16-18a) It is ALL about love and grace - His love for me and His grace extended for me! Any striving on my part should be a natural overflow to His great love for me. Paul makes it clear that no matter our background or zeal, we're to consider it as loss for Christ's sake. When I walk in obedience, that doesn't give me right standing with God, just as disobedience can't negate the gift He purchased for me on the cross.

So, I want to know Him more! Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him... and that I may [actually] be found and known as in Him, not having any [self-achieved] righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law's demands (ritualistic uprightness and supposed right standing with God thus acquired), but possessing that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ... the [truly] right standing with God, which comes from God by [saving] faith. (vs. 8-9)

So what does that look like? Verse 10 tells me to make my determined purpose to know Him better. It's a progressive knowing. As I begin to perceive and recognize the wonders of His Person more clearly and come to know the power which He exerts and makes available in the lives of believers, I am being transformed. It's a process! Sometimes, I learn through hardships and suffering - you know, when you reach the end of your own rope? He does not expect perfection! Someday, I will be glorified but not until heaven. Until then, I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. (vs. 12b) I made myself a list in the margin. Why did Jesus say that He came? He came that we should have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10)! He came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10). I want to lay hold of that life and I want to be found - in Him!

Verse 13 says in order to truly know Him, I need to have a single-minded purpose... I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. "What" lies behind isn't only the past failures but also the past victories. I need to trust the Lord when He says that His grace is sufficient to cover the sin and remember that works can never add up to equal sufficient. There's freedom to live in the moment here! I don't need to be bound by what I did wrong yesterday nor worry about what I may do wrong later on today. I can just live in the moment and worship Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly!

So I'm going to press on! I'm going to hold true to what knowledge of Him I have already attained and, to the best of my ability, I'm going to order my life by that. I'm going to observe those around me who are living after God's pattern and follow their example. And where I need a change of mind, I'm going to trust He who is faithful to handle that too. I'm going to listen to the warning of serving the god of my appetites and siding with earthly parties because I am a citizen of heaven. I may be living out-of-country for a season but I know in my heart where home is and I want to earnestly wait for my King to take me home. (see verses 14-20) And I will live to praise Him Who will transform and fashion anew the body of our humiliation to conform to and be like the body of His glory and majesty, exerting that power which enables Him even to subject everything to Himself. Even me. (vs. 21) I am not too big of project for God!

Therefore... I will stand firm in the Lord my beloved! (Philippians 4:1) I pray you will too!

The Mind of Christ

2010-09-30T13:12:00.000-05:00

"For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?"

But we have the mind of Christ." 1 Corinthians 2:16

Consciously or unsconsciously, I have struggled with this verse. I know that the mind of Christ is part of my inheritence as a child of God but since I I am well aware that some of the thoughts I have would NEVER cross my Lord's mind, I struggle. I kept waiting for the day when my thoughts would fall completely in line with those of my Lord. I cling to, and often pray, that the Lord would continuously transform me by the renewing of my mind (see Romans 12:2). It would be wrong of me to not testify that slowly but surely He IS renewing my mind by His Word but I have often been discouraged by the size of the project.

Awhile ago, while consecrating (offering for His use) my mind to the Lord, I read Isaiah 55:8-9. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts." I found myself saying, "See, LORD, see! How can I have the mind of Christ? You say Yourself that my thoughts are not Your thoughts." I just stop and praise You, LORD, that You are so gracious and faithful to me!

The Spirit started to bring to my mind times the previous day when I had heard the LORD speak to my heart. Things like "you don't need to eat that" or to call to mind a need or a person to lift before the Throne. This is Christ's mind. These are His thoughts. I was waiting for my mind to be replaced by His but no matter how far He brings me in the sanctification process, as long as I live in this mortal body, I will battle a mind of flesh. But praise be to God! I also know the mind of Christ! The more aware I become of Him speaking to me in the midst of the every day, the more I can take my thoughts captive in obedience to His! LORD, I'm getting it... Thank You for speaking to me.

"Loving Well"

2010-09-06T10:04:00.000-05:00

First of all, I must say that from beginning to end, this is not my material. I have been reminded of a lesson this morning that I simply must share. I have been listening to a recording of Water’s Edge Sunday School class and Beth Moore’s teaching on the book of Romans - specifically, this morning, on Romans chapter 5. I say “reminded” because a few years ago, I heard this teaching in greater depth through a video series by Beth entitled “Loving Well”. That said, let these truths from the Word of God resonate in your heart and mind…

By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God. Christ has also introduced us to God’s undeserved kindness on which we take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God. But that’s not all! We gladly suffer, because we know that suffering helps us to endure. And endurance builds character, which gives us a hope that will never disappoint us. All of this happens because God has given us the Holy Spirit, who fills our hearts with His love. (Romans 5:1-5 CEV)

Okay, so here are some things that we need to understand about the love of God. First, 1 John 4:16 & 18 tell us that, God is love. We tend to define the love of God by human frames of reference. For us, love is an emotion and a choice. We either feel love or we choose to love but God IS love. We must grasp the ramifications of this. Love is the character of who God is. Just like there is nothing that I can do to alter the fact that God is All-Powerful or that He is All-Knowing, there is absolutely nothing that I can do that can change Who God is! God is love. I am not that good of sinner, that big of a screw-up that can make Him stop being love! Let that sink in!

Just in case that isn’t enough for you, Romans 8:35, 38-39 says, Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble, suffering, and hard times, or hunger and nakedness, or danger and death? … nothing can separate us from God’s love – not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, and not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Do you know why this is so important to come to grasp? Proverbs 19:22a (NIV) tells us, what a man desires is unfailing love. God created us that way. The Hebrew word translated here as desire is “ta-avah.” It could be defined as the “longing of one’s heart.” (www.blueletterbible.org Strong’s 8378) The longing of your heart is to know that someone loves you unconditionally - that no matter what, someone will be there to love you. Think of the messes that we get ourselves into trying to find that kind of love or medicate the fact that we haven’t found it and received it. God tells us that He has “poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” (Romans 5:5 NIV)

Now, are you ready for this? Our capacity to receive the love of God is set by us. There is no shortage of love being poured out to fill our hearts. The real question is how much of your heart are you giving God as a reservoir? Satan whispers of how selfish it would be to sit each morning and just listen to, read, celebrate, delight in how much God loves you. God can’t wait to tell you! The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing (Zephaniah 3:17 NIV). God wants nothing more than for you to begin each day by sitting with Him and marveling in His great love for you. He wants to quiet your fears with His love. Reread the passage at the top of this page (Romans 5:1-5 CEV). He wants to remind you (by His love) that you have been made acceptable to Him. He wants you to remember that Christ has made it possible for you to live at peace with Him. He wants you to take your stand on the fact that Christ brings that undeserved kindness. He wants you to be happy as you look forward to sharing in the glory of God. But that’s not all! He wants you to realize that because He loves you, you can even gladly endure the suffering in this life and the character of Christ that this produces in you. He wants you to have that hope because it will never disappoint you! And you know what? There’s more…

1 John 4:19 says that we love because God first loved us. The thing about that is that we tend to understand it this way, we love God because God first loved us. That is not the context of the passage. It’s not just God we love but we love others because God first loved us. If I believe the depths of God’s love for me and receive it and allow it to fill the vast reservoir of my heart, I will be able to love others as Christ wants me to. I will be free, enabled, to love others no matter the circumstances because I do not need them to fill my love tank. It’s already been filled. Profound!

Romans 8 (see verses 5-6) says this, People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace. You want to know the secret for living a life that honors Christ? Really believe and receive His unfailing love. Allow Him to satisfy the longing of your heart. Spend your life trying to fathom the depths of His love.

Like the apostle Paul, I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19).

Amen!

And Then...

2010-07-24T14:27:00.000-05:00

I have recently got back from holidays where the Lord supplied sweet rest and refreshing! He also provided several challenges to me. Challenges to spur me on to more faith, more obedience. There is so much at stake! Allow me to share one of them from 1 Chronicles.

I've been reading through the Bible in a year reading plan. By the time I reached 1 Chronicles 5:18, I had read through nearly 5 1/2 chapters of genealogies. In fact, the only exception are those amazing few verses on Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4. So when there was another little digression at the end of chapter 5, it caught my attention.

The story is about the tribes of Reuben, Gad and East Manasseh. We are told that they had 44,760 soldiers trained to fight in battle. Then it says, "Whenever these soldiers went to war against their enemies, they prayed to God and trusted Him to help. That's why the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh defeated the Hagrites and their allies. These Israelite tribes captured fifty thousand camels, two hundred fifty thousand sheep, two thousand donkeys, and one hundred thousand people. Many of the Hagrites died in battle because God was fighting this battle against them."

Several things seemed to jump off the page! First, "Whenever" they went to war they prayed AND trusted God to help. How many times am I faced with a battle and I try to go to war against the enemy without praying? Way more times than I want to admit. Oh, that my first response would be to fall to my knees in prayer! Why is it that it's often when I realize that I'm losing that I stop to pray? Oh, Lord, thank You for Your sweet forgiveness and abundant grace! Then notice the "and". Not only did they pray but they then entrusted themselves and their circumstances to the One Who is always trustworthy. Our lives would be radically transformed if we applied these two simple truths! Verse 24 even lists some soldiers from East Manasseh by name and tells us that they were well-known leaders and brave soldiers. I want to be well-known as a good leader and a brave soldier in the Lord's army.

I love the fact that "many" of the enemies died in battle. Before you think I'm sadistic, remember that what is taught as a physical truth in the Old Testament is most often applied as a spiritual truth for the New Testament believer. There are many "enemies" that attack me. Unbelief. Insecurity. Fear. Worry. Am I naming any of the same enemies that attack you? If we not only prayed but also then trusted the Lord to train us as warriors and fight for us, many of these enemies would die - never to be seen again!

It delights me that these armies were able to take much plunder from the kingdoms they conquered. Fifty thousand camels... two hundred thousand sheep... two thousand donkeys... In the midst of each battle that the Lord calls me to fight alongside Him, I want to reach deep into the enemy's camp and take out plunder!

Unfortunately, the story doesn't end there. Verses 25-26 contain a dismal "end note" on these tribes. It's like there's an unwritten "and then...". The Word says, "The people of the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh were unfaithful to the God their ancestors had worshiped, and they started worshiping the gods of the nations that God had forced out of Canaan. So God sent King Tiglath Pileser of Assyria to attack these Israelite tribes. The king led them away as prisoners to Assyria, and from then on, he forced them to live in Halah, Habor, Hara, and near the Gozan River."

What happened to turn the descendants of these mighty warriors away from God and towards worthless idols? How could generations have seen the mighty miracles of the Lord in response to their prayers only to have the generations that followed after them walk away from such an Awesome God? While reading later in 1 Chronicles 12:37, I saw that their numbers even grew. The soldiers numbered "120,000 from the tribes of Reuben, Gad and East Manasseh, who were armed with all kinds of weapons." So what happened? I can only guess, but I believe it's an educated guess...

After Moses had delivered the Ten Commandments to the people, he gave them what Jesus termed the most important commandment followed by these instructions. "Listen, Israel! The LORD our God is the only true God! So love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. Memorize his laws and tell them to your children over and over again. Talk about them all the time, whether you're at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning. Write down copies and tie them to your wrists and foreheads to help you obey them. Write these laws on the door frames of your homes and on your town gates." (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) I wonder if over the generations, people were no longer intentional about teaching their children with every opportunity. I wonder if they lost their fervent love for the LORD and gradually the stories they had to share became 2nd and 3rd generation stories rather than testifying to what the LORD was doing and teaching in their lives.

I am so grateful for parents and grandparents that intentionally shared with me the miraculous and praiseworthy works of our LORD! They increase my faith. I share those stories with my children and because they know the people involved, it boosts their faith as well. But praise God that they have also increased the desire in me for a fervent love of the LORD and with that, He has given me countless praiseworthy tales of my own to testify to!

1 John 1:1-3 (NIV) says, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ." Friends, if we do not have recent, personal stories of God's faithfulness to share with our children and grandchildren, it is because we have missed out - not by God's fault but by our own. Return to Jesus as your first love. Throw away your idols. They are lifeless. They cannot satisfy. And then, as you look to Jesus as your One and Only, asking Him for help and trusting Him with your situations, get ready to see the unmistakable Hand of God! He'll be fighting alongside of you through the battles of life. And as those praiseworthy tales begin to mount, testify! Testify! The world is literally dying to see that the LORD makes a difference. Tell them! Show them! Teach your children to do the same. And then, when our history is recorded, I believe our "and then..." will be an entirely different story!

A Glimpse of the Cross

2010-05-14T12:22:00.000-05:00

"...'Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.' When He had said this, He breathed His last." Luke 23:46b (NIV)

This story is a little different than the others that I have already written but it is no less praiseworthy. Any time that God teaches us something in the midst of great trial and heartache, it is nothing short of miraculous.

I had never watched someone die. Sure, I had seen it on TV but I had never seen it face to face. The two are very different. It can be very difficult work to help someone die - even someone who knows and loves the LORD. I have had that experience.

From the first moment that my Dad was diagnosed with cancer, I was by his side. Through surgery, appointments, chemotherapy, radiation... everything that I could possibly be there for, I was. It was important to me and it meant a lot to my Dad. The diagnosis of cancer initiated a whirlwind of investigation and planning that plunged us into a road trip to the Mayo clinic for surgery. I was five months pregnant and working a new job. It didn't look like I could go. I was torn. When my husband and I decided it was more important to be there, we drove through the night and got to my Dad's side just before they wheeled him into the operating room. My Dad looked at me and said, "I knew you would come." I needed to be there and Dad needed me.

Over time, as Dad's condition worsened, I began to look to the day when Dad would leave us - when he would die. It became ever so important to me that I would be there to hold Dad's hand as he breathed his last. When Dad was confined to a hospital bed in their house and time was so valuable, I spent my days and nights in a big easy chair beside his bed. Every word that came from his mouth was so precious to me. I didn't want to miss a look, a squeeze of the hand, a kiss... I was there.

I don't know what I expected of death. I think I expected it to be peaceful. That's how it's usually portrayed. The dying person just closes their eyes and goes to sleep, right? That's not how it was for my Dad. His body was riddled with cancer yet his heart was strong. Dad was covered by a blanket up to his waise yet I watched as his feet then his legs grew mottled. I labored to keep his arm and then his hand warm. For what seemed an eternity, Dad fought for every single breath. It really was a fight. His whole body worked in desperation for air. It was agony for him and for us. Each breath took so much work. He looked gaunt. The battle had taken its toll. I begged the LORD to take him home, yet it took time. With those short, ragged final breaths when there was lengthening pause in between, you wondered if each was the last - and finally it was. I had been there - holding his hand.

There was one last thing to do for my Dad. One last act that I could do to say "I love you." I helped was him and dress him to be taken away. It was important to me. I won't tell you about the events of those next few days right now. That's another tale and a tale of God's wondrous mercy and blessing but I want to tell you that God never wastes a heartache. He always works for us, in us and through us in our times of greatest trial.

I gained invaluable insight that day. As I watched my Dad die, my thoughts were drawn to the cross where Jesus lay down His life for me. It wasn't pretty or easy. It was a desperately hard work. No man before or since ever suffered so much. No one has ever bore so much in death. Jesus bore our sins so that we wouldn't have to. He hung on that cross, laboring to breathe, body broken - alone. I had been able to be by Dad's side - Mary watched from a distance and Peter had disowned Him. I held Dad's hand and worked to ease all possible discomfort. Jesus was offered vinegar for His thirst. He felt abandoned. His cry... "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Mark 15:34b) Dad was surrounded by those that loved him. Mark tells us that those who passed by hurled insults at him, others mocked him, and those that crucified him also heaped insults on him. My LORD paid the ultimate price... for me.

I have a new appreciation of the cost of my salvation. True, it is just a glimpse. I can never know how much my redemption from sin cost but I am thankful for the glimpse. May I remember it often and proclaim it boldly.

"But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him..." Isaiah 53:5a (NIV)
"He himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed." 1 Peter 2:24 (NIV)

Those Who've Gone Before Me and Those Who Will Come After...

2010-05-14T10:01:00.014-05:00

I love the rich lessons in the Old Testament as we watch the children of Israel make their way to the Promised Land. I love how the lessons are stated and restated chapter after chapter. Obviously, the Lord recognized that there would be ones like me that need repeated reminders. One of the themes that He has been bringing forward for me is that my actions do not just effect myself.

Deuteronomy 30:19 says, "This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you; that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses - now choose life that you and your children may live."

Deuteronomy 4:37 & 40 says, "The LORD loved your ancestors and decided that you would be His people. So the LORD used His great power to bring you out of Egypt... Today I am explaining His laws and teachings. And if you always obey them, you and your descendants will live long and be successful in the land the LORD is giving you." And in Deuteronomy 5:9-10 "... If you reject me and worship idols, I will punish your families for three or four generations. But if you love me and obey my laws, I will be kind to your families for thousands of generations." Now before we get all puffed up and say that's not fair, take note of the fact that though our idolatry can effect 3 or 4 generations, our obedience passes blessings for thousands!

Deuteronomy 5:28 says, "The LORD heard you and said: Moses, I heard what the people said to you, and I approve. I wish they would always worship me with fear and trembling and be this willing to obey me! Then they and their children would always enjoy a successful life."

So, I guess I see 3 main challenges for me. The first question I need to ask is what am I TEACHING my children? Am I teaching them what it means to love the LORD? Am I teaching them how crucial it is that we have no other gods before Him? Am I teaching them what idolatry looks like in our culture and how to spot it in their own lives? Am I teaching them how to truly worship? Am I teaching them Who God is?

Next, what am I MODELING for my children? Do my actions show that I love the LORD will all my heart, soul, mind and strength? (Mark 12:30) Is it obvious to my children? Is my love for Christ so evident that my children know how precious and vital He is to me or is He my "Sunday" friend? Is God's Word so important to me and the way I live my life that it bears memorizing? Is the LORD so much a part of my moment by moment existence that I talk about Him whether I'm at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning? (Deuteronomy 6:5-7)

Then, the question becomes not only what am I teaching my children but what are my life choices CHOOSING for my children? Hebrews 11:8 remembers Abraham this way. "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going." Deuteronomy 6:10-11 says, "The LORD promised your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would give you this land. Now He will take you there and give you large towns, with good buildings that you didn't build, and houses full of good things that you didn't put there. The LORD will give you wells that you didn't have to dig, and vineyards and olive orchards that you didn't have to plant..." Am I living a life of faith that God is going to bless? Abraham dwelt in the land but the LORD set his descendants free from slavery and brought them out of Egypt to inherit buildings that they didn't have to build and orchards that they didn't have to plant! Oh, LORD, I desire inheritances of freedom and blessing for my children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and beyond - and You just invite me to exercise a little faith!

The LORD my God will help me take the land where the enemy of my soul has erected strongholds! Pride, gluttony, insecurity, unbelief... He just asks that I cooperate with Him and don't settle for the heavy yoke of these things to be lifted when He desires for me to be completely free. He doesn't want me to make peace treaties with these enemies and He doesn't want me to stand by idle and allow my children to embrace them! (see Deuteronomy 7:1-3) Does the LORD ask me for perfection? No. Psalm 103:13-14 says, "As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him; for He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust." The LORD just asks us to trust Him. I am so grateful for those in my family, who have gone before me, that have walked not perfectly but faithfully with the LORD. I am reaping harvests that I didn't plant.

So what about you? What kind of choices lay before you today? Will you endeavor to trust the LORD and exercise a little faith? Will you sow seeds of blessing for a future generation to harvest? With God's wisdom and in His power, you CAN! I leave you to listen to the LORD Himself and allow Him to remind you...

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=deuteronomy%2011:1-28&version=CEV

The Path to the Promised Land

2010-03-26T10:35:00.008-05:00

So, in my journey from the bondage where I've come from to the full inheritance and security of trusting God and God alone, the Lord listed out these steps for me to follow from Deuteronomy 3 & 4.

Remember the Truth! "You saw how the LORD our God helped us destroy King Sihon and King Og [the enemies opposing us]. So don't be afraid! Wherever you go, the LORD will fight on your side and help you destroy your enemies." (Deuteronomy 3:21-22)

Help one another be strong and brave! "Joshua will lead Israel across the Jordan to take the land, so help him be strong and brave..." (Deuteronomy 3:28) Take a look around you. Who is taking this journey with you? We all need encouragers along the way. Help them be strong and brave. Remind them of the strength of our Almighty God.

Listen to the LORD and obey Him! "Listen to these laws and teachings! If you obey them, you will live [truly live!] and you will go in and take the land that the LORD is giving you." (Deuteronomy 4:1)

Remember that the LORD is giving you the land! It's His to give. Take it!

Pray - He answers! "We have a God who is close to us and answers our prayers." Friend, I don't know about you but as the weight of that Truth just settled over me, tears involuntarily flowed from my eyes! He - the God who created the universe with His words - is close to us! He's closer than our next breath and He answers our prayers. Is that not reason to pray? We're told that we have not because we ask not. (see James 4:2) Do you need direction? Ask Him. Do you need courage? Tell Him. "Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer." ("What a Friend We Have in Jesus", Joseph M. Scriven)

Keep reminding yourself what God has done for you and testify to others - especially your children... "You must be very careful not to forget the things you have seen God do for you. Keep reminding yourselves, and tell your children and grandchildren as well." Take the Lord at His word and do this - literally! Write them down. Psalm 78 talks about the importance of writing down the praiseworthy deeds of our God. It's important for us AND it holds great blessing for the generations that follow after us "so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God." (Psalm 78:6-7a) Not only can we dwell in the Promised Land for ourselves but we can leave a legacy for those that aren't even born yet! How gracious is our God!

Teach your children to obey God... "teach their children to obey me too." (vs. 10b) One thing that the Lord has really been teaching me lately is that I learn His lessons better as I teach them to others. The more that I talk about them and study them, the more that they take root in me. "Memorize His laws..." that really should be a point all of it's own on this pathway to the land of promise! "... and tell them to your children over and over again. Talk about them all the time, whether you're at home or walking along the road or going to bed at night, or getting up in the morning. Write down copies and them to your wrists and foreheads to help you obey them." (Deuteronomy 6:6-8) Again, take Him at His word. I have a couple of pieces of jewelry with scripture on them. I wear them on those days that I know that I need Truth within eyesight. My daughter knows what they say and why I pull them out. She knows because the Lord has prompted me to teach her. I pray that these things are priceless to her when she inherits them.

NO IDOLS! "be careful not to commit the sin of worshiping idols." (vs. 15) Friend, I wish that this were an easy command. We are deceived if we see idols as merely wooden or stone replicas of some ancient god. Whatever we choose to worship - other than God alone - is an idol. I've served a number of them. Self... materialism... problems... others... food... if we are bowing down to anyone or anything else but God we are in error and God's blessing is not on us. Can money buy you happiness? Can another individual meet your every need? These things can not be god. They cannot save you. Seek first the Lord and His righteousness and He'll look after these things (see Matthew 6:33)

Oh, LORD. You know that I am but dust and yet I am precious in Your sight. I desire to dwell - permanently - in Your land of promise for me. You have redeemed me out of bondage into freedom and joy. May I receive the full inheritance that You hold for me. I'm resting on the promise that Your grace is sufficient for me. Your power is made perfect in my weakness. What You are commanding me this day is not too difficult for me or beyond my reach. Lead on, O God! I choose to worship You and You alone. In the precious and all-powerful Name of Jesus - let it be done!

More About Naysayers...

2010-03-26T09:38:00.004-05:00

I am absolutely in awe of how faithful the Lord is to speak to the very heart of our circumstances! In this journey that He is leading me on to walk by faith and not according to feelings, I find myself wandering in the wilderness somewhere inbetween being freed from absolute bondage to other people's opinion of me and the promised land where the opinions of others holds zero sway over me. The Lord has revealed that I was victim to a stronghold of insecurity and also some of the roots of that stronghold that was planted long ago.

As I have been trying to apply the lesson on naysayers that He gave me a few weeks ago, He has allowed me significant opportunity to practice! During a quiet time this week, the Lord brought me to Deuteronomy 1 and the following scriptures revealed a precious reminder of how the Lord expects me to respond to those who are critical of me as I seek to follow through on what I sense the Lord has laid upon my heart to do.

Once again, we revisit the Israelite spies that surveyed Canaan...

Moses told Israel, "We have reached the hill country. It belongs to the Amorites now, but the LORD our God is giving it to us... He has told us to go in and take this land, so don't hesitate and be afraid." Then all of you came to me and said, "Before we go into this land, let's send some men to explore it. When they come back, they can tell us about the towns we will find and what roads we should take to get there." (vs. 20-22)

The very act of sending in the 12 spies was a step of doubt! God had said "go" and "don't hesitate" and yet the Israelites wanted to hear their fellow man's opinion first. How often do I fall prey to that exact mentality! There are some very specific things that I know the Lord has called me to do and yet in the midst of my insecurities, I hesitate and seek out man's opinion to help alleviate the fear rather than simply trust what the Lord has said.

Praise the Lord that we have a very gracious Heavenly Father! Even though the Israelites were already going against His direction, He still provided a confirmation of His Word through Caleb and Joshua but notice that they were in the minority. Perhaps you find yourself exactly there - remember that even a minority + God's say so = fear not and get going in obedience! Yet, what did they do?

They hid out from the challenge! They "refused to obey the LORD" their God and "stayed in their tents." (vs. 26)

They "grumbled" and gave voice to their fear! (vs. 26, 28) Are you seeing the reminder of our previous lesson from Numbers 14?

They questioned God! "The LORD must hate us - He brought us out of Egypt, just so He could hand us over to the Amorites and get rid of us." Is anyone other than me feeling a healthy dose of conviction?

They listened to the naysaysers and the circumstances became exaggerated! "the men who explored the land told us that the cities are large with walls that reach to the sky." (vs. 28)

They convinced themselves that the obedience was impossible! "We have nowhere to go." (vs. 28) Friends, when are we - when am I - going to quit listening to the lies and start standing AND ADVANCING on the Truth of God?

The Truth is: "Don't worry! The LORD our God will lead the way. He will fight on our side, just as He did when we saw Him do all those things to the Egyptians. And you know that the LORD has taken care of us the whole time we've been in the desert, just as you might carry one of your children." Praise God! What awesome words of assurance! What has He been telling you to trust Him and do? He knows it looks difficult to us. He knows we may even "feel" it's impossible! That doesn't matter. Be strong and courageous! TAKE courage! Quit hesitating and listening to the naysayers and get going! I am preaching this to myself at the top of my lungs. I am weary of wilderness wandering in this area and I am choosing - here and now - to follow His direction right through the flood waters of the Jordan River and plant them on some promised land!

Don't think that I'm saying it's going to be a cake walk. We see from scripture that there are going to be enemies all over our promised land but let's trust the LORD when He says that "the LORD our God is giving it [the land] to us." (vs. 20) We're bound to lose some skirmishes along the way but I can assure you the victory has already been won. The thing is, we'll wander forever if we don't take the Lord at His word and get going along the path where He's leading. With His help, we will "conquer it and live there." (vs. 39b)

What do you say? Are you coming with me?

What's Your Response to the Naysayers?

2010-03-10T09:30:00.003-06:00

Isn't it just like our Lord that this morning's Bible reading spoke directly to the need of my heart?! Look at what the Lord spoke in Numbers 14...

After the Israelites heard the report from the twelve men who had explored Canaan, the people cried all night and complained to Moses and Aaron, "We wish we had died in Egypt or somewhere out here in the desert! Is the LORD leading us into Canaan, just to have us killed and our women and children captured? We'd be better off in Egypt." Then they said to one another, "Let's choose our own leader and go back."

Moses and Aaron bowed down to pray in front of the crowd. Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes in sorrow and said: "We saw the land ourselves, and it's very good. If we obey the LORD, he will surely give us that land rich with milk and honey. So don't rebel. We have no reason to be afraid of the people who live there. The LORD is on our side, and they won't stand a chance against us!"

The crowd threatened to stone Moses and Aaron to death. But just then, the LORD appeared in a cloud at the sacred tent.

The LORD said to Moses, "I have done great things for these people, and they still reject me by refusing to believe in my power..."

What a word to us when naysayers threaten our commitment or belief in the promises of God! Look at the tide we can quickly get caught up in...

They got swept up in emotion rather than standing on the Truth... "the people cried all night."
They gave a voice to the emotion rather than the Truth... "and complained to Moses and Aaron."
They imagined themselves elsewhere... "we wish we had died in Egypt."
They questioned the LORD... "Is the LORD leading us into Canaan, just to have us killed...?"
They came to their own conclusion... "We'd be better off in Egypt."
They decided to make their own choice... "Let's choose our own leader and go back."
They found themselves in REBELLION! Sylvia Gunter defines rebellion as "reserving for ourselves the right to choose."

Oh, how different their history would look if they had just believed the Truth that Joshua and Caleb presented... "We saw the land ourselves, and it's very good. If we obey the LORD, he will surely give us that land rich with milk and honey. So don't rebel. We have no reason to be afraid of the people who live there. The LORD is on our side, and they won't stand a chance against us!" The consequence of this destructive tide was that a whole generation, except Joshua and Caleb, failed to enter the land of Promise. They wandered aimlessly when freedom and "home" was just on the horizon.

No matter how threatening the pressure is, remember that at just the right moment the LORD appeared! Just like for me this morning, the LORD appears and reaches down His righteous right arm and saves us!

"The LORD said to Moses, 'I have done great things for these people, and they still reject me by refusing to believe in my power." We have the opportunity to follow the example of the psalmist Asaph in Psalm 77, when despite the emotions that raged in verses 1-10, he makes this choice in verse 11, "Our LORD, I will remember the things you have done, your miracles of long ago. I will think about each one of your mighty deeds. Everything you do is right and no other god compares with you."

Where has the LORD asked you to go that is looking too difficult today? What has He said to you to be strong and courageous about? "Now what He is commanding you this day is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach." (Deuteronomy 30:11) Believe Him! His arm is not too short "for nothing is impossible with God." (Luke 1:37) In fact, Jesus said, "everything is possible for him who believes." (Mark 9:23) Make your choice! Grab hold of His extended arm, hold fast and believe!

A Renewed Way of Thinking

2010-02-23T09:45:00.006-06:00

I am so glad that our Lord renews our thoughts! Man, can they ever get off-base sometimes and in desperate need of renewal! Such was the case with me this morning.

Actually, this particular line of thought has been brewing for awhile but I've remained in the dark. Allow me to explain...

This much I had come to realize over the past year:

I have a fear of failure.
I fear that the REAL me is not enough - enough to be a worship leader, enough to hold my husband's passion, enough to raise godly children.
I have a stronghold of insecurity (and it has a stronghold of me)
I often wake in the morning feeling defeated because of the sins of yesterday.

So, this morning, I was suffering from all of the above. The Lord woke me early and wooed me to my spot. His Word was sweeter than honey from the honeycomb! Here is what He said:

Isaiah 43:18-19 Do not earnestly remember the former things...like the sins and failures of yesterday...behold, He is doing a new thing! It's a new day and He's not limited by my yesterday.

Like Lazerus, I was dead, but now He's calling me to life and I need to take off the old grave clothes (the shame and condemnation of yesterday) and lay them at His feet. They are a filthy reminder of the former things.

Isaiah 43:25 I, even I, am He who blots our and cancels your transgressions...even my willful sins...for My own sake... so don't worry about deserving it, Karrie... and I will not remember [mark for recognition, recount, call to remembrance] your sins. Wheww!! Awesome!

So, if God is willing and ready to forgive me and blot out all record of my transgressions, why aren't I?

Psalm 40:6 Sacrifices and offerings are not what please you; gifts and payent for sin are not what you demand... so may I not spend today trying to "make up for" yesterday before the Lord. That sort of thinking keeps me looking at the former things. It also keeps me trapped in "works" - trying to earn off yesterday instead of by "grace" alone... But You made me willing to listen and obey. And so, I said, "I am here to do what is written about me in the book, where it says, 'I enjoy pleasing you. Your Law is in my heart.'" He is the One who brought me to this revelation this morning. May I start fresh - forgiving myself for what He has forgiven - and say instead "I'm here to do what is written about me in the book! May I enjoy pleasing You this day!" This train of thought keeps me looking forward.

Psalm 40:11 You, LORD, never fail to have pity on me... WHEN I fail today - even willfully - He never fails to have pity on me... Your love and faithfulness ALWAYS KEEP ME SECURE! (emphasis mine) Well, praise the Lord! This revelation is a giant leap on the way to freedom from insecurity!

The real difference with this right thinking (Truth) is that it makes it so that I begin this day from a position of victory. The enemy tried his best on me yet I stand here FORGIVEN! The devil might have tempted me and I might have followed but he only won a skirmish - Christ won the war! And though I may lose to his temptations at times today, I am still victorious because I will get up in faith and try again. God gives me that privilege. May I cease to let the enemy rob me of the forgiveness that is freely offered me and the resulting position of victory. Praise You, O God!

Psalm 18:3-4 I will call upon the Lord, who is to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies. the cords of death surrounded me, and the streams of ungodliness and the torrents of ruin terrified me... Lord, I was so afraid to make a mistake - afraid to fail... ruin terrified me! But God - You have rescued me!

1 Peter 2:24 He personally bore our sins in His own body on the tree... that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed...I can cease to exist to sin - looking back - living in the shame of past defeat and LIVE to righteousness - from the place of grace, forgiveness and victory!

For He has not given me a spirit of fear or timidity but of power, love and self-discipline! 2 Timothy 1:7. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! Philippians 4:19.

I'll shout it from the mountain tops and sing a new song! It's awesome to be free!

Things To Do As You Wait On a Miracle in Your Marriage

2010-02-12T16:54:00.003-06:00

This entry may seem out of context - I was so sure that I had posted it earlier along with "Becoming a Woman of Valor" in August of 2009 - but I hadn't so I'm posting it now...

Pray Less For Your Husband and More For Yourself - This may sound totally selfish and inappropriate but sometimes, when a relationship is strained, it's difficult to pray for your spouse without giving the Lord a long prescription of everything that you'd like to see changed in your spouse. Praying for your spouse can easily become a complaining session with the Lord and since the Lord knows better than us what is going on and what needs to be done, prayer sessions like that serve only to discourage us and remind us of everything that is frustrating or hurtful.

In a great little book "Get the Junk Out of Your Trunk: Let Go of the Past to Live Your Best Life" (by Duane VanderKlok) I learned that when we need to forgive someone who has hurt us, we need to pray blessing over their lives - with NO prescription! When we are praying blessing and not telling the Lord how He should do it, we are brought to the point of forgiveness and wanting to see good things happen in their lives rather than retribution.

Prayer is something everyone says and even assumes but we do entirely too little of it and even less of it effectively. God's Word is sharper than any double-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12). Praying His Word, convicts us where we've fallen short. When we come into agreement with what He says and repent, it accomplishes His purposes within us (Isaiah 55:11). Our lives (and marriages) will be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).

Some great scriptures to pray daily for yourself are:

1 Corinthians 13:1-7, 12-13

1 Peter 2:18-25 (like the term or not, as married women, we are "household servants" and we are the only one in our home with that job description)

1 Peter 3:1-6, 8-9

Proverbs 16:24

See http://www.biblegateway.com/ for quick reference to the scriptures listed here. Try the Amplified Bible translation. It puts some teeth to some of the words that were either too familiar or vague. I prayed these daily for many months. The words became ingrained in my mind and the Holy Spirit would call them to mind - often - when I would be tempted to insist on my own rights or add something to a mental tally sheet of what my husband was doing "wrong" (1 Corinthians 13:5).

I printed my prayers out on recipe cards and I keep them in a photo album that fits into my purse. I recorded audios of them and put them on my I-pod. Keep them handy and commit to doing what they say. It's not enough to just read them or highlight them and visit them occasionally. You must do what it says (James 1:22).

Everyone Needs a Day 17 - Ruth Myers, in her book "31 Days of Praise" has written an awesome scripture prayer about being thankful for the place in life that we are currently in. The whole book is about praising the Lord when things are difficult. It's put out by Multnomah and is worth purchasing for anyone - crisis or not!

Surround Yourself with Positive Accountability Partners and Prayer Warriors - If you are like me, it is easy to see the negative side of situations. You need people who will help you to see the positives. I needed someone who would stop me in mid-conversation if I was about to rant and complain about my husband. My friend would simply say, "have you taken this to the Throne?" or "have you tattled to Jesus?" Your friends and family don't need to know all of the details. Whatever you spend the most time concentrating on is what is going to grow bigger. Surround yourself with friends that will say, "remember when..." and remind you of those good things that your husband has done. You may need to make a list. It makes it easier to remember when you aren't seeing those qualities in the moment! If your friends aren't currently operating in this way - ask them to! Tell them that it is what you need from them. It really is what you need from them. A word of caution - your accountability partners MUST NOT be of the opposite sex! That's never appropriate and can lead down paths of destruction.

Make an 80/20 List - or a 60/40! Make a list of things that attracted you to your husband in the first place. Make a list of good qualities that he has exhibited. Everyone has them. In fact, I believe we do have more good qualities than bad. It's just easier to see the things we wish were different. Keep the list handy! Mine is in the back of my Bible and I purposely added to it whenever something would come to mind. Review the list often and thank the Lord for each quality.

Make Some Things Right, Seek Forgiveness - Perhaps your parents didn't bless your marriage or you were engaging in pre-marital sex. Seek forgiveness. You can seek forgiveness for not honoring your parents or seek forgiveness from your husband for not waiting to have sex with the Lord's blessing. These things are not easy nor do many people think they are necessary but once they've been dealt with Biblically, when the enemy throws out lies like "you should have listened to your mother" you can standon the Truth of no condemnation!

Learn the Lesson "But if Not..." - I have found that in every major lesson/life change that the Lord has taken me through there has come a point where I had to come to grips with the fact "but if not..." I'm still going to choose to follow the Lord in obedience. When I struggled with infertility and that the Lord was robbing me of a blessing, I had to come to the point where if He never gave me children, He was still Good. When my father was dying of cancer, if the Lord never healed him, He was still Good. If your husband never changes, God is still Good and it is the right thing to walk out your life in obedience. The other thing that I've found is that God is so gracious and generous!! He rewards our feeble steps in His direction!

My grandfather always used to say that if the Lord never did anything else for him but save his soul, it was worth serving Him forever. It's the truth!

Become Your Husband's Cheerleader - I'm confident that somewhere inside every man is a doubt or anxiety of "can I really do this?" Be a good husband? Provide for a family? Be a good lover? Become his cheerleader. Make a conscious point of looking for things that you can praise him for. I understand that at first, it may take some looking. We are in the habit of seeing the bad. Genuinely thank him for every good thnig you see. Tell him that he's doing a good job of... I have been stunned by how much my husband has appreciated this. These are pleasant words that are sweet to the soul and bring healing to his bones like Proverbs 16:24 talks about.

Allow Yourself to Be Dependant on Your Husband - Depending on how badly you've been hurt, this can be very difficult. Even if you've never said it consciously, our tendency is to build walls so that we won't be hurt again. 1 Peter 3:1 tells us to "be submissive to your own husbands [subordinate yourselves as being secondary to and dependent on them, and adapt yourselves to them]..." Chances are you rebel against things that you would consider bad decisions on their part. The enemy tells us not to let ourselves "go down" with that sinking ship. A friend of mine taught me to say, "whatever you think is best, dear." Rather than argue your side, if, after simply and calmly stating your opinion, you are of differing minds, winsomely say "whatever your think is best." Be mindful not to be patronizing. Your husband will know the difference.

It is safe for you to submit to your husband even if you are positive that he is making the wrong decision because Jesus is the Lord of lords. You are not responsible for your husband's decision but you are responsible for your response to him. That same wise friend reminded me that submission is difficult and it goes against everything that the world (and our unbelieving friends) tell us but it is richly rewarded by our Heavenly Father. It is even safe for you to submit to an unbelieving husband or one that is not walking with the Lord as long as what he asks of you is not immoral or illegal. That same verse in 1 Peter 3 continues to say "so that even if any (husbands) do not obey the Word [of God], they may be won over not by discussion but by the [godly] lives of their wives." I had to quit preaching and arguing my point and start living out my role as God intended.

We are to live as godly wives in "like manner" to how Jesus conducted Himself. "When He was reviled and insulted, He did not revile or offer insult in return; [when] He was abused and suffered, He made no threats [of vengeance]; but He trusted [Himself and everything] to Him who judges fairly." (1 Peter 2:23) Trust yourself to the One Who is faithful!

"Play the Tapes to the End" - It often looks much greener on the other side of the fence. Don't allow yourself to look through rose colored glasses. If you're struggling with the desire to leave your husband, take a long, hard look at what that really looks like. The enemy is the master of lies. Would life really be easier? Are you sure that you really want to be single? What do children of divorced parents really feel? Are you so sure that your marriage is the one thing that is impossible for God?

Can You Stay for Today? - Spending your time looking at the next 5 years or the rest of your life in a difficult marriage can make you run the other way. The Lord tells us not to worry about tomorrow because it has enough worries of its own. He wants us to live in today. Tomorrow is filled with what if's. These things are not true yet and chances are they will never become reality. As you sit with the Lord and listen to His leading for the day, ask yourself, by the grace of God can you stay and do the right thing for today... Deuteronomy 30:11 says, "Now what I am commanding today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach." You are not trapped. You can always choose differently tomorrow though I am confident that the Lord will amaze you with His grace as you choose obedience today.

Don't Let Anything Keep You From Quiet Time with the Lord - There is no way to live as a godly wife apart from the Lord. You need to hear how deeply He loves you. You need to express your love for Him. You need His Wisdom. You need His Counselor. You need everything that He's got and willingly extending to you. He IS your peace. He is your Shield. He is the Truth and the Way. He's freedom and He's your Deliverer! Occasional moments grabbed throughout the day will never reveal the God that you need to know. He is your very life! Large chunks of devoted time early in the morning are your recharging. Take the Lord at His Word. "Those that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up on wings as eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint." (Isaiah 40:11). "Fear not [there is nothing to fear], for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My [victorious] right hand of rightness and justice." (Isaiah 41:10)

If you have little children, get up earlier than them. I know of a woman who had her quiet time in the middle of the night and then went back to bed. Yes, rest is important but the Lord will supply all of your needs, even rest, when we put Him first in all things. Try Him. Let Him prove it to you.

Ensure that you are reading God's Word and not just about God's Word. There are many useful tools and resources out there but they need to be supplements to a healthy diet of the Word of God. Ask Him to "open your eyes to see wondrous things in His law." He will not disappoint you!

The Lord knows that what He asks of us is not always easy. Sometimes, it may feel like it's never easy but He is the Rewarder of those who earnestly seek Him. I can testify to a God who is WAY bigger than I ever knew - and I'm just seeing the tip of the iceberg! I can tell you that I have come to know the Creator God for He created love where there was none left. He truly healed my broken heart and has made beauty where there was only ashes. For that I am eternally grateful!

NOTE TO READER: Why am I so passionate about this? Because I am living a miracle! I had given up but God hadn't! I thought that fighting and dissension was what I could expect the rest of my life. When I thought I couldn't stay for another day, God asked, can you stay for today? Now, just three years later, my huband has a new wife - and it's me! And God gave me a wonderful husband! He's my friend and I love him dearly! God is making a mighty man of God right before my very eyes! The God I've come to know is WAY bigger than I ever dreamed! And tucked away in my drawer is a reminder of where we've come from... a tear-stained piece of paper on which I wrote the words of God in 1 Peter 2:18-3:9 though I didn't believe them possible. Friend, He can do it for YOU!

I'm also making the assumption that you know what it means to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Rules and religion are not the answer. Only Jesus is. To find out more, click on "Where Do You Go When You're Hurting?" (August 2007) or click here http://spaciousplace-karrie.blogspot.com/2007/08/where-do-you-go-when-youre-hurting.html

So Long, Insecurity!

2010-02-12T09:05:00.003-06:00

Okay - first I must confess that though this title declares the cry of my heart, it is not MY title. So Long, Insecurity is the title of Beth Moore's latest book. Although Beth is one of my favorite authors and I am so grateful for her, I am more interested in bragging on my Jesus this morning. Allow me to paint a picture for you of His profound faithfulness and guidance in my life...

I have struggled with certain fears for as long as I can remember. Last year at this time, I thought my most prominent fear was the fear of failure but during a worship service, while in the middle of lifting praises to God, the Lord pulled back the veil and showed me that this was just a side-effect of my deepest fear... That the real me wasn't enough! I was dreadfully afraid that the real me wasn't enough to lead a congregation of God's people in worship... that the real me wasn't enough to hold my husband's passion... that the real me wasn't enough to raise godly children... And so, I found myself exhausted from all of the running around trying to be "super me" and live up to the unattainable expectation I had placed on myself - perfection! After all, there was nothing more that could be done beyond perfection. Wheww! No wonder I feared failure. It happened all of the time!

If I could categorize this last 8 months, it would be desperately trying to do the next right thing while all the while caving in to the constant lying of my emotions. I didn't feel capable. I didn't feel empowered. I've come to the conclusion that when the Lord wants to mature us and get us free in a specific area, He gives us LOTS of practice!

So, I've had many circumstances, especially in the area of leading worship, that have brought me to my knees. There - now the Lord had me in the posture that He could do something with. One of the phrases on my blog is "When life is more than you can stand - kneel!" My theme was now becoming "Lord, I don't know what to do but my eyes are upon You." And He's been faithful!

During a recent unpleasant circumstance, a great friend of mine said, "Karrie, you have a stronghold of insecurity." I did not! Sure, I struggled with insecurity (like everybody else) but... the Lord stopped me in my tracks. It was precisely this mindset that kept me in bondage. Beliefs such as I struggle with insecurity sounded harmless. Who doesn't? The truth was that I did, in fact, have a stronghold of insecurity and it had a strong hold on me. That's dangerous and it requires immediate attention! You know what else? I think I believed that confidence = pride (therefore, bad) and I shudder to even suggest it... that insecurity = humility. How grossly wrong! That was last week.

I confessed this sin to the Lord and to my trusted prayer partners. No sooner did I do that than one of my friends was ordering a book for herself online and a pop-up recommended Beth's new book. My friend thought I would be interested. I was and ordered the book.

I caught myself asking the Lord, "could I really be free from insecurity?" Good grief! I didn't know that I had unbelief intertwined in there. I repented of that too and the anticipation and excitement that began growing in me was palpable.

I found that the old hymn "Victory in Jesus" was on auto-repeat in my mind. So much so that I felt led to sing a real rockin' version of it (as done by Travis Cottrell) at church this Sunday. I wanted to let the worship team hear it ahead of time. I knew that they could listen to it online through the Living Proof Ministries blog so I headed there to get the link. What was the latest blog entry? They were looking for "sisters" who were ready to be free from insecurity and willing to sign the roll call to get free together. It started that day and I wanted to say "I'm in" but I didn't have the book yet. I'm a rule follower so you don't start doing something until you have all of the tools. That's when my friend walked into my office with my brand new book in hand. Thank You, Jesus!

So here are some of the things that really struck me as I set out to complete the first assignment:

We were to write a letter to the Lord in the front of the book. Sort of a starting point for this journey. I wrote similiar things to what I've already told you about my fears about the real me... until I heard Him whisper to my heart "you fear that the real you is not enough for Me to love." He was right. No wonder God felt the need to say in His Word, "be still and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10) or as the New American Standard translation puts it "cease striving and know I am God." Who was I fooling? God says that "while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." His love for me is not contingent on what I do. I can not earn His love. He freely gives it. I've known this with my head for years - I just didn't know that I wasn't embracing it with my heart.

"My entire life story grows like a wild shoot from the thorny soil of insecurity. Every fear I've faced, every addiction I've nursed, every disastrous relationship and idiotic decision I've made has wormed its way out of that sorrowfully fertile ground. Through the power and grace of God, I've dealt with so many side effects of it, but oddly, until now, I've somehow overlooked its primary source." (Beth Moore, So Long, Insecurity, pg. xi) No wonder I've gone through seasons of being free from food related strongholds for seasons only to find myself back in the grip of them. Food is only a coping mechanism that I have for medicating the pain of insecurity. (I see more freedom on the horizon - yippee!)

"Insecurity among women is epidemic, but it is not incurable. Don't expect it to go away quietly, however. We're going to have to let truth scream louder to our souls than the lies that have infected us." (ibid, pg. xiii)

"Are we honestly going to insist on drawing our security from people - men or women - who ave oblivious to the inordinate amount of weight we give to their estimation of us?" (ibid, pg. 9)

"I want some soul-deep security drawn from a source that never runs dry and never disparages us for requiring it." (ibid, pg. 10)

"My head knows good and well that this doesn't define me. Why can't I get that message to my heart? Listen carefully: the enemy of our souls has more to gain by our setbacks than by our succumbing to an initial assault. The former is infinitely more demoralizing. Far more liable to make us feel hopeless and tempt us to quit." (ibid, pg. 11) Like my struggle with food. Oh, can you see how the Lord brought me to this point?!

"Setbacks just make us feel weak and stupid: I should have conquered this by now... Somehow I convince myself that if I could just develop a healthy enough psyche, life couldn't touch me. I'd be completely immovable... I'm forever wanting to go someplace with God. I forget that in order to really want to GO, something has to happen to make me want to leave where I am. Maybe we're all just sick to death of taking three steps forward and two steps back. Call me a math wizard, but isn't that still one step forward? ... And if we don't lose that ground, aren't we on our way somewhere new? Willing to take three more steps - even if we lose two?" (ibid, pg. 12-13)

And finally...

"Thank God, a time comes in a willing life when you're ready to face a Goliath-sized foe all by itself and fight it to the stinking death." AMEN! (ibid, pg. 14)

Dancing On My Daddy's Feet

2009-12-17T09:36:00.005-06:00

Well, I'm sure that's an odd title but I'm not sure how else to describe it...

I've been struggling lately. The frantic pace, the pressure (much self-imposed), worries of this life... in the midst of it all, I lost my joy - and I missed it! As I talked with the Lord yesterday morning, I told Him that I longed to feel like a little girl again when I would wrap my arms tight around my daddy's waist, stand on his feet and let him dance me around the room. That was fun! That was safe! That was secure! That was living...

I cried out to my Abba. He has promised to be the father to the fatherless. I asked Him to place me on His feet, to wrap my arms around His waist and to dance me wherever He wanted me to go yesterday. And He did.

Yesterday, joy erupted out of nowhere! It filled me up and spilled over on those around me. I was full of gratitude for the many blessings that seemed to dazzle me everywhere that I looked. Though nothing special changed in my circumstances, everything was different. Life was abundant and free! It had been awhile.

I was asked what had made the difference. What Truth had the Lord used to set me free? I couldn't answer. All I knew was that the Lord had reached down from on high and took hold of me. He drew me out of deep waters. He brought me out into a spacious place. He rescued me because He delighted in me.

I awoke this morning with a slight sense of dread. What if my joy were gone again? How could I face a day like that again? I did a quick check on the day before. Had I done anything so awful as to separate me from Him? Oh, how fast those lies can fly in! I have never done anything that could earn my Father's love nor can I ever do anything that will separate me from it! (see Romans 8)

I asked my Father what had He done to set me free yesterday? What lies had I been listening to? Once again, we talked of dancing as a little daughter with her daddy. A little girl trusts her daddy. When she steps on his feet and wraps her arms around his waist, she is delighted to go where he goes. She knows that there is nothing quite as wonderful as the safety and security and thrill as her father swirls her and twirls her across the room. He's got her and that's all that matters.

Yesterday, the Lord just did that for me! There was no conscious decision to trust Him. He just rescued me - plain and simple. Today, I choose to dance with my Daddy. He's the Best! He cares for me. I'm wrapping my arms tight around Him and putting my feet on His feet. And you know, as the day has started spinning, I think I'm going to throw my head back and enjoy the ride!

Dancing With God (author unknown)

When I meditated on the word Guidance,
I kept seeing "dance" at the end of the word.
I remember reading that doing God's will is a lot like dancing.
When two people try to lead, nothing feels right.
The movement doesn't flow with the music,
and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky.
When one person realizes that, and lets the other lead,
both bodies begin to flow with the music.
One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back
or by pressing lightly in one direction or another.
It's as if two become one body, moving beautifully.
The dance takes surrender,
willingness, and attentiveness from one person
and gentle guidance and skill from the other.
My eyes drew back to the word Guidance.
When I saw "G: I thought of God, followed by "u" and "i".
"God, "u" and "i" dance." God, you, and I dance.
As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust
that I would get guidance about my life.
Once again, I became willing to let God lead.
My prayer for you today is that God's blessings and mercies be upon you
on this day and everyday.
May you abide in God as God abides in you.
Dance together with God, trusting God to lead and to guide you
through each season of your life.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

2009-12-11T10:37:00.002-06:00

Happy Birthday, Jesus!
The time is drawing near
when we will stop to celebrate
the night You were birthed here.
But, I have to tell You, Jesus,
I'm feeling quite ashamed.
I've been so busy working
I've barely pondered why You came...
Or how much You set aside above -
the King of Creation - crucified for love.

O my Lord, what can I do?
There must be something
I can give to You...
I have not myrrh, frankincense or gold
like the wise in days of old,
no political clout or worldly fame...
I have nothing that You would gain.
But, I humbly give myself to You -
my sins, my love, my gratitude
for all You graciously gave for me
the day You died on Calvary.

My Lord, You are my most treasured gift,
the Answer to my every wish.
Merry Christmas, Jesus!
There's nothing I need
but for more of You, I longingly plead.

More Lessons on the Art of War

2009-09-11T09:40:00.003-05:00

I LOVE the Lord! He is so gracious to me! He is my Rescuer! My Deliverer! The Only Wise God who knows exactly what I need! He knows that we gain strength as we lean on Him and find Him Strong!

These last few weeks, obstacles have been allowed on my path that I am powerless to move. It has been a fresh reminder each day of how desperately I need my Savior. Some days, I have fallen to the temptation to look at the size of the mountain in the way and shrink in fear and discouragment - but that's not the Lord's plan! He wants me to be able to rejoice in Him always and give thanks in all circumstances. This is His will for me in Christ Jesus and if I don't want to put out the Spirit's fire in my life, I need to take to heart what He's saying. He's been teaching me valuable lessons that I thought I would share with you. May we grow strong in His strength as we apply His Word to our every situation.

1. Give Up Trying to Play God and Humble Myself!

Jesus lived a sinless life upon this earth offering us His perfect example to follow. In Philippians 2:5-7 we read, "Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:] Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God[possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being."

These verses spoke to me in a new way. You see, the obstacles I have been facing have not felt fair. I have caught my thoughts swirling with things like "I don't deserve...", "I DO deserve..." or just in general complaining to the Lord about my plight. These are all such symptoms of pride! If the Lord never did anything beyond saving my soul it would be worth serving Him forever and yet all too often, I can be found putting myself onto the throne of my life - basically telling the Lord, "if I were God, I would do things differently." Jesus WAS and IS God and yet He humbled Himself and submitted to the will of the Father.

2. Crucify My Sinful Notions!

The passage goes on to say, "...He abased and humbled Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!" (verse 8). If I am going to follow Christ's example, I need to be willing to live the crucifed life. Selfish ambition, thoughts of getting even and complaining against my Maker are no way to live!

3. Recognize the Name and Authority Jesus and Bow the Knee.

"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue [frankly and openly] confess and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." (verses 10-11). May I trust Him - every moment - as Lord over all and desire to see His will be done in my life as it is in heaven.

4. Live Out My Salvation with Reverent Trembling and Vigilant Obedience!

"... work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ)" (verse 12). Salvation is completely a gift of grace but in light of the unfathomable price that Christ paid to save me, may I live my life cultivating the ground for His work in me to grow. May I purposely work to remove the weeds that would discredit His Name.

5. Praise the Lord! He Gives the Strength!

God never asks us to do anything that He does not give His strength to carry out! These directions are not too difficult. "[Not in your own strength] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you, [energizing and creating in you the power and desire] both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight" (verse 13).

6. So Stop Grumbling and Start Trusting!

The end of verse 13 reminds us that everything that God is working out in and for us is according to His GOOD pleasure. So I will endeavor to "Do all things without grumbling and faultfinding and complaining [against God] and questioning and doubting..." (verse 14).

7. I Can Rejoice in the Day that the Lord Has Made!

Before telling us to rejoice in the day that the Lord has made, Psalm 118 gives us 23 verses worth of reasons of why we can do exactly that! The Psalmist even reassures us that God knows that it is hard but "in the Name of the Lord" we can be triumphant! Lord, may this be what people see when they look at me. "... in the midst of a crooked and wicked generation [spiritually perverted and perverse]..." may I be "seen as bright lights (stars or beacons shining out clearly) in the [dark] world, holding out [to it] and offering [to all men] the Word of Life, so that in the day of Christ I may have something of which exultantly to rejoice and glory in that I did not run my race in vain or spend my labor to no purpose" (Philippians 2:15-16).

Lord, this isn't an easy lesson to learn but I praise You that You haven't given up working on me! May I acknowlege with my actions what I profess with my mouth - that You are Lord of my life this day. You are trustworthy! You are my Strength! May I live Your way. In the profoundly gracious Name of Jesus... Amen.

Learning the Art of War

2009-08-28T16:44:00.002-05:00

I don't like battles. There's nothing about the heat of the battle that I find appealing. I sometimes think that I want an easy, boring life - but that would be a disaster! Because then I would mistakenly think that I have a little, boring God. He is anything but! You see, it's the heat of the battle that drives me to my knees and to His Word and that's where I learn the vastness of His victories and His limitless grace and mercy when I succumb to defeat. It's as He trains my arms for war that I know, that I know, that I know that He is alive and an amazingly awesome God!

I "stumbled" upon a really interesting passage recently. Judges 3:1-4 says, "Now these are the nations which the Lord left to prove Israel by them, that is , all in Israel who had not previously experienced war in Canaan; it was only that the generations of Israelites might know and be taught war, at least those who previously knew nothing of it. The remaining nations are: the five lords of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites...They were for the testing and proving of Israel to know whether Israel would listen and obey the commandments of the Lord, which He commanded their fathers by Moses."

God had left a handful of warring nations in the Promised Land that He had given to Israel - on purpose! He intended to prove the Israelites by them and I believe to prove Himself to the Israelites by them as well. You see, the generation that had seen the miracles of the Lord as He redeemed the people of Israel out of Egypt had passed away. The generation that was left had heard the stories but they needed to see the Hand of God in almighty action and they needed to learn that victory comes only through listening and obeying the commands of the Sovereign God.

We live in a sin-filled, fallen world. And we can study all we want and have an intellectual knowledge of who God is, what He can do and what we can do through Him but if we never practice what we've learned, we never actually know if what we've learned is true. Soldiers need to train and practice so that they can be proved on the battlefield.

In God's great mercy, He hasn't declared this war over. He still has children that haven't chosen Him and He's giving them every opportunity. He could shield us from every trouble and let those who have put their trust in Him have an easy, boring life but what kind of testimony is that to those that are still making up their minds? What does that show them about God? It's the way believers can come through the battles that proves God genuine. So how are you doing at listening and obeying?

Flip the page to the next generation of Israelites in Judges 4 and 5. The battle was looming. The Israelites had enjoyed 40 years of peace yet in that time they had turned to idols. Judges 5: 8 reads, "Formerly they chose new gods; then war was in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among 40,000 in Israel?" The Israelites had gotten soft and forgetful. They had laid down their weapons and forgotten where they were. They had forgotten their All-Powerful God.

Now war is at their gates. Verses 15-18 of chapter 5 say, "And the princes of Issachar came with Deborah, and Issachar was faithful to Barak, into the valley they rushed forth at his heels. But among the clans of Reuben were great searchings of heart. Why Reuben did you linger among the sheepfolds listening to the piping for the flocks? Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. Gilead remained beyond the Jordan, and why did Dan stay with the ships? Asher sat still on the seacoast and remained by the creeks. [These came not forth to battle for God's people.] But Zebulun was a people who endangered their lives to the death, Naphtali did also on the heights of the field." Let me ask you, when war is at your gates, do you rise up in obedience to the command of God or are you like Reuben who lingers about considering but never engages? Perhaps you are like Gilead and Dan, afraid to leave your home and your things? I have been all three.

But Zebulun... which reads to me just like "but God..." in His limitless power took Zebulun, who was willing to go - probably in fear and trembling but obedient all the same - and raised them up to be mighty warriors! Up until now, "Zebulun, formerly known only for its experts with the ciphering-pencil, had now become a people courageous unto death." (F. Davidson, ed., The New Bible Commentary.)

Don't you want to be strong and courageous? Does it help to know that there is a purpose behind the battles that God allows us to face? Are you allowing yourself to learn and be trained in the art of war? The battle plan is simple but not easy - listen and obey. It requires practice. How's your listening? Your obedience? Your testimony? Remember, God is in the business of making you into a mighty warrior. He's looking for those willing to answer the call and follow Him. He's not stressed about the victory. It's already His. He's already won the war! He's looking for those He can train and prove genuine in battle. Will it be you? Will it be me?

Lord, I so often run and hide when war is at my gates. I enjoy times of peace only to find that my eyes so quickly turn aside to other things. Thank You for leaving some areas in my life that train me for war. Thank You that You prove Yourself way bigger, way smarter and way more powerful each time I see You in action! Thank You for keeping the battle plan simple - listen and obey. Please tune my ears to the slightest sound of Your Voice and stop me when I'm tempted to just contemplate going with You but never rise up to follow. Please help me to hold my home and possessions loosely. I want to be close enough to You that I see Your miracles! Please take the head-knowledge that I have of You and allow me to experience Your awesomeness! For Lord, I know, that I know, that I know that You always prove genuine!

Extreme Obedience

2009-08-08T07:17:00.002-05:00

There are many things that I love about the Lord but one thing that never ceases to delight me is how when I ask a question - even ones that I've forgotten I've asked - He doesn't and He is faithful to answer in His time!

I am reading Philippians in the Amplified Bible right now. It's one of my favorite books! I like to dialogue with the Lord in the margins. Sometime over the past three years, I had written in the margin of Philippians 2:8, "Lord, what does extreme obedience look like?" and then, no doubt, went on with my day. This time, the Lord revealed the answer like it was jumping off the page!

Just like Jesus "humbled Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross!" extreme obedience for us is humbling ourselves and dying to our selfish desires and ambitions or, as some have put it, living the crucifed life. Now as I sit here in the mornings, it is my desire to live wholly for Jesus. Many times in the moment of choice, I don't walk that out but I truly do want to bring God glory by living His way. So He teaches me. This is what I learned through the early verses of Philippians chapter 2...

Stop Trying to Play God!

(vs. 6-7) Speaking of Christ Jesus, "Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God [possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, but stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being." Jesus had God's credentials to His Name yet He set them aside and obeyed the Father as God. I try playing God of my own life all too often and the messes that I get myself into prove my credentials are sinfilled! If I want to walk like Jesus I have to stop acting as God of my life.

Remember Who it is That Is Speaking to You!

(vs. 10-11) That in (at) the Name of Jesus every knee should (must) bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue [frankly and openly] confess and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." How many times in my day, do I hear the mind of Christ telling me how to think and act and yet dismiss it the very next second because I did not stop to acknowledge Who it is that is offering direction? All too often, the dialogue in my mind has me responding "yes, but..." or "maybe later..." without ever pausing to realize that the One who loves me most is holding out to me the best path. It is absolutely critical that we become aware of our thoughts and acknowledge Who it is that is speaking to us through the power of the Holy Spirit! Once we realize that, it is easier to confess Jesus as Lord and bow our wills to His.

Actively Participate in the Process - Much is at Stake!

(vs. 12b) "work out (cultivate, carry out to the goal, and fully complete) your own salvation with reverence and awe and trembling (self-distrust, with serious caution, tenderness of conscience, watchfulness against temptation, timidly shrinking from whatever might offend God and discredit the name of Christ). There is a wealth of knowledge in this verse that far exceeds my mind but let me scratch the tip... In light of the awesome gift of salvation (see Ephesians 2:8-9) through Jesus Christ and the many blessings that God has instore for His children (see Ephesians 1:1-12), let's choose to cooperate in the process of our sanctification (becoming more like Christ). Let's quit trusting ourselves and be cautious, watching for temptation and shrink away from the things that might offend God and discredit the Name of Christ. The blessings that the Lord desires to pour out upon our every step of trusting obedience are so vast and the natural consequences of the sinful alternatives so unsatisfying!

He Is Faithful to Complete His Work!

(vs. 13) [Not in your own strength] for it is God Who who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight. We can learn lessons the easy way or the hard way. Often, we find things hard because our desires are at war within us. We desire to choose right and yet we're tempted to choose wrong. God is constantly at work on our desires, helping them fall in line with the things that are for our best and our blessing. You can trust Him to energize you and give you the power to walk in obedience to His desires for your life and you can be assured that His will for you is good, pleasing and perfect. (see Romans 12:2)

An Additional Thought...

(vs. 14) Do all things without grumbling and complaining and faultfinding and complaining [against God] and questioning and doubting [among yourselves]. As a parent, I can appreciate this one, though my behavior can sometimes be childlike. Obedience accompanied by grumbling and complaining doesn't make us a fun companion for anyone.

Receive this blessing in your spirit...

Spirit... be blessed in the name of the One who is life. Your Father is pleased that Jesus His Son lives in you and His Spirit makes His home in you. Choose the abundant life of Jesus in you (John 10:10)... God pledges the full faith of His great Name to you. His Word says in 1 Samuel 12:22, "For the sake of His great Name the LORD will not reject His people, because the LORD was pleased to make you His own." You have the pleasure of the Lord. He is pleased that you are His. You belong to Him. You are precious in His sight. You are a divine choice. Celebrate your chosenness. You are an expression of the embrace of the everlasting love of God. By His grace, seize your opportunities every day to choose life, to be life, to give life. Choose against what distracts you, confuses you, and puts in jeopardy the life of the Beloved in you. Choose to life from the heart of your Father.

Spirit, be blessed in the encouragement that comes from being united with Christ. Receive comfort from His love. Be blessed to choose fellowship with the Spirit. Bask in His tenderness and compassion. Make His joy complete by receiving His unshakable purpose for you in your Father. You have not read the final chapter of His plans for you. He has written a future and a hope for you. In Jeremiah 29:11 God says, "I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." This verse was written to people who were exiled and captive ina foreign country for seventy years. god kept His promise, and they returned to the land He gave them.

...be blessed with hope for your future in Him who chose your lfie. Choose to believe in hope that He who called you is faithful. It is your choice. Spirit, be blessed with trusting His thoughts and plans for welfare and peace, for your good an not for evil. **

Be blessed in the Name of the One who humbled Himself to extreme obedience on the cross for you that you may die to self to really live in Him! Amen.

** (c) 2008 Sylvia Gunter, "You are Blessee in the Names of God", pg. 33

Becoming a Wife of Valor

2009-08-04T08:08:00.004-05:00

I was reminded this morning about the incredible responsibility that we have as wives. When I truly walk as a godly woman, I can be an unbelievable blessing to my husband but when even the best of intentions are misguided, I can become a source of unspeakable pain to the one that I have sworn to love. As much as I hate to admit it, this is a lesson that I have learned by experience. Not that I always get it right now, but praise the Lord He's teaching me!

Proverbs 12:4 says, "A virtuous and worthy wife is a crowning joy to her husband but she who makes him ashamed is as rottenness in his bones."

The Hebrew word that is translated here as virtuous and worthy is Strong's 2428 chayil. It was often used as a war term. It refers to a force of means or other resources, strength or power applied. In all three cases where it is applied to wives (Ruth 3:11, Proverbs 12:4 & Proverbs 31:10) it is a force applied for good. It comes from the Hebrew root word chuwl (Strong's 2342) which means to dance OR writhe in pain, to bring forth or to fall grieviously.

Oh women! We have such HUGE responsibility in our marriages! We can cause our husbands to dance with joy or wound them painfully! A noble wife goes to war for her husband - not against him. I am so grateful for the prophet that the Lord sent to rebuke me. I didn't know! Young wives and mothers, let me share some of the lessons that I have learned so that you don't have to learn them the hard way!

Read, re-read then read again the words of 1 Peter 2:18 - 1 Peter 3:9. Take it from the Amplified Bible which puts "teeth" to the instructions to us. Like it or not, we, as housewives, are household servants! Submission - God's way - is not the end of ourselves but the key to such freedom in our marriages!

As we wives start to walk closer with the Lord, the temptation is so prevalent to preach at our husbands and tell them how to do it. They rebel, we get frustrated, discouraged and complain. How miserable we can become. Rather, we need to be their number one cheerleader! Cheer them on! Proverbs 16:24 says that "pleasant words are like a honeycomb, Sweetness to the soul and health to the bones." Thank and acknowledge them for the good things they are doing and allow the Holy Spirit to convict them of the things that need to be transformed. I can't tell you the benefits that I can personally testify to from such a little change! Try it!

Camp out in 1 Corinthians 13. You may be amazed by the record of wrongs that you've kept in your mind. Forgive them as you want to be forgiven. Start praying that the Lord would enable you to love according to His prescription. What He asks of you He will enable you to do when we die to self and live by His Spirit.

Start a record of "rights". Somedays it may be hard to see them so keep a record of things that he's doing well. Remind yourself of things that attracted you to him in the first place. Share your list with a good friend who can help you to remember when you're tempted to be discouraged. Remember that our friends hurt when we hurt and they often tend to commiserate with us rather than point out the positives. You need to tell them to help you dwell on your husbands good qualities.

Moms, are we serving our children and trying to change our husbands? That's wrong! Let's serve our husbands and train our children. It's Biblical. It's God's way and He blesses each feeble step we take in that direction.

Follow the command in Nehemiah 4:14 and remember the Lord who is great and fight for your husbands and home and your children. Fight for them on your knees! There's no more powerful position. Remember the Lord is the One who is able to do exceedingly abundantly - more than you could dare to ask or even imagine! That's your Commander and Chief.

Please don't allow the enemy to discourage you from this. Don't try once and give up. Proverbs 18:19 says, A brother offended is harder to win than a strong city, and contentions are like the bars of a castle.

Why am I so passionate about this? Because I am living a miracle! I had given up but God hadn't! I thought that fighting and dissension was what I would survive the rest of my life. When I thought that I couldn't stay for another day, God asked, "can you stay for today?" And He began giving my husband a new wife - and it was me! And you know what? I have a wonderful husband! I love him dearly! He's my friend. I love to spend time with him. I enjoy his company. And tucked away in my drawer is a reminder of where we've come from. A tear stained piece of paper on which I wrote the Word of God in 1 Peter 2:18-3:9 so that I could pray them though I didn't believe them possible. Friend, God's Word is Truth! Let Him show it to you.

O Abba, You are the Almighty God! You are the Creator of all things - even amazing love from cold embers. Ignite belief in the hearts of those that need it. May they remember Your greatness Lord and trust what You are capable of and longing to do for and in them and fight for their husbands and their homes and their families. Grant them spoils of battle to leave as an inheritance for their children. In the precious Name of Jesus... so be it!

Rose Colored Glasses

2009-08-03T06:48:00.002-05:00

I have just come through a real season of rebellion. I hate to admit it but it's true. Areas of my life where I know the Truth and have walked in freedom before were bombarded with temptation and whether because of fatigue or whatever, I just didn't have the strength to stand. As I write that, truth be told, I realize that though I wanted to live in freedom (there really is nothing like it), I also was enticed by the temptation.

God's Word puts it this way, "When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed." (James 1:13-14) God also says that if we look with longing towards the place that He has brought us out of, we can find constant opportunity to return to it. (see Hebrews 11:15) I did and the result was anything but pleasant. When we rebel against what the Lord has taught us and walk in disobedience, the result is a dampening of the Holy Spirit's fire within us and we speed towards sin having a stranglehold on our lives. Those chains are heavy!

Praise God! He once again broke through this vicious cycle. Humbling myself, I cried out in desperation for forgiveness and He heard my cry! So where do the rose colored glasses come in? In my dialogue with the Lord and my own struggle to forgive myself, He led me to Ephesians chapter 1. Verse 4 says, "For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight." "Oh, Lord," I cried, "that really is how You see me! I'm so glad that You wear rose colored glasses!"

Now, can I just tell you that I LOVE that the Lord will never allow us to walk in freedom from a lie! No sooner had I voiced the words to Him then He replied, "I do NOT wear rose-colored glasses! They are blood red! The blood of My Son is sufficient for you." You see, God is Truth and He cannot bear lies. He cannot look on my sin and just disregard it to see me as holy and blameless but the blood that Christ shed for my sins on the cross was - and is - enough to pay the penalty of my sin. When my Heavenly Father looks at me, He sees me through the precious blood of Jesus Christ and that beautiful robe of Christ's perfect righteousness has been placed over my rags. Praise be to God!

For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were His enemies, separated from Him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now He has reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in His physical body. As a result, He has brought you into His own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. (Colossians 1:19-23a)

Lord, I Want to be Like a Tree!

2009-06-14T16:43:00.002-05:00

Okay, at first, that may sound like an odd request but the Lord often relates our lives to the growth of a tree. There's Psalm 1 that says when we meditate on the Word of God and trust His counsel He blesses us as a tree planted by streams of water - healthy trees - bringing forth fruit in season. Or there's Isaiah 61:3 that says that the Lord came to make us into oaks of righteousness, a planting for the display of His splendor.

I LOVE both of these passages! What an awesome picture! I even have a favorite tree! I like to tell the Lord that I'm so glad He planted it just for me! It is magnificent! It towers over other trees, that if seen on their own, look pretty amazing themselves. The trunk is so sturdy and strong and its' leaves offer such wonderful shade and shelter. I love it! The Lord has used this particular tree to teach me many things over the years, especially during life's strong winds and storms. Often, He has reminded me to choose Him and His Word and that when the winds once again subside, I'll be stronger... because I'm rooted in Him.

This week, one of the passages that I was taken to was Ephesians 3:16-21.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

I praise the Lord for new layers of understanding! We were challenged to draw a tree and consider its' roots. How far did our roots go down into the LOVE of God? The Lord took me on a google tangent... He wanted to show me some more about roots. It shouldn't surprise us that young, immature trees send out their roots just under the soil. They require consistent rain to water them and they are greatly influenced by the elements. Their roots act as tethers but they will never grow into grand, mature trees if they don't develop sinker roots. A sinker root plummets deep into the soil of the earth. There were a fair amount of interesting facts listed in various research papers but one phrase struck me profoundly. Sinker roots enable the tree to avoid drought not endure drought!

Life happens. Storms come. Winds blow and seasons of drought are inevitable. My roots need to be anchored deeply into the love of God for me. When I know - really know - that His love for me is unconditional and that nothing can separate me from that love, I can weather the elements because in Him I can be lavishly nourished and soul-satisfied! Praise His Name! Now that's a love worth expending energy grasping! Wouldn't you agree?

Just Thoughts...

2009-06-14T15:52:00.002-05:00

A couple of different verses have been wafting through my mind these last weeks and as I've been turning them over, they have begun to resonate in new ways.

The first verse is...

I will call upon the LORD, Who is to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies. (Psalm 18:3 Amplified)

It has registered that I'm to call on the LORD when I'm pursued by the enemy, but somehow, that simple phrase in the middle and the accompanying "so" had escaped my attention. "Who is to be praised" is telling me how to call. When the enemy is pushing in on me, when I'm feeling hard-pressed on every side, I'm to call upon the LORD in praise! I thought on that a little more. When I choose praise, I am choosing to acknowledge that He is God - I am not - and I can trust Him to save me in His time and His way. Praise lifts my eyes from the enemy to the Savior.

The Name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. (Proverbs 18:10)

This verse has also taken on new meaning, especially in light of Psalm 18:3. I've practiced that when I realize my thoughts are contrary to what the LORD would want them to be, to call upon the Name of Jesus. It has helped me a lot but once again, I have come to learn that I was only applying a portion of this Word of God. "The righteous run to it" and are safe. When my thoughts are going astray, it's a great start to call upon the Name of the LORD, but then I need to follow that up with acknowledging where I am in relation to where He is and then RUN to Him! That's where the safety lies! It's not enough to just call out His Name. When we see that He is wanting us to go one direction and we've taken a look, or steps, down another, we need to get moving in His direction! Add the two verses together and we see that as the enemy pursues us, we need to stop, call out, acknowledge His way, command, direction is Sovereign and then make haste to follow in His footsteps!

I think this is what the Apostle Paul was talking about in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. We live in a fallen world and the enemy and our own evil desires seek to entice away but at the first realization that trouble approaches, call upon the Name of the LORD, acknowledging His Lordship and Sovereignty and then, no matter what our emotions, desires, or earthly pressures might be pressing on us, RUN to His position and way of thinking as He outlines in His Word. That's taking our thoughts captive in obedience to Christ. Calling out without further action is only the first step in the process.

LORD, I hear You say that whoever has Your commands AND OBEYS them, he is the one who loves You. I desire to love You with all of my heart, all of my mind, with all of my soul and with all of my strength but sometimes pressures push hard in the opposite direction. Please help me to remember that Your Name, Your Word and the power of praise are powerful weapons available for victory. No matter what I may feel or desire, may I run to You and follow in Your footsteps for in them, there is great safety! In YOUR NAME Jesus, I ask it... Amen.

God is NOT Late!

2009-05-20T13:00:00.003-05:00

Are you tired of "waiting" on the Lord? Does it seem that, though you've told Him you need Him, He is late coming around? Does it even feel like He's not coming? We all have experienced this at one time or another. I was reminded that despite how it may appear to our finite minds, God is never late!

In John 11 we read the account of the death and resurrection of Lazarus. It is clear from the passage that Lazarus was dearly loved by the Lord Jesus (vs. 3, 5) yet, when word came to Jesus that Lazarus was sick, Jesus did not immediately go to him. Instead, the Lord stayed where he was for two days longer though it is also obvious that Jesus was aware of the severity of Lazarus illness. In fact, the Sovereign Lord knew that Lazarus was dead (vs. 11-14). So why didn’t He drop whatever He was doing and go to His friend and heal him?

Consider the following verses…

When Jesus received the message, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death; but [on the contrary] it is to honor God and to promote His glory, that the Son of God may be glorified through (by) it.” (John 11:4 AMP)

Jesus was already accomplishing His plan, to the glory of the Father, but the plan included a purposeful delay.

Therefore [even] when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He still stayed two days longer in the same place where He was. (vs. 6)

“Therefore” refers back to verse 4 and Christ’s purpose to bring the Father glory. Jesus brought greater glory to the Father by waiting 2 more days to reveal the His power.

Then after that interval He said to His disciples, “Let us go back again to Judea.” (vs. 7)

Christ acted according to His timetable.

The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, the Jews only recently were intending and trying to stone You, and are You [thinking of] going back there again?” Jesus answered… “Our friend Lazarus is at rest and sleeping; but I am going there that I may awaken him out of his sleep.” (vs. 8-9a, 11b)

Christ will not be detained. He is not afraid of the circumstances. All authority has been given Him in heaven and on earth. Whatever comes to pass must first pass through the hands of the Almighty God.

And for your sake I am glad that I was not there; it will help you to believe (to trust and rely on Me). However, let us go to him. (vs. 15)

When Christ “delays” it is to help our belief. There will be a time for Him to act.

So when Jesus arrived, He found that he [Lazarus] had already been in the tomb four days. (vs. 17)

There was a prevalent belief in that day that the spirit of a dead person hovered close for 3 days. By waiting until Lazarus had been dead 4 days, he was DEAD in the minds of the people. Christ waited until the people could not dismiss His work as anything less than a miracle!

What areas or situations in your life does it seem that God is late showing up to? Is there a specific issue or part of you that feels “dead”? Like Martha in verse 21, do you feel that if God had just shown up sooner…? Is it possible that Christ is purposely delaying in order to bring greater glory? Not that we must know but what greater glory might He have in mind?

Jesus said to her (Martha), “Did I not tell you and promise you that if you would believe and rely on Me, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone, and Jesus… shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” And out walked the man who had been dead. (vs. 40-41a, 43b-44a)

Believe Him when His Word says that He wants to do the miraculous in your life. Listen to His voice when He calls you to “come out!” He is not scared away or offended by the stench of our dead places. Rather, that’s why He came - that we would have life and that to the full! (see John 10:10) Will you trust Him and obey Him as He resurrects your life – in His ways and on His timetable?

Lord, I pray that I would not be so set in my mind and heart as to how You should work and when You should show up that I miss the fact that You are ALWAYS at work - for my good and Your greater glory! In the Name of Jesus, the Raiser of the dead, so be it!

Mother's Day: Blessed to be a Blessing...

2009-05-16T09:46:00.003-05:00

I was privileged to be able to speak at a local area church this past Mother's Day. The link will be available for a couple of weeks. If you miss it, please contact me and I will make it available to you.

May the Lord bless you richly as you in turn, bless others. Happy Mother's Day!

http://mdacbrandon.com/v1/blessed-to-be-a-blessing/

Prescription for Peace or Prescription for Disaster!

2009-05-09T07:36:00.004-05:00

I am working through the Breaking Free study by Beth Moore. Today, the lesson started with a discussion on peace. We took a look at Philippians 4:6-7 which reads...

Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

Perhaps you have read those verses a hundred times, maybe even memorized them. Well, I wasn't prepared for the exercise that followed. Try rewriting or paraphrasing these words BUT ONLY IN THE NEGATIVE! Why don't you give it a try before you read any further...

Do not be calm about anything, but in everything keep grumbling! Whatever you do, don't pray! Don't ask the Lord for His help in anything! And anxiety galore - fit for every circumstance - will ensure that your heart and your mind are unprotected and exposed - apart from Christ Jesus...

Now, I'm not suggesting anyone follow that prescription! What a prescription for disaster! When you see it put into words and in black and white doesn't it just reveal the lunacy of our actions on so many occasions? Why do we do that? We DO do that! Isn't it true that the times when our insides are tied in knots the most are when we can't quit grumbling and complaining - playing out all of the "what if's" long enough to even see straight to pray, let alone do so with thanksgiving. I'm convinced that we often even mistake our complaining tongue and wagging finger for prayer because we're telling it to the Lord.

The way to peace is through a life marked by knee prints! Ones of bended knee to Christ's Authority and time spent often waiting with Him in prayer. I recently read a quote on another blog (http://www.beckyturner.com/) that asks the question how can we appeal to Christ's Authority when we don't submit to His Authority. The prophet Isaiah foretold of Christ coming as the "Prince of Peace" and that the government would be upon His shoulders. Let me ask you this morning, how's your peace? Where's the government of your life today? Is it resting on your shoulders or His?

Knowing the Rest of the Story

2009-04-09T09:54:00.005-05:00

As I was driving to work this morning, my heart was full of joy! I was singing, at least on the inside, as I was celebrating the glory of Easter Morning (a few days early)! What an amazing and awesome knowledge - I know that my Redeemer lives! Then I thought back two thousand years and thought what was my Lord experiencing today...

Today was the day that Jesus had His "Last Supper" with His disciples, the 12 men that He had spent nearly every moment of the previous three and a half years with. He knew that this was the last time that they would fellowship over a meal together before He died. Today was the day that Jesus served His disciples the bread and the wine of Passover knowing full well that it was merely the prelude to the True Bread and Wine of His body and blood that He would serve for all mankind the next day.

Today was the day that Jesus took His friend Peter aside and told him that he would deny Him, not once, but three times. His heart was full of compassion as He told Peter that He had been praying for him. Today was the day that Christ told Judas to go and do what he had to do even knowing that it was to finalize the arrangements for His betrayal. Today was the day that His betrayal would be with a kiss.

Today was the day that Jesus could have used some faithful friends. Today was the day that His three closest friends were too tired to watch with Him awhile. Today was the day that my Lord cried out in such distress to His Father that He sweat drops of blood. Today was the day that Jesus asked the Father if there was another way. Today was the day that Christ willingly submitted to the will of the Father and said, "yet not My will but Thine."

Today was the day that Christ performed one more miracle - and for an "enemy". Today was the day that Jesus healed the servant of the High Priest whose ear Peter cut off in panic and rage. Today was the day that my Lord went willingly with those who would beat Him, mock Him and spit upon Him. Today, the Lord went without sleep. Today was the day that everyone deserted Him and fled! Today the Lord was alone.

Today I was tempted to feel guilty for my joy...

And what about tomorrow? The events of today were "bad" enough. What about the events we mark tomorrow? A crown of thorns thrust into His head, stripe upon stripe carved into the flesh on His back, nails piercing His hands and feet, suffocating to give those who will receive it His breath of life, blood running down a wooden cross while those He died to save ridiculed Him. My mind shys away from such horrors. It's too much for me to bear. Yet...

Hebrews 12:2 says, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith, who for the JOY set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." (emphasis mine)

Jesus, the One who authored my faith, endured the cross because of the joy He knew would be His as He paved the way for us to live in relationship with Him. He endured so that He could provide me with the very joy I was tempted to feel guilty for. I know joy today because I know the love that the Lord has for me. He proved it 2000 years ago. Joy overflows from within me because I know the rest of the story. Three days later He arose and now He sits at the right hand of the throne of God and intercedes for me!

Lord Jesus, today I am filled with joy because of Your love displayed for me. Today I stop and remember the price that You paid. Today I praise You for living, dying and rising again for me! Today is the day, just like yesterday and just like tomorrow, that I gratefully choose to live my life for you.

The Awesome in the Insignificant

2009-03-28T13:27:00.002-05:00

I woke up discouraged this morning. You know those days that when you get right down to it, either the Lord just isn't doing what you want Him to do or the answers to your prayers just seem to be taking too long. We talked about it this morning and He was so gracious to remind me that He knows it's hard sometimes but I can trust Him. He IS working. His plans are for my good. His timing is perfect.

I was reminded of Joshua and the Israelites crossing the Jordan River. The LORD told them that as soon as the priests carrying the ark of the covenant stepped into the river, He would stop the water. Well, the priests obeyed and stepped out in faith and the LORD answered at that exact moment and stopped up the water... approximately 16 miles upstream! It has been calculated that the priests stood in the river, with the water rushing against them, for 7 1/2 - 12 1/2 hours before they saw the results of God's working. That's where the LORD has me right now... persevering in faith though sometimes I'm ever so aware that the waters of life are rushing against me. You can read about it in Joshua 3.

I accepted that Word and then proceeded to say, "But, Lord, it's hard..." I am so glad that His loving-kindness endures forever, that His mercies are new every morning! He took me to one of my favorite passages - Psalm 118. In verses 10-11, He seems to say, "I know that the enemy seems to be compassed about you. I know they surround you on every side BUT in My Name you will cut them off." It's as if He hears me still say, "it's hard, Lord." Once again, I feel Him say, "I know. It seems like bees swarming or a fire blazing through the underbrush BUT in My Name you will cut them off!" I can once again echo the words of the psalmist who said, "my adversary thrust sorely at me that I might fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my Strength and Song and He has become my Salvation." (Psalm 118:13-14 Amplified) The Lord enabled me to greet the day with a song in my heart and my hope renewed!

So off We went - my Lord and I - grocery shopping. Now you might think that I'm crazy but I love to go grocery shopping with the Lord! I am learning to really trust His provision and He seems to delight in surprising me with good gifts. Today, He showed His awesome care for me! He cares about the needs and desires that seem huge as well as the absolutely insignificant! I wanted some Glade plug-in airfreshners. I was given a number of the refills but didn't have anything to plug them into. We're really trying to honor the Lord with our finances and trust Him in big decisions and small, so as I was looking at the little gadgets, I asked Him if I could have one. It was $5.99 for one plug-in and refill. He told me that it could wait so I left it. I finished in that store and then had to go to another to get cream for our coffee. As I walked to the dairy aisle, there was a clearance display with a bonus pack of Glade plug-in airfreshners on for 50% off! For $4.99, I got TWO plug-ins and TWO refills! The Lord knew what He had already reserved for me just a little farther down the road!

I love the Lord! I sang, "He loves me too! He loves me too! I know He loves me too! If God so loves these little things, I know He loves me too!" Those words are from an old chorus called "He sees the Little Sparrow". I couldn't help but wonder about the circumstances that prompted the disciples to record those words. Can't you just see Jesus, stooping down to pick up a tiny sparrow that fell from its place of security. Can you picture Him cradling the tiny bird, quietly speaking words of reassurance? Doesn't it just make you stop in wonder? Who is this Jesus that He cares for the things that the world doesn't stop to see? He's the All-Powerful, All-Knowing, All-Sufficient Savior and He's caring for our details! Thank You, Lord!

Such Reason to "Fear Not"

2009-03-20T10:50:00.002-05:00

Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. Yes, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

How can you not love words like that? I read them, memorize them, remind myself of them and they are such sweet words of life to me! Can it get sweeter? Praise His Name (which I discovered is Elohim in this passage) it can!!

I spent time in this verse this morning. I pulled out "Strong's Concordance" and dug into the original Hebrew words. I am constantly amazed at how limiting the English language is. Despite our many words, we only paint in water colors the awesome brilliance of the Word of God. Consider these definitions and how much more depth they cast in an already magnificent masterpiece.

"Elohim" - The Supreme God of gods, the Sovereign Authority Who mightily created all that is, the Triune God Who spoke (or perhaps sang) the world into being.

"with" - The Hebrew word is 'im (5973). It means to accompany, as long as, beside, before and (from 6004) to associate or to overshadow by huddling together. How profound!

Fear not for I, the Creator of all, am with you, accompanying you as long as you are. There's no reason to be afraid. I am beside you, before you, overshadowing you as We huddle together!

"dismayed" - Hebrew sha'ah (8159) meaning to gaze about (for help), as one looking around in amazement or bewilderment.

Don't gaze about you in bewilderment. Your help is right here. I spoke the world and all that it contains into being with just My Words. I am your God!

"strengthen" - 'amats (553) which means to be alert physically or mentally, to be courageous, stedfastly minded, strong, stronger, fortify and prevail.

"help" - 'azar (5826) to surround, protect, aid.

"uphold" - tamak (8551) to sustain, keep fast, help, follow close, retain or hold up (with a reference to 8543 - just as He did yesterday and the day before that and the day before that).

My God will make me physically strong and courageous. He will cause my mind to be stedfast. I will be fortified and I can prevail! He has promised to come to my aid and protect me. He reminds me again that He surrounds me. He will sustain me and keep me held fast - just like He did yesterday and the day before that. Hindsight always gives me a truer picture of the incredible strength and dexterity of His righteous right arm!

O Creator God, these words give life to my heart and soul! You have proved them true to me over and over again! You say fear not because there is nothing to fear! You've got me covered. When I look back at who I used to be and the situations that You have sustained me through, I see Your mighty strength everywhere! As You remind me of that, there is no need to gaze about for help. My help comes from You, O Lord, and I feel Your courage well up within me once again. Thank You for the precious gems in Your Word. Thank You for challenging me to mine them! I love You, Lord!

More on Precepts and Statutes...

2009-03-06T12:58:00.003-06:00

If you haven't read "Precepts, Statutes and Other Awesome Stuff!" yet, skip over this entry until you have...

This blog entry is all about my core values and priorities that the Lord has been impressing upon my heart. These are the priorities that govern my time schedule and tasks. These are what I use to help me choose between good and best. For those of you that know me, these are the things that I want to be remembered by to the praise of the Lord's marvelous grace!

Karrie Smyth - Core Values

I am the Vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, He will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. John 15:5

Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD Almighty. Zechariah 4:6

Therefore, by the power of His Spirit in me:

1. Above all, I will seek intimate fellowship with the Lord.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

If my people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30)

2. I will live a life of worship and therefore a life of joy.

“If He never did any more for me than save my soul, it would be worth praising Him forever!”

I beseech you therefore, brethren, in light of God’s great mercies, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service [spiritual act of worship]. (Romans 12:1 KJV [NIV])

Jesus declared… “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24)

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! (Philippians 4:4)

Light is sown for the [uncompromisingly] righteous and strewn along their pathway, and joy for the upright in heart [the irrepressible joy which comes from consciousness of His favor and protection]. (Psalm 97:11 AMP)

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. (James 1:2-3)

3. Because I know the Master, I will have integrity with my time, talents and treasure.

The man who had received the five talents brought the other five. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with five talents. See, I have gained five more.” His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” (Matthew 25:20-21)

Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise [sensible, intelligent people] making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15-16)

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God. (1 Corinthians 10:31-32)

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

4. I will bring honor to my husband as I serve him.

The heart of her husband trusts in her confidently and relies on and believes in her securely, so that he has no lack of [honest] gain or need of [dishonest] spoil… Her husband is known in the [city’s] gates, when he sits among the elders of the land. (Proverbs 31:11, 23 AMP)

[You who are] household servants, be submissive to your masters with all [proper] respect… in like manner, you married women, be submissive to your own husbands [subordinate yourselves as being secondary to and dependent on them, and adapt yourselves to them], so that even if any do not obey the Word [of God], they may be won over not by discussion but by the [godly] lives of their wives. (1 Peter 2:18a, 3:1 AMP)

5. I will bring blessing to my children as I train them.

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. (Deuteronomy 30:19)

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers… (Deuteronomy 11:18-21)

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

6. I will honor God with my body.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

But [like a boxer] I buffet my body…discipline it…and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit [not stand the test, be unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit]. (1 Corinthians 9:27 AMP)

7. I will love others as Christ commands.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (John 13:34-35)

Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire this love [make it your aim, your great quest]; and earnestly desire and cultivate the spiritual endowments (gifts)…since you are so eager and ambitious to possess spiritual endowments and manifestations of the [Holy] Spirit, [concentrate on] striving to excel and to abound [in them] in ways that will build up the church. (1 Corinthians 14:1a, 12 AMP)

And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:24-25)

8. I will be a seeker of the lost, a teacher of disciples and an equipper of leaders.

[Strive to] save others, snatching [them] out of [the] fire; on others take pity [but] with fear, loathing even the garment spotted by the flesh and polluted by their sensuality. (Jude :23)

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. (1 Peter 3:15)

Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you… (Matthew 28:19, 20a)

Remember your leaders, who spoke the Word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. (Hebrews 13:7)

I encourage you to sit quietly before the Lord and work out values based on His Word for your life. It has been one of the most life-changing exercises that I have ever done. My values are bigger than what is taking place in my life at any one moment and have been only minimally revised in the years since I wrote them. Many years ago, I wrote a personal mission statement but I struggled greatly to know how to live it out. If these are my values, they are going to place requirements on my time. If these are my values, they lead to specific goals and extend to the day to day details of my task list. The Lord gave me an amazing friend who specializes in teaching women how to determine and live out lives of purpose. If you would like more information on how to do this, leave me a message and a way to reach you and I will get you further information.

Now, by the grace of God, may I "finish the work so that my eager willingness to do it will be matched by my completion of it according to my means." (see 2 Corinthians 8:11)

Precepts, Statutes and Other Awesome Stuff...

2009-03-06T09:51:00.005-06:00

I have enjoyed the discipline of daily Bible reading for a number of years now but on January 4th, 2009, when Beth Moore issued the challenge to be "steeped" in the Word of God, the message resonated deep within me. She called us to wonder what the Lord might do in and through those that would give Him a year and take a deep dive into the Word. So, with anticipation and excitement, I plunged in!

Beth had read from Psalm 119 and I decided that this was the perfect place to start. After all, I wanted to know what the Lord required of me concerning His Word and what He promised concerning His Word. Psalm 119 is an acrostic of the Hebrew alphabet, each section divided into 8 verse sections. I started by reading 1 section a day in the Amplified, King James and New Living Translations. On day 2, I decided to look up key words in Hebrew using the Strong's Concordance. I was immediately stunned by just how limited the English language is! When I stop to consider that I am an English speaker merely looking words up in basically an English/Hebrew dictionary, I can't tell you how much I wish that I were Hebrew speaking and understood more of that culture and tradition! However, the Lord is so faithful! I have learned so much! And with each new lesson comes new excitement! I thought that I would share just a few of the highlights with you...

Precepts... The Hebrew word used many times in Psalm 119 as precepts is "piqquwd". As simply as I can define it, it is the collective mandates of God. The Merrium/Webster online dictionary suggests an authoritative mandate especially of a superior to an inferior as well as an authorization to act as a representative. Before this, I always thought that the words precepts, statutes, commandments and testimonies were basically interchangeable. Although I see much overlap, there is specific and significant unique meaning to each word. As I've sat at the Lord's feet and been taught by His Spirit, He's shown me some valuable applications to my life. Not only do God's collective mandates for me include the Ten Commandments and to love the Lord my God with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength and to love my neighbor as myself (see Mark 12:30-31) but they also include the values and goals that His Word has inspired and even the priorities and tasks that spring from those. Over the past couple of years, the Lord has been impressing these on me and we've been working through them (I'll post them under their own heading). Through my study of Psalm 119, I've come to consider the Lord's precepts as His "pre-sets" for my life. I am to "do no willful wandering" from them (vs. 3), "observe them diligently" (vs. 4). I can ask the Lord to "make me understand the way" of His precepts. The word understand is to cause me to recognize intelligently, discern spiritually and even feel emotionally (see Strong's 995 "biyn"). I am to seek and inquire for His precepts for they will cause me to "walk at liberty and at ease" (vs. 45)! Does it get any more promising than that?! I am merely scratching the surface but if it's by His precepts that I am quickened, repaired, made whole, given the promise of life... I WANT them!

Statutes... The Hebrew word for statutes is "choq" (Strong's 2706). (Forgive me for not knowing how to type in the appropriate accents in the transliterations). These are enactments, hence appointments of time, space, quantity, labor or usage. The Lord God of the Universe has the right to set appointments upon my time, my space and personal environment, my labor, what I use, to set up tasks - whatever with me! Though I have found 3 distincitively separate words for "teach" in Psalm 119, I think the one used in verse 33 regarding statutes is my favorite! "Teach me, O LORD, the way of thy statutes; and I will keep it unto the end." That word "teach" or "yarah" is showcased in 2 Chronicles 26 (especially vs. 15) when young King Uzziah was "marvelously helped til he was strong." The Lord taught this young 16 year old King of Judah and he won victories, fortified the kingdom, harvested and even manufactured inventions. I want the Lord to teach me about using my time, space, labor etc. to produce a maturity in me like that! I can count on Him to teach me His statutes. The word translated "teach" in verse 26 implies that He will do it through discipline if He has to. I have to say, "Praise God"! Do what it takes!

Testimonies... Hebrew 5713 "edah" is the Lord's witnesses (within me). I am to keep them (vs. 2) for they are my "delight" and my "counsellors" (vs. 24). When I "cleave" to the witness of His Spirit within me, I will not be put to shame (disappointed or delayed, confounded, confused or dry) (vs. 31). How wonderful! You know those checks that we sense in our spirit when we are about to do something we shouldn't or the confirmation we sense when we have chosen obedience. "Listening" to the witness of God's Spirit within me definitely takes awareness and practice and I don't claim to have mastered it but it is so precious to us that the Lord likens it to "enough riches" in verse 14! How much is enough for you? No debt! No needs! No wants! Would you rejoice in that kind of material substance? "I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as [much as] in all riches." O Lord, please bring me to the place where I understand the depths of that!

I'd love to tell you about the Hebrew word that we translate "way" or "ways" or how awesome it is that "all my ways are [fully known]" before the Lord. Check out the Hebrew word "derek" (Strong's 1870) for that! Or how the word we translate as "walk" implies practice. Or the word "turn" (vs. 59) how it reminds us that God knows He's going to have to come and fetch us home "again and again". Praise Him! I could go on and on but that would rob you of such a blessing as you search for yourself.

There is one last thing that I want to share. It's an answer to a prayer that I forgot that I had prayed. (I'm so thankful that our God doesn't forget!) On January 1st, 2009, the Lord was showing me that He was going to do a new work in my life (Isaiah 43:19). He is leading me on a path that I haven't known (Isaiah 42:16). It's His pleasure to magnify instruction and revelation (Isaiah 42:21) and was I not going to "give heed" to it (Isaiah 43:19b)? I wrote in my journal "How, Lord? Show me how to heed!" Perhaps the most profound definition of all came just 6 short days later...

The Hebrew word translated "heed" and in other places as keep and obey is "shamar" (Strong's 8104). It means to hedge about (as with thorns), to be circumspect (360 degrees), to protect, to attend to, to keep (oneself), to mark and to save. I want the Word of God to be so involved in my life as to be a hedge of thorns 360 degrees around me to guard and protect me, to attend to and save me from the tempting dangers of our world! Now that puts new meaning to our conscience being "pricked" as we are tempted to wander from the life-giving witness of the Sweet Spirit of God as He reminds us of God's collective mandates (or pre-sets) for our lives, the Lord's rightful appointments as to our time, space, labor, tools of usage and whatever else the Lord asks of me - for my own good!

Do this new work in me, Lord! I love the way You are magnifying Your instructions! Steep me in Your Truth! And since I am absolutely positive that I am completely incapable of doing this work on my own, I am especially grateful for the reminder that You gave me yesterday...

"Blessed be the Lord, Who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. Not one word has failed of all His good promise... that He may incline our hearts to Him, to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His precepts which He commanded... that He may maintain the cause and right of His servant and of His people Israel as each day requires." (see 1 Kings 8:56, 58, 59b)

Walking...

2009-02-07T12:13:00.003-06:00

I recently had the pleasure of watching two little girls - identical twins - learn to walk. Though they were born only moments apart, Maggie was decidedly braver at trying out her little feet than her sister Amara. With wobbly legs, Maggie would stubbornly put one tiny foot in front of the other, progressively running one, two, three... steps together while her mom and I cheered her on. Though there were many, many falls it was exciting to see her progress!

Amara, on the other hand, was timid. Each time we would set her upon her feet and encourage her to try, she would eventually opt for sitting on the floor and crawling to her destination. After all, crawling was what she was used to and it was safe. It was obvious to me that both girls had the balance but only one had the courage to step out in faith. At one point, I saw Amara, out of the corner of my eye, sitting on the very edge of the bottom step clearly trying to muster the nerve to get up and walk. I called her. I coaxed her. I offered my arms wide open for her to step into and once - just once - she took two steps before returning to crawling.

By the time I left for home, Maggie was running short series of steps together and Amara was playing with me on the floor. I had the BEST time! It was so much fun! Who knew that I could have so much delight just watching both precious girls mature - one baby step at a time!

Those were God-ordained moments. In His Sovereignty, He knew exactly what would resonate with me. The very next morning in my quiet time, I was studying Psalm 119:1. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. My way didn't seem very undefiled. In fact, there seemed to be nothing in between. I was convinced my options were either defiled or perfect. I don't need to tell you which I categorized myself under. I immediately compared myself to many people that could walk this life out better than I was. Then the Lord spoke. "Do you love Maggie more than Amara?" No. Why? "Because Maggie can walk better?" No. I had enjoyed every moment with both of the girls and I knew that Amara could do it. She just didn't believe it yet. That's how it is with our Lord. He knows what we are capable of and He keeps encouraging us and spurring us on through the next step. Not because He's going to love us more as we accomplish it but because that's what babies are supposed to do. Grow. Mature. Walk. That shows health and it gives the child a whole new world to explore. And doesn't our Father's world offer so much to explore?

So, I sit on the edge, look to my Father for strength and courage and then, in faith, put one foot ahead of the other while His arms open wide! Walking is a process. I'm becoming more and more proficient at it each day and my Father is the best. He cheers me on and catches me when I fall.

Now to Him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before His glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. Jude 24-25

By the way, you should see Amara go now!

The Promise of "But God" Forever...

2009-01-09T13:31:00.003-06:00

I began the New Year reading in Isaiah. I love the book of Isaiah. I can see so much of myself in the Israelite people. They want to serve the Lord their God and yet it takes so little to derail them. Oh, how I can appreciate that! I desire, with all my heart, to serve the Lord and walk obediently to His commands and then I find myself doing the very thing that He's instructed me not to. As I read the promises, the warnings, the failures... I began to notice an element in the pattern that I had overlooked before. "But God..." These two little words kept popping up. Every time I was tempted to feel overwhelmed by the rebellion that I could all too easily identify with, a verse would begin with "but God."

Take a look at these examples:

...Was it not the Lord, He against Whom we have sinned and in Whose ways they would not walk, neither were they obedient to His law or His teaching?... BUT now thus says the Lord... "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine." (Isaiah 42:24, 43:1)

Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor someone might even dare to die. BUT GOD shows and clearly proves His own love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:7-8)

I could go on and on. There are many examples throughout the scriptures. I challenge you to take a look. They are precious, precious promises! For me, the icing on the cake is that we are promised a "But God" forever. Psalm 73:26 says, My flesh and my heart may fail BUT GOD is the Rock and firm Strength of my heart and my Portion FOREVER!

It doesn't get any better than that! Thank You, Lord!

Christmas with the Shepherds

2008-12-23T13:27:00.003-06:00

I was challenged this morning to read the Christmas story in Luke 2 and try to envision myself in the midst of the scenes. My eyes were drawn to verse 18 where it says, "and ALL who heard it were astounded and marveled..." (emphasis mine). It wasn't just the sentimental or the uneducated that marveled. ALL who heard marveled! O Lord, how many times have I read the account of the birth of the King of kings and swallowed the familiar without being astounded? How often have I not marveled? I asked the LORD to allow me to join their ranks and truly see the Christ Child. I was not disappointed...

As I read the first four verses, I couldn't help but wonder if the country was ablaze with discontent and complaining as people were inconvenienced by long journeys - often on foot - to register in their hometowns. Were the rumblings all of raised taxes? Or was there an underlying excitement of reunions with family and friends? Was Joseph stressed out? Did the details of travelling with his young, very pregnant wife leave him feeling frazzled? Did he wonder if he could do this thing that the LORD had called him to do - parent the Son of God?

And what about Mary? I remember making sure that the nursery was just so for the birth of my children. The curtains matched the bedskirt. Every inch sparkled and I was well prepared and well stocked - the product of many hours of prenatal classes and help from my mom. Was Mary disappointed with the filthy surroundings where she would have to give birth? Was she disheartened with the bed in which she lay the Son of the Most High? Or was she so enraptured with the tiny face that held the Promise of all generations that she was oblivious to all but her Messiah?

What about the words "the days were accomplished" that she should deliver? Don't you just rejoice in the reminder that God is accomplishing your days?

And shepherds... Praise the Lord for shepherds! Our nativity scenes depict them so calm, well-mannered and serene. I had forgotten that they were the ruffians of society. Shepherds were rowdy, uncivilized men of despicable character! They weren't even allowed to testify in court! Their language was course and vulgar. They were feared by those around them but they feared no one. They fought off wild animals who would prey on their sheep! But tonight, these men were terrified! A single angel - accompanied by the glory of the Lord - made these men tremble with terrible fright! And no doubt... the glory of the Lord revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai caused his human face to glow so bright that he had to veil it from the Israelites so that they could approach him unafraid! And oh the message the angel brought... What glad tidings of great joy - and to ALL people - even shepherds like them! Despite their tough exterior, these men shared our legitimate need to be accepted.

Can you imagine, after all that, to suddenly have a heavenly host appear? Now I'm not sure what a heavenly host looks like but the Amplified translation calls it "an army of the troops of heaven" and a "heavenly knighthood"! How much more could these men take? I like to think that God was putting the exclamation mark in history as His angels were heralding the coming of the One who alone could bring peace to all men. I marveled (praise the Lord, I marveled) that it doesn't say the angels disappeared as suddenly as they came! Instead, it says that the angels went away from them into heaven. I can almost picture the shepherds watching the heavenly multitude gloriously rise high overhead and slowly fade into the recesses of heaven as their song echoed in the night. Shepherds such as these had never known peace among men in their life! I bet they "made haste" to find the Christ Child!

Don't you just chuckle at the scene on the streets of Bethlehem? What a spectacle the shepherds must have made searching. I likened it to a gang of modern day misfits, you know the kind you avoid at all costs, frantically moving up and down the streets of my quiet neighborhood bubbling over with animated talk of angels and peace as they searched for a baby of all things! I wonder how many people talked to a shepherd for the first time that night. Oh the grace of God who was making it so clear that His loving-kindness was extended to ALL of us, no matter our background, vocation and rough edges! And they found the Child "just as it had been told them." How profound! If the Deliverer was found just as they had been told, they could trust the message of deliverance was just as true to the angels' words! Even peace and salvation and acceptance to shepherds!

My edges have been a little "rough" too lately. That's really an understatement! In the hustle and bustle, planning and preparing, those closest to me have heard such grumbling and complaining! But like those shepherds, the LORD took me to the manger!! And just like them, I too returned glorifying and praising God for all the things I heard and saw!

This morning, I sat down to READ the story of Christ's birth. Instead, my Faithful Heavenly Father told me History, "His" story! May Christmas never be the same again!

Let It Snow!

2008-12-15T14:15:00.002-06:00

Today, despite the bitter cold, I am so grateful for snow!

In the midst of this journey of obedience - or lack of it - that I am on, the Lord reminded my heart of the completeness of His forgiveness. I got off track. I rebelled. I heard His Voice and yet I gave in to the lusts of the flesh. Beyond enjoying a Christmas treat or two, I devoured one sugary food after another in a vain attempt to comfort myself as I miss my dad and to console myself in the vicious cycle of binging and then condemnation. The result - fatigue and uncontrolled emotions.

Last week, the Lord, in His graciousness, took me to the story of the Prodigal in Luke 15. I heard His Words with my head but they bounced off my heart! "When he came to himself" the son realized that there was complete provision with his Father. He said, "I will get up and go to my father and I will say to Him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in Your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called Your son..." So he got up and came to his Father. But while he was still a long way off, his Father saw him and was moved with pity and tenderness for him; and He ran and embraced him and kissed him fervently... The Lord runs to meet us when we turn our eyes towards home.

His Father quickly called for the best robe (the festive robe of honor) and the ring for his hand and sandals for his feet. Here's where I refused the story line. That's what the Lord wanted to do for me but in my self-loathing (which is really just another form of pride - frustration because I can't seem to do for myself) I refused the robe of righteousness, the ring that symbolizes His authority to act as His child and to have my feet fit with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace (see Ephesians 6). I rejected His offer - even subconsciously - and remained in squalor.

I've felt so lost! Instead of living free, I've been whining and wishing for things to be different. Finally, this morning, His love broke through my haze. I was outside shovelling snow. The air was crisp and clear and a velvety white carpet covered the ground. All of the sudden, I found myself marvelling at the beauty. The Lord spoke, "Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool." Isaiah 1:18.

Yes, just like the ground under the snow, I was covered in dirt. The effects of life had got me dirty but Christ's righteousness covers me as with a beautiful white robe. His covering makes me white as snow. The Lord invited me to reason it out with Him. The price for my righteousness had already been paid. Receive the robe, Karrie. Live as a child of the King!

That's why Christ came to earth that first Christmas. He came "to bring good news to the poor... to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed... to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come... To all who mourn in Israel, He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for His own glory." Isaiah 61:1-3

Once again, the Lord has brought about the promise for which this blog is named...

I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise... the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me... In my distress I called to the LORD; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears... He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me... He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because he delighted in me. (from Psalm 18)

Thank You for the snow this morning, Lord! Make mine a white Christmas, Jesus!

Days 8 - 11...

2008-12-09T06:30:00.003-06:00

The Lord is proving so faithful to me! My eyes are continually toward the LORD, for He will pluck my feet out of the net. (Psalm 25:15 NASB)

This has been so profoundly true for me in these 40 days! On day 8, my uncle passed away, and I was sad. I picked up my children at lunch time and told them. They were sad too. I turned to food - for them and myself - and took them to McDonalds for lunch. On the way there, I said to the Lord, "What am I doing? I can't handle eating at McDonalds!" My daughter wanted a Big Mac. Oh boy, so did I! I frantically cried out to the Lord - from the middle of the mess that I had created for myself - and quickly chose the only thing that had a "less than 5 grams of fat" label beside the item. I didn't dare let my eyes wander across the menu. It was a grilled chicken fajita meal (2 fajitas). After I had ordered (and before we had received our food) a friend called and said, "let's get together for lunch when your kids go back to school." I thought, O Lord, I'm going to want to eat there too! The thought crossed my mind that I could only eat one of the two fajitas but I know myself too well. Leaving one fajita uneaten would be an impossibility for me. Well, PRAISE BE TO GOD, when our order came through and we had driven away, my son started handing out the food and he said, "Mom, you only got ONE of your fajitas! You should go back!" With a huge smile and a chuckle in my heart, I kept right on going. How's that for plucking my feet out of the net?

Day 9 saw me at a Christmas party - the first one of 2 in a row! The Lord saw me through a huge testing - non-food related - and brought me back to the heart of worship. By keeping me at His feet, I can honestly say that I felt no guilt over enjoying a sizeable plate of good food and also no problem with walking away from the cheesecake. That's a miracle on both counts!

Day 10 included Christmas party number two. I marveled to my husband that I wasn't hungry all day. I ate - but just what my body seemed to need and they were all healthy choices. Now, my body should be raging with hormones so you can see why I was amazed. When we sat down to eat at the party, I asked the Lord if I could eat dessert. He said I could. I took two passes around the dessert tables and nothing appealed to me! I couldn't believe it! Amazing! I did choose a small dessert but it didn't satisfy. I've never been so hard to please before! Thank You, Lord. I know now that if it doesn't appeal, walk away.

Day 11 had a miracle of a different sort! If you had of been on the stage with our worship team, you would have heard that we really struggled to play and sing together as a team. It was one of those days when everyone seemed to be hanging on by their toenails! I believe our hearts were in the right place but musically, we really had a difficult time. One of the members from another team, a really musical man who can be counted on for an honest, constructive opinion, greeted me after the service and said, "WOW!" He said that the team had just really hit things right that day and that the Spirit had been felt moving in His power! I questioned him about it. He was adamant that even musically, we had lead well. If I hadn't had a similiar experience earlier in the service, I may have missed the miracle, but one of the team members had sung a solo that morning. She came back to her seat disheartened that her voice had been cracking and had had no power and she had so badly wanted the people to catch the power in the words. There had been NO cracks in her voice! I had marvelled at the power with which she sang out the words! From where I sat, the song had been flawless! So, I'm not sure what happened between the stage and that first row of pews, but the Lord changed the music in the air! And the sound that left our lips and fingers was not the sound that was heard! All to the glory of God!!

Day 7 of 40...

2008-12-03T17:47:00.002-06:00

Sometimes, I can't help but wonder if the Lord tires of my issues. He's proved Himself so wonderfully these last 6 days that you'd think I'd be confident in Him today. I guess the catch words there are in Him. I woke today and was delighted to find out that I hit my goal range. Almost immediately, I started wondering "will I eat more today since I've hit my range?" "What will He do? I don't want to lose too much weight?" "Should I be upping my calorie level?"

You have no idea how ludicrous these statements actually are. First of all, He has not steered me wrong yet. He is God - He knows the number of hairs on my head - my weight has not escaped His attention. He knows exactly what He's going to do - and He's not obligated to tell me in advance! The Lord and I have been on this journey to health for nearly 7 years now. He has always given me the exact tools that I've needed at the exact time that I've been ready to receive them. He wants my total health! And too few calories is just as harmful as too many. Man, He proves Himself God over and over and over and yet I'm so quick to place my trust in man. Wasn't that yesterday's lesson?

I ate what He asked me to for breakfast and snack. I prepared what He asked me to for lunch but found myself taking matters into my own hands and already writing down what I would eat for afternoon snack because I had to make sure it fit into my plan. Lord, help me!

And He does! I found myself completely satisfied after lunch today. The snack I had planned wasn't necessary. May I trust in the Lord with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding. In all my ways, may I acknowledge Him for He will make my paths straight. (see Proverbs 3:5-6)

Nearly finished my first week! And the Lord is spurring me on!

Day 6 of 40...

2008-12-03T17:34:00.003-06:00

from my journal...

"Lord God, as I sit down and comprehend that I have eaten obediently 5 days, I'm stunned! Lord, I just so know that it's not me! I praise You, Lord! I also know that it isn't possible for me to keep "the rules" of First Place 4 Health this long either. It's entirely because You haven't let me erect a list of rules and I'm needing to be dependent on You and Your Voice for direction that I'm able. I'm in awe of You!"

I felt You say, "Karrie, you're worrying about things. Just come and rest in Me." Thank You, Lord for years of being faithful!

Proverbs 4:26-27 says "Ponder the path of your feet and LET all Your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or to the left; remove your foot from evil." "Lord, this is like when You say "that's the last bite" and I trust you and LET You dictate." When we let Him, He will gladly correct our course and lovingly guide us on the right path. Amazing!

The other thing that I find amazing... this is the first time in my life that I stand on the scale in "wonder" of what it will say rather than with dread or with a goal. I really have none of either now as I approach the scale. I know that I've been obedient and the scale can say what it likes. Praise the Lord - He rewards obedience! 0.6 pounds to go to my goal range. I "wonder" what happens after that...

Day 5 of 40...

2008-12-03T16:53:00.002-06:00

from my journal...

"Dearest Lord, You are the King of kings and Lord of lords. I love that! That You would delight over me with singing - and not boring, sedate, monotones but enthusiastic, exuberant with shouts of joy (and no doubt some dancing) thrills me! Lord, I can hardly comprehend that. I can't really fathom why...You have overseen every moment and are delighted as I recognize my love for You and as it grows stronger and stronger. I was created for moment-by-moment communion with You and it thrills You when I follow You to it - even stumbling all the way! Lead on, O King! I love You and I'm learning (and loving) to live for and by communion with You! Please make Your Presence with me."

I read Isaiah 26:3 "He will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in You." and Jeremiah 17:5, "...cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord." His desire is for us to hold His hand in quiet trust rather than a white-knuckle desperation but He'll hold tight to us no matter which we offer.

The enemy can't stand the road to freedom. But when we "stand firm then" (see Ephesians 6:14) doing what the Word of God says - rather than just listening to it (see James 1:22-24) - the devil can't move us. The precepts of the Lord give light to the eyes and they light up the path through dark times. (see Psalm 19:8) Walking this adventure out today has meant taking a stand on the Word because the lies of the enemy are telling me that I'll never be able to make it. Lord, make me prove him wrong!

I walked in obedience today, even though it was hard. The Lord kept me. I obeyed when to stop and appropriate portions. I even threw out a couple of mouthfuls I would normally have eaten.

"Thank You for going to war for me this day!"

Day 4 of 40...

2008-12-03T16:36:00.002-06:00

from my journal...

"Yeah Lord! 3 days of being obedient with food! Even as I write that, I feel the enemy try to say 'are you sure?' Lord, I have, right? I thank You for Your voice of encouragement and direct 'no's' and 'yes's' as I've inquired of You. Lord, this is like that verse in Psalm 27 in the Amplified where it says to inquire of and for You out of vital necessity and on the authority of Your Word! How amazing! Lord... thank You for being my constant and available Friend!"

I told the Lord that I loved Him and He said that He knew and that I was speaking it through my obedience. It would be so much easier to just do my own thing but I was working hard at being attentive. It reminded me that His love language is obedience. John 14:21 says, "whoever has My commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father and I too, will love him and show Myself to him."

At one point today, I felt "off" - almost panicky that I was sinning somewhere and didn't know it. The Lord prompted me that i was focusing on me and my need of the Lord rather than on my praiseworthy God on Whom I would depend. The panic lifted when I praised Him for Who He was (IS) rather than focusing on how desperately I need Him to get me through the day and the challenges. Thank You, Lord!!

Day 3 of 40...

2008-12-03T16:09:00.001-06:00

from my journal...

"Goodmorning Faithful Father! Thank You that You truly do live up to Your Name! You are guiding me, empowering me, coaxing me and cheering me on in this adventure. I'm trying to get my head wrapped around the expectation of perfection. Christ IS perfection and You have no expectation of perfection from me!"

So, the Lord and I talked through Day 2. He brought me to Proverbs 15:31 "He whose ear listens to the life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise." The Hebrew word for listens here is "shama" or to hear intelligently with the implication of obedience, to consider, consent, and BE CONTENT (emphasis mine). Yesterday, I made myself a bowl of pasta. The Lord prompted me that I didn't need to eat the whole thing. I decided on a portion in my mind, ate it, and then I had 1 more bite. He promptly told me that I was "done" now and I stopped. My heart was not convicted of rebellion. The Lord just prompted me that I'm to stop at the last bite planned unless He "checks" me before. That's listening to the life-giving reproof. I feel like I ate in dependence on the Lord. I can see that I wasn't perfect but also that I didn't rebel. He's truly keeping me! I am starting to become more aware of His checks.

Today, our family unexpectedly (to me, not the Lord, of course) ended up at a restaurant. I could have been frantic with "how can I be strong in this situation?" I was hungry - and my family was indulging. I cried out. I didn't want to let my mind wander over the menu. Immediately, my eyes fell on a cup of soup! Perfect - and it satisfied!

I also attended another birthday party today. That's 2 in 3 days! I prayed for strength and ate obediently prior to the party so that I wouldn't be hungry. The Lord provided a veggie and fruit tray at the party and was able to munch on those. He is SO GOOD!

3 days down...

Day 2 of 40...

2008-11-30T08:45:00.003-06:00

from my journal...

"Goodmorning my King! I marvel at You, Lord! I am amazed at the degree to which You are speaking Your will to me. I am coming to understand the Scripture that You call us friends instead of servants because servants don't know the Master's business. (John 15:15) I love Your rhema word! I love how You're speaking it and prompting me to act on it. Lord, You are marvelous! I told You yesterday not to risk Your reputation on one like me - I can't do it! Fear overwhelmed me, circumstances overwhelmed me, but praise You so did Your grace! Lord, I really don't know where all You and I are going or what it will look like along the way... but my Friend has told me these things and this I know... He who has called me is faithful!"

Faithful is He Who is calling you [to Himself] and utterly trustworthy, and He will also do it [fulfill His call by hallowing and keeping you]. 1 Thessalonians 5:23

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:13

This is a "whatever" born of God that Christ died to make victorious. For whatever is born of God is victorious over the world; and this is the victory that conquers the world, even our faith. 1 John 5:4

I made it through a birthday party eating victoriously! Praise the Lord! He made provision for me to enjoy the food and He told me which bite was the last. Where I am totally incapable, He proved Himself capable. Praise His Name!

Day 1 of 40...

2008-11-30T07:17:00.003-06:00

A new leg of my journey began on November 27th, 2008. As is His way, the date of this new departure was no coincidence. It marks the one year anniversary of one of the most difficult steps of surrender that I have ever taken and the completion of a year of spiritual, emotional, mental and physical blessing like no other! I have been aware that the Lord has been calling me to a deeper level of obedience for a few weeks now. However, my heartfelt desire to obey - even for obedience sake - was matched by an equally powerful fear. The fear of failure. And so it remained a call to obedience, until the 27th, when the Lord broke through my fear...

I finally opened the book "The Blessings of Obedience" by Andrew Murray. I had been avoiding it. In Chapter 1 (pg. 11), it says, "obedience always came into special prominence with any new beginning in the history of God's kingdom... 'By faith Abraham... obeyed.'" That resonated in me. I have just started into a new season of against all hope - hoping - in believing prayer for the godly lives of my children. I have had to surrender control over them (which I never really had in the first place) and entrust them to the One Who is faithful! "This blessing continued for Isaac: 'I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham... because that Abraham obeyed My voice.' (Genesis 26:3, 5). When will we learn how unspeakably pleasing obedience is in God's sight? When will we understand how rich the reward is that He bestows because of obedience? To be a blessing to the world, be obedient. Let God and the world know you by this one characteristic - a will completely given up to God's will." (pg. 12)

I could go on and on about what I learned in this first chapter of Andrew's book but I'd rather you pick it up for yourself. I will share one last quote, however. "If we yield ourselves to the searching of God's Spirit, we may find that we never gave obedience its proper proportion in our scheme of life and that this lack is the cause of all our failure in prayer and in work... Let us unite in prayer that the Holy Spirit will show us how defective the Christian's life is when obedience does not rule everything. Let Him show us how that life can be exchanged for one of full surrender and absolute obedience. We can then be sure that God in Christ will enable us to live this life successfully." (pg. 21, emphasis mine)

The Lord was showing me that this journey of believing prayer was only going to be successful when it was partnered by a life of complete obedience. I heard Him saying that the scale (yes, the one that I dread standing on each morning) was a good indicator of my level of obedience. Ouch! I had been telling myself lies. A number of years ago, I lost a lot of weight when I first realized that I was in bondage to the idol of food. Now, because my weight was still significantly lower and my rebellion wasn't as severe or outwardly noticeable, I thought that I was doing okay. The Lord is not content with my condoning any amount of rebellion. When I bow down to food - of any type and any quanitity - because I "can't help myself" that's a lie and allowing a stronghold.

He reminded me of a teaching of the significance of 40 days throughout scripture. Here's the highlights that made me call this day - Day 1... In Jentezen Franklin's book "fasting", we read from Matthew 12:24, "Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, 'This fellow does not cast out demonds except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.' They were accusing Jesus of operating with the power of satan, or as they called him, Beelzebub, which means, 'lord of the flies.'... Some of you may have been battling with the same pesky sins, or worse, you may have been trapped in bondages that you have tried to eradicate, only to have them come back time after time. Maybe you've lived free from the effects of some of those sins but you are seeing the cycle repeated in your children." (pg. 57 & 59) The life cycle of flies is 40 days. "If you want to exterminate an infestation of flies, you have to spray pesticides for forty consecutive days in order to utterly destroy them. If you stop short of the full forty days, you will destroy only the existing generation, but the next generation will live on. When we enter into a season of forty days of fasting and prayer, we can break free of the bondages in our own lives and in the lives of the next generation." (pg. 58)

I desire to be cleansed and purified from the effects of the "flies" that would hinder my blessing and effectiveness in prayer and work. Although the prospect of a forty day fast looked entirely daunting to me, it was nearly as daunting as what the Lord asked me to do. He wants me to eat obediently for forty days! In His perfect timing, forty days would see me through the entire Christmas and New Year season to the very day that our holidays would be over and I would return to work and routine. He knows me so well!

Now I am an all or nothing girl and I have a tremendous tendency to set up rules. The Lord wants me to be moment by moment dependent on Him for what I put in my mouth. Not driven by what cravings I fancy, I'm to eat what He says, drink what He says and stop when He says. Now I was terrified! Did He not know what He was asking? I was completely incapable of this! I went to work an emotional wreck!

Our God is faithful! At work I was met with an email that had Proverbs 16:3 set out in bold... "Commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plans will succeed." When I again got lost in fear of failure, I was led to Matthew 19:26. "Jesus looked at them (me) and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Okay, Lord. One year ago today, I had such tremendous fear that I was nearly paralyzed by it but when I even relunctantly obeyed, You poured out such an amazing blessing I am at a loss to describe it! Here I am, Lord, for forty days, I will go on the "fast" of obedience. I don't know where it will lead or what it will look like but here I am. Lead me.

A Journey of Obedience...

2008-11-30T07:12:00.002-06:00

Well, I'd like to invite you to serve as a witness to the wonderful works of our Great and Mighty God. By His design, I am on a journey of obedience. These writings will serve more as an online journal. May you observe His tremendous faithfulness as I share of His grace to me - a sinner - yet His child...

What Awesome Responsibility!

2008-11-14T11:02:00.003-06:00

I am so grateful that what the Lord directs, He empowers! For years, I lived intimidated by the Proverbs 31 woman... "capable, intelligent and virtuous". Who was she? What did she look like? For "she is far more precious than jewels and her value is far above rubies or pearls." O Lord, how do I become her? Please make me her!

The Lord loves a request like that! I am convinced, by experience, that He is willing to turn worlds upside down - for the better - when we come to the place of letting go! It is His pleasure to teach us and transform us. I think often times He's just waiting for me to stop telling Him how to do it! He renews our minds as we spend time in His Word. He sends wise counsel to help us walk in the Truth. And He gives power to take a leap of faith and follow it up with one baby step after another! Proverbs 4:11-12 says, "I have taught you in the way of wisdom; I have led you in right paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hindered, and when you run, you will not stumble."

Do you know what virtuous means? I was reading Proverbs 12 in the Amplified Bible and when I got to verse 4, it said, "A virtuous and worthy wife [earnest and strong in character] is a crowning joy to her husband, but she who makes him ashamed is as rottenness in his bones." I commented to the Lord that I didn't really know what virtuous meant but I proceeded to think "well, I guess it means earnest and strong in character" and kept going... The Lord stopped me in my tracks! "You just told Me that you didn't know what virtuous means! Aren't you even going to stop and look?"

The word translated here as virtuous is the Hebrew word "chayil". It means a force of means or other resources, strength or power applied (for good in all 3 cases where it is translated "virtuous" in the OT: Ruth 3:11, Proverbs 12:4 and Proverbs 31:10). It comes from the root word "chuwl" which can mean to cause to dance OR writhe in pain, to bring forth OR fall grieviously, to be born OR to wound painfully. Wheww! As wives, we have such HUGE responsibility! We can cause our husbands to dance with joy or wound them painfully! We can be used of God to birth and bring forth tremendous renewal in them or we can cause them to fall grieviously! In other passages, this same word is used as a military term, such as when speaking of Gideon in Judges 6:12.

Lord, may I use all of my resources, applied for good, to bless my husband. May I go to war for him in prayer. May I comfort him and make our home comfortable. May I be his number 1 cheerleader and encourage him every day. Help me to rise while it is yet night and get spiritual food for my household. May I serve him as unto You. May I gird myself with strength, spirituall, mentally and physically for this God-given task. Lord, You have poured out Your favor upon our home and I praise You! May I be a crowning joy to my husband and may he dance with joy! In Your strength and Your power, Amen.

From the Mouths of Babes...

2008-11-07T10:48:00.002-06:00

Have you ever felt like you're all alone in the battle? Like no one knows what you're dealing with? What mountains the Lord is asking you to climb? May I speak a word of encouragement to you today! I am completely in awe of the magnitude and grace of our God!

This morning, while driving my children to school, we saw a young woman on the sidewalk whose actions prompted a conversation in the van. The issue that prompted the discussion is not important but what came out of my son's mouth blew me away! He said, "Mommy, could we pray for *Theresa, that she would be able to stop doing what that girl is doing?" Now, if the comment had come from my daughter, I would have been blessed but I'm sure that I would have missed it for the huge God-thing that it was. The fact that my son thought of Theresa and wanted to pray for her to be free from this could only have been a prompting of the Holy Spirit. I answered, "for sure!" and we proceeded to pray.

After I dropped the kids off, I was still marvelling that my son would call us to prayer for this and I wondered what might be going on in Theresa's life today that the Lord would bring this issue to the forefront. I called her and told her what had happened. I hoped that it would bless her to know that someone was thinking of her that day but I also hoped that she wouldn't be offended by the focus of the prayer. She seemed glad to hear from me but didn't say too much. Not long later, she sent me a message...

That very morning, she had just been talking to the Lord and asking Him for strength to deal with that exact issue! Praise His Name! Not only does the Lord want to say to you that He is strong enough to take you over the mountains in your life but He's also able to raise up an army of warriors to pray you over to the other side! Nothing limits Him! He even speaks to 10 year old boys and transforms them into mighty warriors for the Kingdom! I can't wait to tell my son!!

*name changed

I Love You, LORD...

2008-10-24T09:49:00.003-05:00

It's Friday, and though I haven't been consistent, I write on Fridays. This morning, I planned on writing but I didn't know what to write. Perhaps I didn't feel like tackling the topic that first came to mind, perhaps the dust and clutter of a busy week was too distracting, it's hard to say but I have struggled to just sit and begin putting thoughts into words. I put on my favorite worship playlist and started tidying my living room. Soon I was singing along...

Can I tell you that I love my Lord?! He is so good to me! I didn't have one of those quiet times this morning where He shared something earth-shattering. The sunrise wasn't brilliant with color. It's an ordinary day but how extraordinary that He cares for me!

I can't imagine a day without Him. How awesome is that! I don't always walk in obedience. In fact, some days I turn aside from the things that He has called me to and yet He never turns aside from me. That's a True Friend! That's a Lord worth loving! How gracious He is to me and I love Him!

Some days loving the Lord is like the excitement of new found romance! Others like the wonder and awe of a love that has lasted through the tests and turmoil of life only to emerge stronger. Today, it is comfortable. Like two old lovers, sitting silently side by side... just comfortable companionship.

Lord, thank You for loving me. Thank You for being beside me every day. Thank You for the days when our conversations ignite such revelation of Truth that I can hardly keep up! Thank You for times when Your Presence is so tangible that I'm at a loss to describe the wonder! And thank You for the peace and contentment that comes from living life, the moment by moment ordinary stuff, with You! Living life in the Presence of the Almighty God... how amazing! I love You, Lord! May I love You well today...

Driving For Two

2008-08-08T07:48:00.004-05:00

Recently, I spent a few days in Houston, TX attending a conference and visiting a friend. Coming from a small, Canadian community, the life and pace of such a huge, American city is very different for me... especially the traffic. I can go clear across our city, from one side to the other, in a matter of 10 minutes... sometimes less, depending on the "traffic". I know each street. It's mostly 2 lane traffic. It's easy to maneuver from one place to another. On the massive freeway systems of Houston... it's quite a different story!

I was very hesistant to take the wheel and drive there. In fact, if it hadn't been for necessity, I never would have gotten into the driver's seat. With only the vaguest idea of where I was heading, I pulled out behind the van my friend was driving and joined the masses on the speedways that are a hallmark of so many American's lives.

I was anxious to the point of being nauseous but I just started talking out loud to the Lord. I asked for His angels to patrol the 4 corners of the car. I asked Him to make me incredibly alert to every detail, to guard and direct those that were whirring past on either side of me... Gradually peace began to descend upon me. Our conversation began to be about the peace that was enveloping me in the midst of an incredible alertness. The Lord was about to teach me a life lesson.

He asked me if I trusted my friend that was leading me through the jungle of vehicles. Of course! You see, she is no ordinary friend. She is really more like my sister. I know that she always wants the best for me and that she would lead me on safe paths. The Lord probed a little deeper. Did I trust her driving? Yes! Not only was I completely at ease when she was behind the wheel but I also realized that I was trusting her that morning to drive for herself AND ME! She was signaling clearly for each move that she needed me to make. She was mindful of the vehicles on either side of ME and making sure that the way was open for me to follow her. She knew that I didn't know exactly where I was going or what turns were necessary to get there, but she did. She was commited to me safely arriving at our destination. She was driving for two!

Then the Lord asked the question. "Child, will you trust Me to drive for two?" I had so much trust in my friend, a mere person with imperfections and failures just like me. Did I not realize that I can trust the Lord of lords and the King of kings on this journey of life? I profess to. Was I really living like it?

You see, when following Becky, my eyes were glued to the back of that van. When she breaked, I breaked. When she moved, I moved. I didn't know the direction we were going to go but I knew who I was following and nothing and no one was going to come between those two vehicles! I followed close on her heels. How much more can I trust the Lord! He sees the end from the beginning. He knows every turn in the road of my life. He knows every pothole and detour. Even the others travelling that same road. I don't need to know the whole route in advance. I didn't question the turns that Becky was taking me on. Why do I question the Lord? I can trust Him to get me through to the destination!

And He said to them, Come after Me [as disciples--letting Me be your Guide], follow Me... (Matthew 4:19a)

Lord, may my whole being follow hard after You and cling closely to You; Your right hand upholds me. (see Psalm 63:8)

And Lord, just like I asked that day for You to make me incredibly alert, Lord, cause me to be incredibly alert to Your leading. May I be attuned to Your every signal. And Lord, may I be faithful to pray for the other "drivers" on this road of life. May I intercede before Your throne for them as they journey home... So be it, Lord! Amen.

The Sun Still Shines Behind the Clouds

2008-06-13T06:35:00.006-05:00

The Lord is so good!

Life felt pretty stormy last week. You know those weeks. We all have them. Somehow our expectations don't line up with the reality of our situations and we become discouraged. My heart had grown impatient. I felt like the Lord had forgotten me. I was miserable.

Add to that the fact that we have been experiencing nearly constant rain... cold, gray days... When was the sun going to shine?

I know that the Lord is my Source but I had lost perspective. I turned to other comforts - that don't truly satisfy - and my time "with the Lord" was all about me. My complaints. My prescriptions. I was busy telling the Lord how I would do it if I were God, rather than settling in and receiving grace for the moment from the One who is faithful.

I still smile when I think of how the Lord got my attention. I had asked Him to wake me in the morning. He is the best "alarm clock"! My eyes opened early and peaked at the clock but the after effects from the sugar I had eaten the night before quickly closed them. A few minutes later they opened again. Almost. One more time and I was up. Oh, I'm so grateful for His persistence!

I made my way down the hall. As I came to a window, I was instantly awed by the most breath-taking sunrise! The whole sky was streaked with the most brilliant shades of peach and orange! It wasn't just a shading by the horizon - the whole sky had been transformed! I was overwhelmed by the beauty. I stood frozen and just basked in the gift!

The Lord knows how much I delight in a sunrise! It's my favorite view and my favorite time of day. I knew that He had painted it just for me and I worshipped Him. How could He be so gracious to me when I had hardly been a friend to Him those last few days? Can I tell you that tears are streaming down my cheeks as I write this? His grace still amazes me!

I went and sat down in my living room. I call it "our" spot - the Lord's and mine. It's where we sit together. We talked. He spoke and my focus was restored. He has absolutely mind-boggling power and He's at work in my circumstances. He hasn't forgotten. I can trust Him to be God.

I'd love to tell you that I got up at this point and walked in freedom and joy - but when I got up and looked out the window, I saw that once again the clouds had settled in and it looked like rain. "Oh, Lord!" I cried... not another gray day! But then I noticed something... behind the clouds was a faint white ball... the sun.

It was still shining as brilliantly behind the clouds. It's warmth was still heating the earth. It was still rising and setting... as instructed. It was still causing things to grow. The sun was doing "it's thing" and so was my Lord!

In the midst of my clouds, the Lord was still at work! I have been awed by His splendor before. I've seen His hand move in my circumstances. He's been growing me. Today was no different! What was I going to focus on ? The clouds? Or what I know to be true? He knows where I am. He knows what I need - better than I do. He is faithful. I can trust Him. He is God!

And by His grace, I walked free... singing in the rain!

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:6-7)

The Son still shines behind the clouds!

Loved by My Beloved

2008-03-22T11:24:00.000-05:00

I wasn't sure that I was going to share this entry on the blog... it's more like a journal entry. What the Lord showed me yesterday was intensely personal and yet not for me alone. The same sentiments of love that He expressed over me are His Words to you. The following is simply the dialogue between the Lord and I yesterday - Good Friday - as we considered "Day 80 - Please, Father" in Beth Moore's book "Jesus, 90 Days with the One and Only"...

"Karrie, settle in with Me. Just as you love to testify to My Father's greatness, so do I!"

We read Mark 14:32-42. I encourage you to take a few moments now to read these verses before you continue. Some quotes from Beth...

"Never minimize the moment by thinking God couldn't have removed the cup. Do not subtract God's freedom of choice from this picture. God could have chosen to reject the way of the cross. After all, He is the Sovereign of the universe."

"That God could have stopped the process yet didn't is a matchless demonstration of love. Can you think of anyone for whom you'd watch your only child be tortured to death?"

(No, Father.)

"Luke's Gospel tells us His sweat dropped like blood, a condition almost unheard of except when the physical body is placed in more stress and grief than it was fashioned to handle. Do we think God sat upon His throne unmoved?"

"Like a body that rejects a transplanted organ, the human body of Jesus Christ was practically tearing itself apart. The full throttle of divine impact and emotion was almost more than one human body could endure. The stress had nearly turned Him inside out. I do not make this point to emphasize His weakness. Quite the contrary. In fact I find the scene recorded in John 18:6 portrays His incredible power. When Jesus told the crowd, 'I am He,' even overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, the proclaimed presence of Jesus Christ knocked the mob to the ground."

"Your God-ness could not be diminished for a moment, in or out of that prison of flesh. Lord, don't let us forget You, who submitted Yourself to the hands of sinful men, were very God."

(Lord, I am so selfish, so hard-hearted. If left unchecked, by You, I would attempt to reduce the God of the universe to a mere equation based on the variable of me... I'm either obeying badly - because I don't want to obey enough or because I've been so disobedient that I'm in bondage - so You couldn't possibly love, bless, touch me... or I've been 'better', drenched in legalism, so maybe now I'm deserving of Your love, blessing, rescue, the knowing of You... Lord, when I reduce You to being reactive to me, I attempt to remove Your deity! Oh praise You that that's impossible! Lord, please forgive me. You knew me in light of this and such great despair wrestled with such great love that You sweat drops of blood. When Your Daddy, Who also loves me, said 'I choose not to remove this cup.' You wouldn't allow me to stand condemned and You replied, 'I am He.' Lord, according to Your Word, that's Who I want for my Bridegroom.")

"And Karrie, you're who I want for my bride!"

Overwhelmed to tears...

(Lord, may I walk in the deep, personal, intimate relationship with You - Who sacrificed it all - to declare me Your choice as "Bride". I accept! May I learn how to live this marriage out with You, my Beloved! Please teach me, show me, guide me, teach me. May my gift of obedience to You be just an expression of my love for You!! May I give - devote - my life's energy to walking where You walk and to pleasing You. Your love for me ALWAYS guards and protects, nourishes and nurtures, extends to and blesses me! Your favor rests on me for I am Your beloved!)

I had been anxious about singing at the Good Friday service. The song that I was singing hadn't been my first choice - but it was His! It's called "At the Cross" by Hillsong and some of the lyrics are "Oh Lord, You've searched me. You know my ways. Even when I fail You, I know You love me..." As I was saying, "I'll let them hear our love song..." the Lord corrected me saying, "No, I let them hear Our love song for I've placed you there to sing."

I began to get ready to leave. The Lord and I continued our dialogue. I was asking Him for opportunity to write/testify to the Father's greatness through Christ. I wondered back to the way our conversation began that morning. The Lord interrupted my thoughts...

"I testified to My Father's goodness when I spoke of Him not exercising His freewill to remove this cup. You were worth it, Karrie!"

I have never felt more loved...

Good Friday will never look the same. I will never be the same. What about you?

Rise Up and Walk!

2008-03-12T06:06:00.000-05:00

"'Man, your sins are forgiven you!'... But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, answered them, 'Why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, Your sins are forgiven you, or to say, Arise and walk? But that you may know that the Son of Man has the power and authority and right on earth to forgive sins, He said to the paralyzed man, I say to you, 'arise, pick up your bed and go..." (see Luke 5:20-24)

The Lord called these words to my mind this morning as we were talking over the last number of days. I've been in a season of battle. One of the battlefronts has been speaking the Truth to myself when my emotions have been telling me something different.

For example, my emotions have screamed at me, "this is too hard!" The Truth is "now what I'm commanding you this day is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach." (Deuteronomy 30:11) Or, "I can't do this!" needs to be defeated by "I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me." (Philippians 4:13) I could give numerous more examples but the Bible says that I'm not being tempted by thoughts that are uncommon to man. You probably can fill in the blanks because you hear the echoes of lies yourself.

Well, I've been struggling with all my might to combat these lies with Truth. Part of me recognizes that there's progress in this - at least I'm fighting! I've spent most of my life rocking on the sea of my emotions. But the Lord revealed to me that I've slipped back into that performance-based "got to get it right so that I deserve His love" mentality instead of admitting to myself that I'm incapable in my own strength and deferring to the Almighty One.

God is so good! He knows that I like to see the picture. The battle began and I raised my Sword high and shouted the Truth! Then, as war raged around me, I lost sight of my Commander and the ground I was taking and saw instead every one of my imperfections. Before long, I was no longer advancing declaring "victory is the Lord's" and raising Sword and Shield but I was cowering on the battlefield, hiding under a shield that I was no longer using properly.

There is a vast difference between standing on the Truth and walking by faith. If I've spent a lifetime retreating, standing on the Truth is a good start, but the Lord has so much victory for us. Christ died so that our victory could be complete!

Just like the paralyzed man in the verses above, I have been paralyzed by my defeats rather than remembering that I'm forgiven. Grace (undeserved favor & spiritual blessing) is lavished on me just as I am. I've been redeemed! The ransom has been paid for me to walk free! And He said, "Arise... and go..."

Lord, I'm learning! I used to look longingly towards Egypt and retreat to there at the first sign of battle. Praise You that I have been able to stand on the Truth of Your Word. Forgive me for focusing on my errors and not Your prevailing might. Lord, Your Strength is at my constant disposal to advance! May I arise from this place where I had fallen and go to the place You are calling me to. Please fix my eyes on You. You are the Author and Perfector of my faith - my Commander and Chief - and You will never forsake me. In faith, I'm getting up and following You... so be it!

May you be encouraged by the following verses as I was. I hope they remind you of the strength of your sword, give you courage to once again dust yourself off, arise, raise your shield of faith and keep on taking ground! The battle belongs to the Lord!

"Now faith is the assurance (the title deed) of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality (faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses)." Hebrews 11:1

"By faith, Abraham, when called to a place he would later receive as his inheritence, obeyed and went. Even though he did not know where he was going." Hebrews 11:8

"Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the (victorious) God of my salvation! The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds' feet (of a deer) and will make me to walk (not to stand still in terror but to walk) and make (spiritual) progress upon my high places (of trouble, suffering or responsibility)!" Habakkuk 3:18,19

"For we walk by faith (we regulate our lives and conduct ourselves by our conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, with trust and holy fervor; thus we walk) not by sight or appearance." 2 Corinthians 5:7

Pressing On

2008-03-07T13:33:00.000-06:00

Recently, the Lord has been impressing the words of Philippians 3:12-14 upon my heart and mind. Paul has just finished speaking on counting it all loss compared to the all-surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. Then he says, "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on…"

I am somewhat of a perfectionist. I often forget that God Himself doesn't expect me to be perfect. When I fail - and prove I'm not - I'm tempted to listen to the lie of the enemy that says "you'll never get it right". Paul's words strike right at my heart. That's not the right response! I'm called to press on! The original Greek word "dioko" instructs me to eagerly seek after and earnestly endeavor to acquire the ultimate completion of what is yet wanting in me - in order for me to be made whole.

Did you know that for this same reason, Christ has also laid hold of me? As I eagerly seek Him, Christ, by His holy power and influence lays hold of my mind and will, in order to prompt and govern it. His desire is that I come to perceive and comprehend His good, pleasing and perfect will. What a partnership! I haven't got it down pat yet - but praise God - I'm learning!

I've really been having to practice this lately. I've been face to face with a situation that I have been in before - and not done well! My first thoughts were "no, Lord, not this. It's too hard. I can't do it." But He is so gracious! He takes hold of me and says, "this is what we're going to do. We're going to forget what is behind. We're no longer caring how you dealt with this before. You are not the same person that you were then. You are a new creation in Me. You've been radically transformed." Can I just add another "praise You, Lord"!! By the working of Christ's mighty power in me, I'm determined. I'm going to press on!

Is it going to be hard? For Christ? No. For me? Possibly. The implication given in the original text is that it is going to involve stretching myself. Is it my natural reaction to press on based on the Truth of God's Word? Not quite yet but He's changing that! It's still tempting to react based on emotions like the fear of failure. But Christ's voice faithfully echoes in my mind verses like "Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. Yes, I will uphold you with my righteous right arm." (see Isaiah 41:10)

Do you know what else that I learned about the forgetting? The Lord showed me that I need to forget how others have responded in the past too. Forgiveness involves offering other people a clean slate.

And you know what? With every step I take - even baby ones - in the right direction, I am getting closer and closer to the prize! I'm looking for a "well done good and faithful servant"! He's not looking for perfection - just a heart willing to trust that He knows what's best and respond with obedience. Praise the Lord - that comes with great rewards!!

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14

Knowing God

2008-01-25T10:08:00.000-06:00

Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. Philippians 3:8a

The Lord is so infinitely precious. The knowledge of Him is like a limitless mine of the most valuable treasure! The more we mine, the more treasure He reveals in Himself and the more we become aware that there is an endless supply to be revealed with each new day.

As a child, I knew about God. He was a commonly talked about Friend in our household. We regularly went to His house but other than the occasional interaction with Him, He remained the Friend of my parents. As a teenager, I knew that I wanted a friendship with Him as well. I told Him so and He invited me to spend as much time as I would with Him but despite the fact that I professed to want to really know Him, I poured my energy into other things that showed my true priorities. When I ran into the darkness and saw its power, I fled to God. He was there all of the time, guarding me, yet not forcing Himself into my world. All it took was a call to Him and He rescued me! I chose Him as my Friend. Very slowly, my priorities started to include Him but He was far from being my priority. Though I knew His Name, address, some aspects of His character, I preferred to talk to Him on my terms about my needs. I wasn't a good listener. After all, I told Him what I needed. As long as He listened to me, I didn't even realize that I never stopped to hear Him speak. I wouldn't have even recognized His voice.

Now, any other friend would have given up on me long ago but my God is no common friend. That's what makes Him God! He knew that I was immature - a baby really. He saw me through loving eyes and was forever patient with me. He loves me so much that He was willing to wait until my attention would be turned to Him. But oh, how much I missed out on!

I am so grateful for the circumstances that prompted me to begin to spend time with Him. Just the smallest taste of His companionship left me hungering for more. He was so much bigger, so much more interested in me than I had thought! When my world started falling apart, when trusts were shattered and when those I sought security in were all destroyed, He became my world. When all else had been stripped away - He was more than sufficient! I had no one who could fully understand me, but He did. He understood the words behind the tears. In fact, He said He collected them in His bottle. I learned the sound of His voice. I remember the first time I heard it and knew it was His. There is no more beautiful sound! He would call me away from the chaos and would sit with me. He showed me how to get through each day. He kept me from getting lost. He was always beside me. He walked with me. More often than I know, He carried me. He became my closest Friend!

Now, our friendship is ever deepening. We live every day together. He never leaves me or forgets about me. He's never too busy for me. Sometimes I get distracted from his Presence but He's so patient with me. There is nothing that I enjoy more than beginning each day with Him. He watches over me all night and then wakes me. We talk to each other. Sometimes we just sit silently. Sometimes, we laugh or play wildly together. He is so multi-faceted! He loves to reveal Himself to me and I love to pour myself into knowing Him! It blows me away to think that the God of the Universe is my constant companion!

I used to think that this sort of relationship with the Lord was at best for the select few - and for me impossible. But I am learning that He delights in the foolish things of this world. He delights in His friendship with a common, conservative country girl who in spite of herself, had her eyes turned to Him and is forever changed! I can't wait to see the treasures of His Personality that He will show me today! Are you common? Unworthy? It doesn't matter. We all are. Let me introduce you to the most uncommon of friendships... Come, meet my God!

Pressed But Not Crushed

2007-12-22T07:14:00.000-06:00

I spent much of this last week feeling completely and utterly defeated. I felt like a failure as a mom, a wife and as a believer. I was discouraged at every turn and I was quickly sinking into despair. I cried out to the Lord. I told Him exactly how I felt. I even told Him that I didn't want to feel this way. Still it persisted... Now I am free once again and the Lord showed me what had happened. Just in case you want to learn this lesson with me...

The enemy cannot read our minds but he has spent thousands of years studying the human race and a life time spying on me. He knows my fears better than I do and he does everything within his power to convince me that my worst fears are becoming a reality. Everything that happens to me must first pass through the Lord's hands, however, He wants me to grow in knowledge and strength so He allows certain tests to come my way so that I can overcome them. "When troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing... God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him." (James 1:2-4, 12)

So how do we pass the testing of our faith? How do we patiently endure without falling into despair? Beth Moore, in "Believing God", suggests that our shield of faith has five points. When we are tested, which key of faith is being tried?

God IS who He says He is!
God CAN DO what He says He can do!
I AM who God says that I am!
I can do ALL things through Christ!
God's Word is alive and active in me!

I seem to believe statements 1 and 2 readily, however, I struggle with statements 3 and 4. Somehow, I seem to buy into the lie that I am the exception to God's rules. I am the project that is too big for God. The devil whispers lies to me and instead of instantly rejecting them, I let them rule my feelings. Once my emotions are involved, the battle is harder BUT I CAN STILL BE VICTORIOUS!

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 says, "We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed." The Greek word translated as crushed can also be translated as to be cramped in distress or a narrow space. Now this caught my attention! You'll notice my theme verse for this blog is found in Psalm 18:19. The Lord brought me out into a spacious place and I am not willing to surrender that!

2 Corinthians 4 continues to say that we experience constant opportunities to die to our self nature so that we can experience Christ's resurrection power. My feelings were telling me that I was being wronged. Robbed of something I deserved. Who am I to tell the God of the Universe that I know better than He does what I need? It's hard to set aside pride - to acknowledge that He knows best when what's best is learning a lesson. Verses such as Psalm 84:11, Matthew 7:11 and Luke 11:13 tell us that God loves to give us what's best! If He's withholding something good from me, I must be supposed to learn something better in the midst of it.

2 Corinthians 4:13 says, "I have believed and therefore have I spoken. We too believe, and therefore we speak." For reasons that I don't understand, spoken words have power. I was speaking the content of my emotions rather than what I believed as my rights as a child of God. I was telling myself, others and even God how I felt rather than putting my feelings aside and telling myself the Truth of God's Word - outloud!! Put the key verses on cue cards! Read them out loud. Ask friends to pray these verses for you. Pray them for yourself! Lift that shield of faith up high! The devil recognizes the authority of God's Word and he must flee! If Christ responded to him by quoting scripture, how much more should we!

"For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." (2 Corinthians 4:17, 18)

"For we walk by faith [we regulate our lives and conduct ourselves by our conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, with trust and holy fervor; thus we walk] not by sight or appearance." (2 Corinthians 5:7)

So, instead of being rash and complaining against the Lord my God as the people of Israel did in the book of Habakkuk, I desire to face troubles, suffering and testing by proclaiming aloud the words of Habakkuk 3:18-19 "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation! The Lord is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!" And guess what! It works! "Faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God!" (Romans 10:17) Once again, I'm free!

A Pair of Pants

2007-12-21T08:00:00.000-06:00

Did you know that the God of the Universe concerns Himself with my details? No detail of my life - no need, no desire - is too small that it escapes His notice!

The other day, we were out finishing the Christmas shopping. I was tired and on the verge of a cold. Despite our frugalness, money seemed to be going out hand over fist, with all of the Christmas activities... a $5 gift here, a $10 one there... Carter had just informed us that he needed a brown sweater and a pair of brown pants for his reindeer costume in the school pageant. We had managed to find a beautiful brown sweater for a reasonable price but the brown pants had illuded us. By the time we were in our third store looking, I had had enough. I had seen a few pairs for $35 but the way Carter is growing, I didn't want to spend that much for him to wear for the Christmas celebrations - never to be worn again!

In wearied desperation, I asked the Lord to supply a suitable pair of pants. I literally turned and spotted a clearance rack in the boys' section of a department store. I walked right up to the rack where I spotted ONE pair of brown boy's pants! I looked at the color... perfect match! The size... "Oh, Lord, it's a 12. That's a tight fit for my son." I held it up. I wondered where we could have him try it on. The Lord said to me, "you asked me for a pair of pants. Are you going to trust me on this?" I quietly decided to trust Him. "Yes, Lord."

The pants fit perfect! They look like they could have been custom made for Carter. Usually, if the waist fits, the legs need shortening or if they length fits, he complains they are too tight. Not these pants! The perfect color, the perfect size, the perfect price! $7.99! And go figure... we got up to the check out and they were 20% off the sale price! Praise You, Lord!

Playing With Daddy

2007-12-08T06:28:00.000-06:00

"Teach me to play, Abba!"

I don't know about you but I am a perfectionist. If I can't do something well - by my standards - then I don't want to try it at all. This spills over into my relationship with God. As you can see from my last entry, God is really working on me in this area. He wants to free me up from my striving - the constant rule following - so that I learn to have fun with Him! So this morning, while I sat there, He gave me a little insight into Karrie, one of His precious children.

Karrie is a very conscientious child. She trusts cautiously. She is fiercely loyal. She comes into her Father's house quietly. She doesn't want to bother Him. Karrie tries very hard to not bring messes into His house. After all, she doesn't want to make more work for her Father. Her Father is always glad to see her but often she misses His hearty "Come on in, Babe!" because she is preoccuppied with entering carefully and respectfully. She's a quietly happy child but so serious! She's in such a hurry to grow up that she's missing out on the joys of the journey. She sees others playing but hesitates to join in the fun. What if she got sidetracked from her responsibilities?

So, this morning, Karrie sat down with the Father and they opened His Great Book. She wanted to read one complete story this morning. She was eager to really learn. To hear a "word". He asked her if she wanted to crawl up on His lap to read the Book rather than sit at His feet. That sounded like a comfortable place to sit! The story came from Galatians. How Christ came to atone for her sins and to save her and make her more like Him. It said that He did this to deliver Karrie from this present wicked age. It said that there were enemies who slipped in to spy on our freedom in Christ so that they could again subject us to the bondage of rules. The Father told her that He loved all of His children equally. He didn't love the older ones more. He didn't love the boisterous ones less than the quiet ones. He finds great delight in each and every one of His kids. He even assured Karrie that just like He had done for Peter and Paul, He would always motivate her and fit her for her life's mission. He would ensure she worked efficiently because His Firstborn, Christ, would be working through her.

Then Father did something unexpected... He put the Book down. What was He doing? They weren't finished reading the "story". He asked Karrie if she wanted to play now. Play? Now? Weren't they going to finish reading? He told her that they could put a bookmark in where they had left off. He knew exactly where to pick up from later. Wouldn't it be fun to be tossed up in the air by her Daddy and spun around? There may not seem to be some deep, intellectual lesson in it, but even He delights in playing sometimes. He delights in hearing, "again, Daddy! Do it again! Again!"

Karrie, she - I slowly hopped down off His knee and took hold of His Hand. I followed in the edge of His shadow as He led me away from our "spot" to a place with room to play. "So, what do you want to play?" How could I answer that? I really don't know how to "play". But, I love to sing! I love to dance - but it's been a long time since I've done that. Wouldn't you know it? The Father God of all the Universe loves to dance too! We turned the Ipod up really loud! And what started as cautious steps soon became wild, exuberant dancing! There was no thought to what might be "right" steps. I spun around in circles until I was dizzy! I sang along to the songs not worrying about words as Daddy clapped and kept time. It was such fun!

Suddenly, I realized that my son was standing there watching his mommy - spinning and dancing - babbling! I told him that everyone enjoys a little praise dancing now and then! I didn't even stop at that point. It had been so long since I had really played! Besides, I delight in watching my own kids play. I want them to know by experience that life with God is full of play and fun! I want them to know no greater delight than to be sitting on His knee one minute and tossed up into the air the next! To be caught by His strong arms only to say, "Again, Daddy! Do it again!" Perhaps, my son thinks I'm strange - probably not. He knows what it is to play. He may even start to see me as a fun parent - if I play often enough :)!

The Account Has Been Settled!

2007-11-30T12:22:00.000-06:00

Well, I learned something in my heart this morning that my head has professed to know for years. It's all about faith...

I was reading in Romans 4 when the illustration Paul was using started to come alive in my heart. Verse 3 says, "For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed in (trusted in) God, and it was credited to his account as righteousness (right living and right standing with God.)" Now if you had eavesdropped on the conversation the Lord and I had just had, you would have heard me confessing that I made some choices yesterday I wish I had made differently. They weren't "right living" choices. I asked the Lord to enable me to live today differently. I believed He was willing and able to do it. I was trusting Him to help me choose the most important things. Then it started to truly register...

It's not my right living that makes deposits into my account with God. Nor do my wrong choices make withdrawals or cause my account balance to fall. Somehow, somewhere along the line, I started living with a desperate passion to get "it" right and a gnawing fear of getting it wrong...as if I could somehow earn more love (or credit) with the Lord. Verse 8 says, "Blessed and happy and to be envied is the person of whose sin the Lord will take no account nor reckon it against him." When by faith, I accepted Christ as my Lord - my Savior - He credited my account with a never-ending balance of His righteousness. He SETTLED THE ACCOUNT! Then He closed the books! My Lord will take no account of my sin ever again! For Jesus "was betrayed and put to death because of our misdeeds and was raised to secure our justification (our acquittal), (making our account balance and absolving us from all guilt before God)." (verse 25)

I can't tell you how freeing it is to have this Truth resonate in every fibre of my being! I made some wrong choices yesterday but you know what? He still loves me! The balance in His account of love for me reads just the same! I'm rich! He loves me with such an incredibly rich love! I desire to make better choices today but guess what - He's God! My best living is still worthless currency! He chose to underwrite my account and I choose to let Him! What kind of interest is there on an account like this? Romans 5:1 tells us that this account of faith yields peace! Romans 5:2 says we can rejoice and exult in our hope of experiencing and enjoying the glory of God!

Friends, I have a new perspective on experiencing and enjoying the glory of God! His generosity knows no limits! His love far surpasses mere knowledge! You have to experience it! It's more than you can ask for! It's greater than all you could hope or dare to dream of! (see Ephesians 3:14-21) So I ask you...

Have you let Him settle your account?

(quotations taken from the Amplified Bible)

My Daddy's Watch

2007-11-02T15:32:00.000-05:00

The Lord never ceases to amaze me! He is interested in our lives and has a plan for us right down to the smallest detail. He reminded me of this recently...

I was visiting my sister in Texas and we were getting ready to go to church. I put on the "finishing touches" and reached for my dress watch to wear. The choice was between that watch and my Dad's old, everyday watch that had been on his arm for years. I prefer my Dad's. It means a lot to me since he passed away a little over two years ago. But since it's big and obviously for a man, I elected to wear the smaller, more feminine watch. While picking it up, I felt the Lord say, "take your Daddy with you." The phrasing struck me as a little odd but since there was no time to analyze my thoughts, I simply put that watch down and strapped on my Dad's. No one knew me here. What difference did it make if I wore a man's watch?

We joined the other women from Becky's Sunday School class as they visited around breakfast tables. One young woman caught our attention. She was having a difficult time. I learned that her father had recently passed away. I recognized the lost look in her eyes. I remember, all too well, the desperate ache in the pit of my stomach and those days when you seem to have to remind yourself to breathe.

My heart ached for her. I wanted to let her know that I understood how she felt, but how do you initiate that conversation? What do you say to a complete stranger? Do you just walk up to her and say "I understand?" What if she doesn't want to talk about it? I wrestled with what to do for the majority of the morning. Finally, I felt that I just had to approach her. It had helped me to know that someone else understood how I felt - to know that someone understood what I couldn't explain.

I walked up to her. She was wearing a man's green athletic jacket. I reached out my arm and pointed to my watch. "It belonged to my Dad," I said. "He passed away two years ago." I'm not even sure if I told her my name. Her arms flew around me and she began to sob. I cried too. She explained that the jacket she was wearing had belonged to her father and she had lost him two short months ago. We clung to each other for awhile. It was as if we knew each other. We didn't, but the Lord knew both of us.

Our Sovereign God knew that the only introduction I would need to help a hurting stranger was an old, worn, man's watch. The Lord had a plan and it mattered what I wore on my arm that day. Not only was it the beginning of a friendship but it was a profound lesson for me - The Lord cares about the "little" things - because nothing is little to God.

Irrepressible Joy!

2007-08-21T12:40:00.000-05:00

The Lord never ceases to amaze me. He is so faithful to His Word! I wonder sometimes why I have such a struggle to trust Him with every aspect of my life. He's never failed me. Time and time again, He has proved Himself so faithful!

I struggled with my emotions a fair amount this past week and a half as it was the 2nd anniversary of Dad's death, his funeral and another birthday of mine without him. I know that it's natural to grieve what we miss. It's healthy even. But all too often, what starts out as grieving my Dad turns into giving into a bunch of lies... "I'm all by myself now", "life is too hard", "no one understands"... the list goes on. The problem with a pity party is that I don't really want to tell myself the Truth and from there, each little, petty annoyance adds to my misery. This is where I found myself this past weekend. I was hurting.

Now, I know where to go when I'm hurting. I even wrote about it. The thing that took me awhile to figure out is that the Lord is much more patient than I am. He's the calm Father that waits for His child to finish her rant and finish shaking her fist at Him. I ran to the right place but with the wrong heart. Finally, I feel like the Lord said "are you finished?" Praise Him I was close enough to being done that I could listen to what He had to say.

He took me to Psalm 97. His timing is always perfect! It was the very next Psalm that I was due to read and it begins with the bold truth THE LORD REIGNS! I was reminded that He really does reign. It might be feeling like everything in the world is going wrong but the Truth is is that God IS on the throne and He IS in control. Everything that happens has to first be passed through His hands. He promises to work ALL things together for the good of those who love Him. He's got a purpose for us that is infinitely higher than we can imagine. The verse goes on to say that this is reason enough to rejoice and be glad! Okay, He had the attention of my head but what was He going to do with my heart?

In verse 11 there was the most irresistible promise... irrepressible joy! Now tell me one person who would not love to have irrepressible joy. I thought, "alright, Lord. What's the condition?" Here's what it said... there's "irrepressible joy which comes from consciousness of His favor and protection." (Amplified Bible) I started to consider the favor of the Lord. I asked Him for eyes to see His blessings all around me. It would take me an hour to tell you the favor that I witnessed yesterday alone!

When we lift up our eyes to the Lord "from whence cometh my help" it will astonish You what He is up to all around you. If you don't believe me, just start keeping a list. Start with the obvious blessings and they will multiply from there - no matter what you're going through.

What was the result of my new and improved vision? Irrepressible joy! And praise the Lord - He's doing it again today!

Where Do You Go When You're Hurting?

2007-08-18T20:21:00.000-05:00

I don't know what circumstances are surrounding you today. As I think of the circumstances of those around me, perhaps you have a child in hospital whose life has been hanging in the balance. Perhaps you have a crisis in your relationships. Maybe you have found yourself victimized by circumstances beyond your control. Perhaps you are grieving. Whatever the situation may be, if you are not the one hurting, I can guarantee you know someone who is. Where do you go when you're hurting?

It occurs to me that I have spent my entire life surrounded by a belief in God. He has just always "been" for me. I take for granted in much of the things that I write that God has "been" for you too. But it is not enough to simply believe that God exists. The Bible says that even the demons believe and shudder. There came a point for me when I realized that despite the fact that I believed God existed, there was a separation between us. Something was missing and I needed it to be made right.

God says, "Come to Me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28) "But before people can ask the Lord for help, they must believe in Him; and before they can believe in Him, they must hear about Him; and for them to hear about the Lord, someone must tell them... So faith comes from hearing the Good News, and people hear the Good News when someone tells them about Christ." (Romans 10:14, 17)

Here's the really Good News...

"The Good News shows how God makes people right with Himself - that it begins and ends with faith..." (Romans 1:17)

"As the Scriptures say: 'There is no one who always does what is right, not even one." (Romans 3:10)

"no one can be made right with God by following the law. The law only shows us our sin. But God has a way to make people right with Him without the law, and He has now shown us that way... God makes people right with Himself through their faith in Jesus Christ... Everyone has sinned and fallen short of God's glorious standard, and all need to be made right with God by His grace, which is a free gift. They need to be made free from sin through Jesus Christ. God sent Him to die in our place to take away our sins. We receive forgiveness through faith in the blood of Jesus' death..." (Romans 3:20-25)

"The payment for sin is death. But God gives us the free gift of life forever in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)

"When we were unable to help ourselves, at the right time, Christ died for us, although we were living against God... But God shows His great love for us in this way: Christ died for us while we were still sinners." (Romans 5:6, 8)

"That is the teaching of faith that we are telling. If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and if you believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you will be saved. We believe with our hearts, and so we are made right with God. And we declare with our mouths that we believe, and so we are saved. As the Scripture says, 'Anyone who trusts in Him will never be disappointed.'" (Romans 10:8-11)

"Christ carried our sins in His body on the cross so we would stop living for sin and start living for what is right. And you are healed because of His wounds. You were like sheep that wandered away, but now you have come back to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." (1 Peter 2:24, 25)

So what do you say then? Are you tired? Is your burden heavy? Are you hurting? Is something missing? Are you ready to reach out in faith? Hebrews 11:1 says, "Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it." God asks each of us to begin our journey with a single step of faith. An acceptance of the gift that He is extending. What do you choose?

Dear Lord,

Thank You that You hear and answer everyone who calls out to You. You know the intention of those who are praying these words with me. Lord Jesus, I believe that You are the Son of God. You died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins. No matter how hard I try, Jesus, I can't fix my separation from God - but You can. Thank You that right now, You are alive and sitting at the Father's right hand, claiming me as Your own. I'm choosing to take a step of faith now, Jesus. I accept Your gift of life - real life. Be my Lord.

"Show me Your ways, O LORD, teach me Your paths; guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are God my Savior, and my hope is in You all day long. Remember, O LORD, Your great mercy and love, for they are from old. Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to Your love remember me, for You are good, O LORD." (Psalm 25:4-7)

Amen.

If you have just joined me in the journey of a lifetime, I welcome you. Jesus said, "there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:10) May I rejoice with you too? Please leave me a comment and we'll be praising His Name together!

My Savior, My God

2007-08-17T07:33:00.000-05:00

I've had this song playing over and over again in my heart these last few days. It is so true. I thought I would share...

I am not skilled to understand
what God has willed, what God has planned.
I only know at His right hand
stands One who is my Savior.
I take Him at His Word and see...
Christ died to save me, this I read,
and in my heart I find the need
of Him to be my Savior.
That He would leave His place on high
and come for sinful man to die.
You got estranged? So once did I...
before I knew my Savior.

My Savior loves, my Savior lives, my Savior's always there for me.
My God - He was, my God - He is, my God is always gonna be.
My Savior loves, my Savior lives, my Savior's always there for me.
My God - He was, my God - He is, my God is always gonna be!

Yes, living, dying let me drink
my strength, my solace from the spring...
That He who lives to be my King
once died to be my Savior.
That He would leave His place on high
and come for sinful man to die.
You got estranged? So once did I
before I knew my Savior.

My Savior loves, my Savior lives, my Savior's always there for me.
My God - He was, my God - He is, my God is always gonna be...
My Savior loves, my Savior lives, my Savior's always there for me.
My God - He was, my God - He is, my God is always gonna be!
My Savior loves!
My Savior lives!
My Savior loves!
My Savior lives!

by Aaron Shust (WOW Hits 2007)

How wonderful, hard to imagine, that the God who formed the universe would give His one and only Son to die for me... but He did! I can't explain the freedom there is in Christ. I can't believe the transformation He has made in me. But I am so very thankful! Lord Jesus, I am in awe of You and Your priceless gift! May I live and breathe to praise Your Name!

Are You Ready?

2007-08-12T08:08:00.000-05:00

Today is August 12th. It was two years ago today that my Dad died. As I sat in my spot this morning, I felt like the Lord asked me if I was ready... Ready to die, Lord? Ready to go Home... My Dad's physical body died on August 12th, 2005 but he is more alive today than he has ever been! Dad was ready! Dad was a good man but the facts are that you can never be good enough to enter heaven on your own merit. We all fall so desperately short. But Dad also knew that God sent His only Son to remedy that. Jesus lived the sinless life we could never live. He laid down His life to pay the penalty for our sins. He rose to life again as Victor over death and Dad welcomed that pardon.

So how did I answer the Lord this morning? Am I ready? Yes. I'm ready. There were a number of sins that I laid before the Lord this morning... and there will undoubtedly be a number more tomorrow but He forgives me! I've admitted my own insufficiency and accepted His merciful pardon! From my gratitude, I will try my best to honor the One who pardoned me but the pressure is off! He knows I am but a child and He's adopted me as His own.

Dad went home that day! To his "mansion just over the hilltop in that bright land where we'll never grow old". Someday, I will too. And I know I will be received in. Am I worthy? No way, but I've embraced the One who is and someday I'm going HOME.

What about you? Are you ready?

In My Father's house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you: for I am going away to prepare a place for you. And when I go and make ready a place for you, I will come back again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And where I am going, you know the way. Thomas said to Him, Lord, we do not know where You are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me."

John 14:2-6

The Prayer of Moses (Psalm 90)

2007-08-07T06:40:00.000-05:00

LORD, may I learn from the prayer of Moses this morning (Psalm 90). You allow him to be known as the man of God. O, how I want to be recognized as one who belongs to You - one with whom You fellowship. You really are the place of refuge for Your people throughout all generations, LORD. No matter what goes on around me, when my heart and mind dwell in You I am saved. Thank You that You always were and You always will be. You are unchanging and so with You I will always have a place of refuge.

I consider the years that I spent wandering in the wilderness. I was troubled, overwhelmed and frightened. LORD, that's what comes when we allow the circumstances of life to become giants and fail to remember the awesome faithfulness of our Almighty God. You have to discipline us - it's the loving thing to do. How will I ever learn if I don't feel the consequences of my sin? When I am troubled, overwhelmed or frightened, O LORD, please cause me to stop and listen to Your voice so that You can reveal where I've allowed sin a foothold.

LORD, I am so thankful that You know our "secret heart" and its sins. You know my folly, O God. My guilt is not hidden from You (Ps. 69:5). You have declared that even when I was lost in my sin, You loved me so much that You sent Your only Son to die for me so that I could live reconciled to You. So I know I can be completely honest with You for nothing I confess comes as a shock to You. Search me thoroughly, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! See if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting (Ps. 139:23-24) because though I might struggle to let go, no pattern of thought or desire of the heart is worth roaming the wilderness for. I have tasted the sweet abundance of Your Promised Land and I don't want to roam anymore.

LORD, teach me to number my days. Help me to remember that life is short so that I don't waste them. I want to seek out Your heart of Wisdom. LORD, You do satisfy me in the mornings with Your mercy and loving-kindness. You make my heart rejoice and be glad! What a tremendous gift! Please LORD, may I never be content to sit outside Your Presence and learn "about" You. May I always allow You full access and spend time "with" You.

LORD, Moses asked that You would make them glad in proportion to the days in which You had afflicted them and the years that they had suffered evil. As I consider that this morning, I want way more days of gladness than those that I was afflicted. Although when in the midst of the turmoil and trial it looked like it was endless, it really was light and momentary when compared to the suffering Christ went through for me. Praise You, O LORD, that it was short-lived and that You have redeemed me from that oppression and You have set me free.

Let Your work, the signs of Your power, be revealed in me and Your glorious majesty to my children. And let Your beauty and delightfulness and favor be upon us. Even confirm and establish the work of our hands for I desire to bear much fruit. May it never be in pride and only to bring You glory.

So be it. Amen.

Fear...

2007-07-23T17:15:00.000-05:00

"I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise will always be on my lips. My soul will boast in the LORD; let the afflicted hear and rejoice." Psalm 34:1, 2

"I sought the LORD, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears." Psalm 34:4

Have you ever noticed how afraid we are to confess our fears? For some reason, we are all too eager to boast our confidences but when it comes to our fears we hold them inside. It's as if we're scared that by voicing our fears they are going to get bigger - or come true - but the exact opposite is true. When we confess our fears, and bring them out into the light, they lose their power.

That's what happened to me today. I was fearful. The "of what" doesn't matter. I was listening to the same old lies that have haunted me before. I know that the LORD says to trust Him and I wanted to. I tried to - but some of those old lies run deep. You think they're gone and you're skipping along pretty well, then all of the sudden - WHAMMO! I asked the LORD for help. I brought my prayers and petitions before Him. The problem is that I didn't lay them down there. Instead, I shook them in His face and hollered "fix it"!

Oh, what a gracious God we have. All day long, He reminded me of verses... do not fret... trust in the LORD and do good...delight yourself in the LORD and He will give you the desires of your heart...Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for Him... (Psalm 37) When I finally reached the end of my own ideas, He sent help. I am so blessed to have a faithful friend that I can confess my fears and shortcomings to. Sometimes the LORD uses the ears of a friend as His own. Just listening to myself confess my fears aloud made me begin to realize how off-base they were. When I was reminded of the Truth of God's Word, the fears quickly began to dissipate. Now they are gone! You see the enemy wants us isolated. He tries his best to convince us that no one would understand or that we should be able to cope alone. PRIDE.

Thank You, LORD, for the Truth of Your Word. Thank You that I can know the Truth and the Truth sets me free. (John 8:32) You, O LORD, are The Way, the Truth and Life to the full! Thank You for setting me free!

Garbage

2007-07-21T07:37:00.000-05:00

In October of 2006, in Round Top, Texas, the Lord started asking me to pick up garbage. I remember it very clearly. It was the first afternoon at a week long spiritual retreat which would become a significant mile marker in my spiritual life. The conference center was beautiful! The gardens were breath-taking and I was spending that first afternoon just talking with the Lord. A small piece of white paper had been carelessly discarded. The Lord told me to "pick it up". Now you might think that it wasn't the Lord but merely common sense but I heard Him. I bent down to pick up the paper and it blew away. I was tempted to just let it blow but the Lord was persistent and reluctantly I obeyed. Since then, I have been asked to pick up garbage many times. I even made a new friend (that very week) that also gets asked to pick up garbage. Go figure. Sometimes it's just a piece or two that the Lord calls to my attention and sometimes He gets serious with me and puts me to work. I'm not sure what the reason is. My friend believes that it's a tool to chip away at our pride. I have plenty of pride but I have to wonder if it is more of a lesson in obedience for me. Far more often than I would like to admit, the Lord's tender voice to "pick that up" is met with "Oh, Lord, I don't want to...the next trash can is so far away...that's gross...". A myriad of excuses fall from my lips, but He's persistent. I'm reminded of the words that I say to my children, "if you don't obey right away, you're not obeying at all". I hate that, but it's true.

So, this week, I returned to work after a wonderful, fun-filled holiday. I was having some trouble settling in and knowing which ministries needed to have the highest priority. The Lord has given me a heart for the lost and everywhere I look, people are lost! How do I reach out to them? What should this ministry look like? What do I do with that one? As I write this, I see my own lack of trust in the Lord and that tendency again to lean on my own understanding. I wanted to see the whole path, didn't I, Lord? Over holidays, the Lord had been really impressing the words of Jude 23 on my heart..."Strive to save others, snatching them out of the fire..." Oh Lord, may I be able to do that! Once again, the Lord is teaching me while I write. He IS ABLE to keep me from stumbling! Even with such a calling as that! Anyways, back to my story... I had asked the Lord, "show me how... show me what to do... how do I snatch them for You, Lord?" The question hung unanswered in the air throughout my quiet time. I threw on my runners and headed out the door. The sun was rising and the Lord was declaring His glory! It was a remarkable time of praise to the Lord for Who He is and what He's done! Then I saw it. A bag. "Oh, no, Lord. Not a bag." For when the Lord sends a bag, I know that there will be a bunch of garbage around the corner and He's providing all that I need to gather it. (Lord, the lessons in garbage are still coming! You will always provide all that I need to gather it - praise God!) Sure enough, I was suddenly in a sea of garbage! Everywhere I looked there was something to be picked up. I went left, then right, forward, then back. I felt almost frantic as I grabbed at everything and didn't seem to be making a dent in the collection of refuse. My cry to the Lord was probably audible, "Lord, I can't get it all! I'm grabbing right and left and I'm supposed to be running." Praise God, His reply was too! "I don't ask you to. Just SNATCH the ones I place along your path!"

I knew without a doubt that we weren't just talking about garbage anymore. We were talking about those people around me who were lost and seemingly discarded by life. I'm running in the race of life and I'm called to run in such a way as to get the prize. I'm to press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. I'm to fix my eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of my faith. I'm to run with perseverance and by Christ's call and in His strength, I'm to snatch others out of the fire that have fallen along the path He takes me. And He will supply everything I need to do this - all the while keeping my feet from falling.

Will you join me?

Made By The Master

2007-05-14T17:04:00.000-05:00

Come let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker. Psalm 95:6

In our First Place study last week, we spent some time looking at God as our Maker. We looked at scriptures such as those in Psalm 139 where we're told that He knit us together in our mother's wombs and that we were woven together in the depths. I knew these verses. I knew that God was my Maker but I really let myself meditate on these words. I thought about a master weaver at the loom. It's a picture that my generation has nearly forgotten. I thought about how it's the intricacy of one color woven together with the next that makes a masterpiece. How the more contrasting the colors - the more beautiful the finished work. That's what the Lord was wanting to talk to me about. When it comes to Him weaving me, I want the bright colors! Golds and yellows, even reds and pinks but not black or deep greys. Whether through prayer or complaining, I tend to ask my Maker if He knows what He's doing when the dark days come. In the words of Isaiah, I strive against my Maker. How often do I rebel against the tension as one color is tied into the next? Why do I not wholeheartedly trust the Master? He has the wisdom to know what is best, the power to accomplish it, and is dedicated to working all things together for my good.

Lord God Almighty, my Maker, I trust you. Teach me to trust in You with all my heart and not lean on my own understanding. I don't want to come unravelled, so go ahead and use the tension that You deem best as You change colors of thread. As for those colors, Lord... You know the pattern that will yield the most beautiful design. O that I would be grateful that You are at the loom and that I don't have to figure it out. Please teach me to rest in Your hands. Teach me, Lord, to live everyday, whether gold or black, with the sweet anticipation that I am becoming more and more beautiful. A priceless work in the hands of the Master. Remind me, Lord, that I've been purchased in advance by Your Son. The price has been paid. The deal is done. May I be joyfilled each day as I say "so be it"...

I received an e-mail yesterday from a friend of mine. She isn't part of my First Place class and she had no idea of what the Lord had been teaching me through this illustration. She simply heard the Lord when He told her to send this poem on to Karrie...

My Life is but a Weaving

My life is but a weaving
between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors,
He worketh steadily.
Oft times He weaveth sorrow,
And I, in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper,
And I the under side.

Not 'til the loom is silent
and the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
and explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
in the Weaver's skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
in the pattern He has planned.
He knows, He loves, He cares,
nothing this truth can dim.
He gives His very best to those
who leave the choice with Him.
~Author Unknown

He Delights In Me!

2007-05-11T20:31:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it takes Truth a long time to travel from the head to the heart. Today, the knowledge that the God of the universe delights in me finally settled into my heart. I was reading in my old Bible, from a time when life was harder, and I came to the verse that this blog is named for... Psalm 18:19. I saw the question mark that I had placed behind the words "spacious place". I remembered the doubt that used to assail me when nothing seemed spacious and instead my world seemed to be crashing in on me. I had highlighted the phrase "delighted in me" and written in the margin the question of my soul do I bring You delight, Lord? From the midst of the battle - when the foe appeared to be gaining ground - it was nearly impossible to believe that anyone, let alone God, could find delight in me. But praise God - He does!!

When I look back upon those years of my life, I can see the Mighty Hand of God reaching down. "He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters." Why? Because I'm His child. Why? Because He chose me. Why? Because He has assumed full responsibility for me. And yes, His Word says that "He rescued me because He delighted in me"! I have been rescued - there is no doubt! Praise the Lord! I choose to stand on the Truth of His Word and praise God I sing a new song!

A Time of Refreshing...

2007-05-01T10:05:00.000-05:00

"For the Mighty One has done great things for me - holy is His Name."
Luke 1:49

God amazes me! The more that I take the time to look for and acknowledge His Sovereign Hand in all of life's circumstances, the more I realize that He's been working all things together for my good - even years before I turned from my rebellion...

LORD, I thank You that You are so faithful to Your Word. Every promise is yes and amen! You are constantly at work in my life and the lives of those around me (even afar off) to accomplish that which concerns us... to prosper us, to give us a hope and a future. LORD, I thank You for faithful servants. Each simple act of obedience to You has far reaching rewards... many of which we will never know until eternity. I thank You for Cindy's obedience to ask Becky to go camping nearly 15 years ago. How could anyone (but You) ever know that this simple obedience would change my life hundreds of miles away. LORD, thank You for Sandra, Ann and Betty who joined with Cindy to show Christ's love to Becky. Thank You for the wealth of experiences and teachings that I now benefit from. Thank You for uprooting Becky and planting her in the rich soil of Houston First Baptist. I praise You that You don't waste a single heartache. Thank You for Carole! I praise You that she was anchored in You when tragedy struck. That she didn't hesitate to testify to Your amazing grace in the midst of her grief. I praise You that You had me in the right place at the right time - at the end of me! Only then was I able to acknowledge my need. Thank You for stripping me bare of all the horses and chariots that I had placed my trust in. If You had left even one I wouldn't know You as my true King. I can thank You now for the death of my Dad. He is at peace with You and I know You more. Thank You for the barren land that I was in at Thanksgiving 2005, for the e-mail from Gospel Light that gave me a taste of Carole's new book and for the link on the website that made it possible to contact Carole. Thank You for the new friend that Carole had made in Becky and that the e-mail was timed just when Carole needed it. Thank You that You prompted her to share it with Becky. Thank You for leading me to check out the website and giving me a deep desire to go to FOCUS week. Thank You for starting a new work on me there. Thank You that this new work has extended past me to my family. Thank You for the friendship of friendships with my "sister" Becky. Thank You that despite the fact that we don't look a thing alike, people see Your glory resembled in us. Thank You for wonderful acts too numerous to mention but O LORD, You know! Thank You for Kent who is so generous with me! Thank You for these past days of refreshing! Thank You for fun & fellowship, great food & good books. Thank You for the most amazing times of worship! How awesome that You don't fit in any box or any mold. Thank You for allowing me to be a servant of Yours. Thank You for arranging the class on consecration, for prison worship, for Jewish marriage customs... Thank You for technology so that I can "sit" under such awesome teaching. Thank You for a husband who is extravagant with me and purchased me an i-pod. Thank You for allowing me to be in Houston with my sister and for the 20 minutes that were so important to me before I boarded the plane. LORD, may I never complain in hardship or trial. As You have proved over and over before - they are just steps to the next mountain top! I praise You, LORD! Amen and amen...