Trust Him!

Every one of our futures are unknown, some feel it more than others depending on your place in life. I was reading in Acts this morning and these verses came alive.

Paul writes: "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there..." The Holy Spirit does lead. He does speak to us and direct our steps. We need to stay in prayer and in the word and listen to his leading. Many people have confirmed the calling to go to Ohio. Many...Now listen to how Paul continues. "...I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me." We know from Paul's life how often this happened to him, but listen how he continues. "...However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." It didn't matter what he was going to face or the hardships he would endure. His life was nothing - his life was about Jesus and him alone. Does this bring things into perspective for you as it does for me? I underlined the word however because I love how this followed the knowledge of hardships. Kind of like saying "oh, well." It's all worth it so that others may know Christ. People need Jesus! He is the source of life. This world has nothing for me.

Lord, make this my attitude. Give me that servant heart. May I finish the race that you have for me/us. I pray Lord that you would put things in place for our move transition. That you would finalize all the details. Lord, speak to anyone reading in any area in their life where they need you. Help us all to lay down ourselves for the sake of the Gospel.

Paul later in Chapter 20 says "...I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'".

Trust Jesus for your life.

Meet with him!

Have you had those times in your life when you could not see the outcome of something? You were in a situation where impossibilities were all around? When you know that God has called you to where you are, then those things that look impossible need to be layed on Jesus. I was reading Psalm 146 and some amazing promises are there. I think it's important to remember that the words of scripture are not just some feel good words but are true promises.

"Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save...Blessed is he whose help is in the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God...the Lord, who remains faithful forever."

Check it out - how often I have failed and put my hope in a situation in man. When I do that it turns to fear and worry. Why? Isn't it so clear that man will fail you. This does not mean that we are not to speak to about a situation, but our direction should always be from God. He will lead you where you are to go and who you are to speak to. My hope is in the Lord for he is always faithful to me. I must remember and not be the wave that is tossed back and forth.

Tim and I have been reading the book "He Still Moves Stones" by Max Lucado. For you women reading who know that you worry too much read what he says in the book. He was writing about the story of Mary and Martha. "Apparently Martha worried too much too. So much that she started bossing God around. Worry will do that to you. It makes you forget who's in charge." Did that convict any of you like it did me? How often we try to be in charge. My faith sometimes is so strong, I can feel it deep within me, God holding me fast - then bang, something comes along that I can't see the outcome and there I go again. Praise God that those times don't last as long. Yesterday was one of those days but today I will claim back the truth. Later in this Psalm David says: "The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down." So it is clear where our strength comes from. On our own we cannot be lifted up. Our own strength is pitiful. It is the Lord who does the lifting up, but I must bow down before him. Spend time with him. Study his word every day. He wants to meet with you every day.

No one can fathom!

Psalm 145 "...Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom."

As I read this I just stopped for a minute to think about that last phrase! When I think of God I can think of great things that he has done, of his endless love and forgiveness. I can think of the amazing things that he has demonstrated in my life. I can read about his power in scripture. Yet I still cannot fathom his greatness. His power is so beyond what I can even imagine. I can imagine his power, parting the red sea, manna falling from the sky...etc. and yet his greatness is still more. Wow!

What are we to do? verse 10 says "All you have made will praise you...They will tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might, so that all men may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom."

So God has made me - I should praise him - and tell of his might in my life and in the lives of others and what he can do for you - SO THAT OTHERS MAY KNOW OF HIS POWER! We are his instruments. Can you imagine a band where some of the musicians decided they didn't feel like bringing their instruments to the concert? Dumb...we are God's instruments and we should carry our instrument and practice it every day. Being in the word of God daily so we will be better at playing. Jesus should go with us all the time and we need to seek him in every part of our life, even the little details.

Finally, vs. 18 says "The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth...The Lord watches over all who love him..." Doesn't that bring so much comfort to you? He is not just near to some, but to everyone. He also wants us to come to him truthfully. Not with pride but humbled that we are in his presence. Not trying to hide our sin from him but confessing it truthfully. Knowing the truth that Jesus died on the cross and took the punishment for our sins. We are free to live in the grace, the free gift of salvation given to all who believe in Jesus. That is the power of the cross. WE ARE FREE INDEED!

The Power of God

What a cold damp day today. I needed to go to the grocery store but just couldn't muster up the desire to go out in this weather. Oh, well, that will wait - probably until we are out of milk since I really do not like grocery shopping. We will spend this evening with daughter, son-in-law and grandson. Yea!

Today brought about setting a tentative ministry start date and connecting with a realtor. Good start to moving forward. I am so incredibly thankful and proud of daughter Angela who will be moving with us. A friend asked her if she was mad - she simply said "what's there to be mad about?" It didn't even make sense to her. I told her that shows such maturity on her part. Sadness is real and ok - change is not easy, but when you allow God to surround you and keep your eyes focused on what is ahead, still holding onto memories, the sadness will turn to joy.

Over these past 8 months God has been so all over us. He has allowed our hearts and minds and our souls to heal from many hurts. He has provided for us in ways that are beyond our comprehention. He has laid it on the hearts of a few people to send us support - what a gift from God that we will be forever grateful for. He has guided us in every step we have taken. I really need to begin to write when we get settled. I really need to "remember and not forget" what the God has done. When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea they began to forget what God did and tuned away. I do not want to be like that. I want to always remember the power and awesomeness of the God that we have.

Pressing Forward

So our story continues....
We are moving to Ohio - Waterville to be exact, just south of Toledo. Tim will be pastoring a small mission church. It is exciting, scary, adventerous, joyfull, sad..etc. It is hard to begin to blog about everything. Seems like it all came so fast. "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead..." Those words from scripture came clearly to my mind as I was writing. Time now to look forward, keeping my eyes focussed on Jesus. "...I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me Heavenward in Christ Jesus." So as these days are here now to make decisions, choose dates and find a home, I know for me that it is so important for me to press on forward. Since my prize at the end of my life is heaven - then I need to move forward in Christ, walking side by side with him. Yea!!! Lord bring it all together!

So I was thinking about my life and I look back at the places that I have been. Wow - never in a million years could I have ever planned this all out. I love the following lines from the movie "While You Were Sleeping."

First, I remember being with my dad.
He would get these far-off looks in his eye, and he would say,
"Life doesn´t always turn out the way you plan."
I just wish I realized at the time he was talking about my life.

But of course her life turned out better than she could have planned. That's the way it is with God. Embracing His plans are often big steps of faith.

So what exactly our life will look like we do not know. What I do know is there is a community that needs Jesus. A group of committed people that long to bring Jesus to others. Everyone at the church has a job - that is so cool. People willing to do and change whatever is necessary to reach people - even the lost generation of young adults. Praise the Lord! They are not about themselves but about others.

Funny story - one of the couples there has already heard Tim preach, and he did the funeral for her grandmother. Also, we just found out today the one of the men there is a brother to a dear couple that we have know from our years way back living in Lansing at our home congregation. Small world!

Walk on water

"If this is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry saying 'what shall we eat?' or 'what shall we drink' or 'what shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well." Matt:6

These verses came to my mind tonight - guess the Lord was wanting to remind me. To strengthen my faith. So all the things that I see as impossible, well God already knows what I need and he will take care of them. But he gives us a command here - to seek first him and him alone. Laying everything else down, laying aside what I think is best and looking straight to Jesus - with my eyes fixed on him. Those distractions of life and concerns are bound to come up but I must fix my eyes back on him. I do not want to take my eyes off of him. When I do I begin to sink, just like Peter did. Peter must have thought that it would be impossible to walk on the water to Jesus - for sure - but it was when he took his eyes off Jesus that he began to sink. Life is like that. The cares of this life can make you sink and feel like you are droughning. Most of us have felt that at some point, maybe even now. Let's take a moment, close our eyes, and just imagine your eyes fixed upon Jesus eyes. Imagine him saying to you "keep looking at me, no, don't look at the wave, keep looking at me. I love you so much. Take my hand. Let me lead you. Walk with me and I will lead you into green pastures and beside the still waters." I realized that you can't close your eyes and read at the same time so close your eyes for a moment now - then come back.


Our God is a God of miracles, our God is the God who calms storms, who created the universe. Someday I will write about all the ways that he has taken care of us these past 9 months. Sooner than later I hope! He loves us so much, he wants us to just keep looking to him.

The awesome thing to remember is that when we are sinking that Jesus saves us. The following video was done by a mission team on the World Race. Hey, we have to have faith to even try, right? I imagine God just smiling and saying "I love you guys!"

Walking on Water from Matthew Snyder on Vimeo.

Fun

So this evening brings me to a point of "hmm, what to blog about". I will sit down, begin to write, and see what the Lord leads me to.

Life is all about bringing praise and honor to our creator. In all we do that should be our focus. Do we do that every day? Absolutely not...sometimes I search my heart so deep for anything that the Lord wants to clean out. Sometimes I am just way too hard on myself. Sometimes I just need to have fun with him.

I was chatting with my daughter who is overseas. We were writing back and forth on the internet about what they are doing and about us. Then the words popped back to me "when was the last time you guys did something for fun?" Still fingers on my end for a moment. I told Tim and he just said "being with you is fun." :) Cute answer but not what Denise meant for sure. Tim said "I went grocery shopping with mom yesterday" to which Angela quickly responded "mom hates grocery shopping." We were called out on this one. You see, life can bring so much our way, decisions, decisions, decisions...but in the midst of it all we should have some fun too. I was thinking of a friend of mine who recently said that she and her husband just laughed going to Trader Joe's together. Fun does come in all sort of different ways.

In my quest to find fun in the bible I did a Biblegateway search. One verse popped up and made me snicker. Note that this was the Day of Pentecost.
Acts 2:14 "Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."

Ok, so not the fun I was thinking of but fun non the less to read. I was just thinking that when we are so filled with the Spirit of Christ that I'll bet that some people do make fun of us. I guess it's the joy of the Lord that fills us. The day of Pentecost had to have been a blast.

Psalm 28:7 "The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song."

You know the feeling when you are in love? When your heart skips a beat and gets butterflies! Imagine your heart leaping for joy in the LORD! Lord, fill our hearts with your joy and make music in our hearts. Touch my heart with your presence and fill me up with a joy that makes me dance and sing for you.

To close today I dedicate the following song to Denise and Emily. It made me laugh. I hope you do too. (FYI: These two daughters of mine memorized this when they were younger)

Search Me

I have always loved this Psalm. It just makes me feel so amazingly special.
Just listen.


We are that special. There is nowhere that I can go that he is not with me. Even on those days when I feel so alone, he is right there with me. Sometimes I just need to stop what I am doing, close my eyes and just think of him. Just think of him holding me and loving me. I love how this Psalm ends - asking God to search me. To search my heart for anything that is offensive in me. This is such an important part of the Christian walk - aksing God to just search our hearts. So often we do not want God to really search our hearts because we don't like what he will find. Remember that he knows what is in there anyway. As the Psalm says 'there is nowhere that I can go to get away from him'. We also need him to search our hearts for any anxious ways. But this searching of our hearts is to bring us to a place of healing and repentence. That is always a wonderful thing. Healing sooths the heart as does the knowledge that you are forgiven. Allow him to come deep within you, all the way in, holding nothing back. His love will wash all over you.

I was chatting last night with a friend that lives in another state. We knew each other a decade ago. Her husband is very ill and has been for a long time. We chatted for over an hour and just shared life with each other. Each of us has things in life that we are dealing with. They all come in different ways, but God is with us no matter where we are. He knows our hurts and he knows our joys. May we daily look to him to fill our hearts with his presence. His promises are always true.

I love my mother in law

So I am sitting in a computer room at the Conference Center for the Pastor's Conference. I stepped out of the room where the speaker is talking, just felt the need for my quiet time with God. I so loved the Psalm for the day that I read.

Psalm 138:6-8 "Though the Lord is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar..." How important it is to seek the Lord to be humble. That there is nobody to low to love and how easily pride can creep in. I do not want pride to keep me at a distance from the Lord. Pay attention!

"...Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life;" Isn't that the best? Earlier I was sitting and talking with my mother in law. By the way, the best mom ever! Anyway, I was sharing life with her, tears and all. Then she shared with me the fears of dad's eye surgery next week. Tears and all! But I love what happened next. I felt in my spirit that we should pray together, so I took her hand and we just prayed together over our concerns/fears. Both knowing what we know, both knowing that God has it ALL, both knowing the truth of Jesus presence, but both having fears and concerns. We love how Jesus loves us through it all. He will preserve our life - so beautiful and so comforting. Pray it all the time.

"...with your right hand you save me. The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever -" More words of truth - the truth that we must claim and must live. If I/we ever doubt that he has a purpose for us just keep reading this verse over and over until the truth sticks. I love the thought of his right hand saving me - I get this picture of Jesus hand gently guiding me along. Sometimes he has to give me a push to get my attention but he does have a purpose in my life. He does have a purpose for your life. That is the truth!!!!!

Take the time to be with him, to be still and quiet with him. He is mighty to save. Amen

Be My Everything!

Have you taken time to search your heart for bitterness or selfish ambition? Are you carrying bitterness toward anybody? Hear this - "Who is wise?...Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find discorder and every evil practice."

As I read these verses I am again reminded that my life is not about me. I am reminded how easily the enemy creaps in and distorts the truth. The result is - disorder.

Here is the best part - "But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness."

That is what I desire. For me to have this kind of wisdom I need to ask God for that wisdom. I cannot do this on my own. I must be aware of my thoughts and actions. I must be in the word and in prayer, seeking heavenly wisdom. I know people as I am sure you do too that are naturally peacemakers. They have a way of entering a conversation without judgment, and if disagreements arise, with them or with others around, they have a way of bringing peace into the situation. May we all seek that wisdom. I love that we have access to this wisdom. If we sow in peace - in our relationships, in our work, with our spouse and children, with our friends - if we seek to speak with peace, those relationships will raise a harvest. No way do I do this as I ought. Sometimes I speak without thinking. Sometimes I say something that offended someone else. I am sorry when I do. Sometimes I don't even respond correctly. But I am growing in this and am seeking his wisdom.

I love the holiness of God. He is so holy and pure and still wants to be near me. As I slip and fail every day he still stays near to me. It is through his presence that I learn the wisdom that is from heaven. Through his example I learn to be a peacemaker. I desire to grow in this area in my life. May his beautiful presence ever fill us today. Wash over us with such peacefulness that we can only say "it is Christ in me." Be my everything Jesus. Be my everything - fill me to overflowing with your presence.

This world - nothing!

Today is a chilly rainy day. I was blessed to spend time playing bunko with friends. One of these friends has been an awesome friend and has walked with me through the good times and the tough times. I am so thankful for that.

Life is filled with changes. What happens next is still to be determined. We will head to the Pastor's Conference this next week. Looking forward to seeing friends.

So, what does this world bring? 1 John 2 says "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

As I read these verses I am again reminded of this world being temporal. Of what really matters in this life. The love of the world is what I see. I get caught up in it too. As I read the first few words "do not love anything in the world" it is very convicting. How easily I can love a home, the computer, my family, posessions...etc. The problem is when those become more important than Jesus. How easily that can happen. We "boast" about what we have - the old adage 'keeping up with the Jones' rings true here. But I love that John says that this kind of boasting does not come from the Father but from the world. We crave things in this world - a new tv, a bigger house, more money, more stuff...etc. I crave to be closer to Jesus. When those worldy cravings hit me, and they will, I want Jesus more than those things.

So where we move to - well... I was watching the movie Bruce Almighty the other day and a couple of lines really hit me like never before. God told Bruce "since when does anybody know what is best for them." Then later in the movie when Bruce realized that he cannot run his life on his own, he gets down on his knees, cries out to God, hands raised to heaven and says "I don't want to do this anymore, I don't wanna be God. I want you to decide what's right for me, I surrender to your will." That is how I feel about our future. I do not want to decide. Trust me, I've tried to plan out the next steps. I see this situation, or that situation, and in my mind I can plan it all out the way that looks best to me. Yikes, good thing God doesn't do what I think is best. What a mess that would be. Trying to play God is tiresome and frankly a waste of time. So we will listen to the voice of God to say 'go' or 'don't go'. It is through his direction and though his answer that we will have peace about our decisions. Because they will not be our decisions but God's.

The world can offer all kinds of things, but it is surrendering our all to Jesus that changes our life. So leave it all at the foot of the cross. Know that our sins have been covered and washed in the blood of Jesus. Surrender your life to Jesus - if you have come to a point when you realize that you've been trying to run your life and it's falling apart - lay it all at the foot of the cross.

You can't do it - but Jesus can!!!!

walk - continued

So yesterday's blog was not titled walk but this will be a continuation.

I wrote about walking yesterday, then later in the day I took a walk by myself. I had a lot on my mind but in the midst of a busy mind I was able to notice some neat things. I used my cell phone to take a few pictures. This tree is one that Tim and I have stopped and looked at every time we walk past it. The base of it is huge and we always wonder how old it might be. When we look up we are just so amazed at the beauty of it. This picture does not do it justice. I was glad I finally took a picture of it as we have thought about that many times.

As I walked a little further I wanted to take pictures of different doors on houses. For some reason the homes in this area have such cool front doors. I was stopped from taking those pictures because of the other people walking. I felt strange taking pictures of the front of peoples houses.

A little further down I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this tree. I know that it's not much to look at in this picture, but I had a flash of my childhood come rushing through my mind. It is a very old birch tree. What hit me was how low the branches were and I could picture myself as a little girl climbing to my hearts content. I climbed trees all the time like this. Some were this easy to climb, others I learned the fine art of shimmying up. What joy!

By this point I was remembering my blog ealier about our faith walk being like a walk. As our life moves along we have times when we remember what God has done in our life. What joy!

Then, if these thoughts weren't enough, in the next block I saw a lady walking her black laborador. I have seen this dog around before and he looks just like our dog that we had to put down recently. I asked the owner if she minded if I pet her dog. As a once dog owner I understood when she cheerfully said "sure". We chatted - and as I bent down and put my hands on the side of the dogs face I was holding back tears. You see, Engligh labs have a very distinctive look to their faces. A more square face and a puppy look. I actually had to pull back a little because I just wanted to cry. Musta was a very special part of our home. Again, memories flashing though my mind.

So as I think back to memories of my faith walk - wow - so many come to my mind. I was thinking about when God called Tim into the ministry. I remember two weeks before we were to move, with four little girls, we still had no place to live. God intervened and we were lead to a home. We drove to St. Louis with our moving truck, sight unseen, and were astounded to find a beautiful 4 bedroom home for the next two years in such a beautiful neighborhood, next to our church for the next two years and a huge park a block away.

Seems that God has called us to so many times of trusting him. What about you? Can you leave me a comment about a time in your life that you had no idea what was going to happen, then God just blew your doors off. I would love to read about some of those stories as I am sure others would too.

Peace

In His Arms

So this blog has been quite the journey for me. Life is still a journey filled with joys and tears. But Jesus is always the focus and I never want to take my eyes off of him. Many of my readers have taken a pretty close look into my heart. A new step for me but a good one. You've read my joys and my fears - my trusting and my doubting. Real life I suppose.

As you read scripture there are countless stories about faith. The faithfulness of God's people is amazing as you read the stories. Today I was reading about Elijah. His faith in the the power of God was blowing me away. He had told the prophets of Baal to choose two bulls, cut them up, and put them on a wood for a fire. Elijah would do the same and call on the name of the Lord, they would call to their god. The God who answers by fire - he is God. Of course when they called to Baal morning till night nothing happened. Elijah even taunted them by saying "Surely he is god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened." (that sounds so funny to me) So when Elijah called all the people to him he prepared the altar to the Lord. Three times he had water poured on the altar so that the water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench. (amazing faith) Elijah prayed "O LORD...let it be known today that you are God in Israel...Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again. then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil...When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, 'The LORD - he is God! the LORD, - he is God!"

Oh to have that kind of faith. Oh how I desire that kind of faith. When we think about our faith walk, yours and mine, I think we first need to think about walking. Tim and I frequently take walks. Sometimes we just have the most peaceful walk ever but sometimes we might be walking along and it starts to rain, or we trip on the sidewalk. Whenever we take a walk we see things around us that we didn't see the last time we walked past. A cool tree we never noticed, a beautiful house with a cool front door, a house in disrepair, a park. Our faith walk is so much like that isn't it? We're walking along with Jesus, having a pretty pleasant walk, when all of a sudden something comes up in life that makes us trip - or we even feel like we got caught in a rainstorm and just want to run for shelter. We don't always see the same thing in our faith walk either. Tim and I could always go for the same walk all the time but we would never experience anything new and exiting. That is the same with our walk with Jesus. If we want to stay at what we think is "safe" we will never experience the potential of what God has for us. We've walked through some fire for sure - I'll bet that every one of you has too. Keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus through it all is the only way that I know how. The enemy will surely come along and trip us up so that our eyes come off of Jesus, but we must, we must, fix our eyes back on him.

Walk with faith believing that the God of the universe is actually holding you gently in the palm of his hand. He has his arms wrapped all around you and me. Feel it...........

Contentmant

I just don't know what God is doing. At all...
God sure is a God of mystery.
He sure doesn't give me more than today to see. I wish he would.
Satan loves to come into my life and confuse me and make me doubt.
He can take a hike............
I love that God has introduced me to a new encouraging non-judgmental friend who understands.
I love that Michigan State beat Michigan today.
Unknown is getting old. God must have a plan because I sure can't figure it out.
I want to contine to be "real".
I face frustrations, fears and doubts.
Sometimes I am so strong in the Lord and in His Spirit I could take on the world.
Other times life brings enough hits that I am just weak.

I am so ready to have a church family, one where we can really love on each other - but God has not brought that about yet. So for now God wants me to love the people where we are at for this season. It is so hard sometimes not to try to rush God. You know what I mean don't you? The other day I actually felt mad at God. I honestly was - that was wrong and I have confessed that to him. I cannot remember the last time I felt that way. What a horrible attack from the enemy. I want no part of that again. God's time is certainly not mine - and where I want to be may not be where he wants me to be. What he wants for me is far better than what I want for myself.

So Jesus, pour your Spirit upon me to walk in the joy and confidence that you have every step of my life in your hands. No matter what has to be stripped away, your love and your grace is sufficient for me.