Do not love the world

This world we live in has so much that takes our eyes and our hearts off of Jesus. Just look around and you can see it.

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."

God has put us here in this world not to conform to the world but to be a light in the darkness. Earlier in 1 John it says "If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth." Live by truth! The other day I met a very dear friend of 26 years for the day. It was truly a blessing as we shared our struggles and also that through them we want God to shape us - to teach us. We shared without judging but loving each other forward. You see, out stupid enemy is daily trying to knock us off course. He feeds us lies and frankly I am sick of it. When we hear the promises of Jesus we must claim those truths in our life. They are promises for us, his children. His promises are true every morning and our God - our creator - our Good Shepherd - loves us with a love that is perfect, without fear. He cannot deceive or trick us - his ways for us are for our good. Even those trials that you face will shape you and God is with you in the midst of them. He does not forget you.

I prayed this morning "If I ask to trust you Father, you will give me opportunities to trust."

Be ready for him to work in your life. Open up your heart to him, and in the midst of the unknowns of life, remember that you have a Good Shepherd who is doing the leading - just let him lead.

Thank you friend!

THE LOST

So last week God layed very heavy on my heart the pain of those that don't know Jesus. I was sitting at the kitchen table and tears just filled my eyes. A mix of emotions filled me as I was consumed with what the Holy Spirit had layed on my heart. This is what the Christian life is suppose to be about - THE LOST! I think a good question to ask ourselves - 'Am I more concerned with the way I want my faith to look, the way I want church to look, the way...etc. than my neighbor who doesn't know Jesus?' I think it's a hard question to ponder. In the movie "The End of the Spear", which is about some missionaries that went to share the gospel with some very brutal tribal people, the father is getting in his plane to leave and his son asks him, "Dad, if the Woudoni attack will you fight back, will you shoot them?" to which the father says to his son, "Son, we can't shoot the Woudoni, we already have heaven, they don't." You see, our life as a Christ follower should be about reaching out to those that don't have heaven.

If you know the story of Daniel and the Lions Den - God rescues him and closes the mouths of the Lions. The king said! "For he is the living God and he endures forever;...He rescues and he saves; he performs signs and wonders in the heavens and on the earth. He rescued Daniel from the power of the lions."

This is the God that we have - this is the true and living God that we can tell others about.

This song is soooooo powerful! Our God is power! Our God saves!

"I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." Romans 1:16

Opportunities

So sorry to my readers that I haven't written for what, 10 days now. wow. I have had a full house with family for a couple of weeks and now I am doing some major catch up - on top of that I believe that God has been doing some more shaping in me. (He is never done with us.) I was going to blog today and just checked a voicemail from a dear mother/friend back in Michigan. She called to check if I was ok since I hadn't written in a while. I love this lady.

I started reading a book that someone recommended to me that changed their life. I will tell you more later but a quote from the book "All of my servants on their way to the high places have had to make this detour through the desert. Here they have learned many things which otherwise they would have known nothing about."

(pulled off the highway and took this picture)

Are you in a desert? Have you been in one? I am sure that we all have at some point. The desert is a tough place to be. When we were driving through the desert in Arzona this past June I thought it was so awesome. We would stop here and there and get out. The ground was hard, rocky and sandy and of course it was HOT. Now imagine wandering through it for days, weeks, months and years. Our hardships in life can feel like we are wandering forever in a desert but I/we must be open and available to allow God to teach us things that we would not have known otherwise. Sure I would love to learn without all the hard stuff, but if everything was always easy we would never learn. In the movie Evan Almighty, Morgan Freeman, who plays God says:

Let me ask you something.

If someone prays for patience,
you think God gives them patience?

Or does he give them
the opportunity to be patient?

If they pray for courage,
does God give them courage,

or does he give them opportunities
to be courageous?

If someone prayed
for their family to be closer,

you think God zaps them
with warm, fuzzy feelings?

Or does he give them opportunities
to love each other?

See the opportunities today.

Sincere

"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart." 1 Peter 1:22

Peter writes this knowing that when we come to know the truth of Jesus there is a change in us - it is this truth of Jesus that brings about a love for our brothers. In other words - ok, so now that you love others because you now know Jesus, let's take it a step further - now love each other even deeper than you already are - from your heart. I think we have to really stop and get quiet with God. We have to be honest with ourself and with God in areas where we are not loving. People we are not loving like this.

God loves me despite myself. He loves me deeply even when I am not listening for his voice, even when I am being selfish, even when I am being disobedient to his word. He just keeps on loving me. Don't we do this as parents, love our children even when their being unloveable? Now take this love into those outside your family. Maybe you need to in your family, I don't know, but taking this love to the next level can be a challenge.

But.....you can't do this on your own. Remember the scripture "We love because he first loved us." Ask Christ to fill you so full with his love, to make you an instrument of love to others. What a beautiful prayer - "God, fill me so full with your love that it overflows into the lives of others around me." I would add to this prayer - "Lord, give me eyes to see what you see."

Do not neglect

Most of my life I neglected reading the bible. I did read it - but more on an occasional basis. I had such a hard time understanding it so I just felt frustrated reading it. Many parts in the New Testament I would read over and over because some parts I could understand. It wasn't until some years ago I prayed a simple fervant prayer. "Lord, open up the scriptures to me." He clearly answered that prayer as one week in particular I could not stop reading the bible and I was understanding what I read. It was alive!

Psalm 119:14-16 "I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your way. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word."

Spending time in the word of God is now part of my life. It has changed who I am and best of all it has drawn me into a close relationship with Jesus. Not just in words but heart to heart. This Psalm reminds us of what is most important. Getting rich? - hmmm - far greater to follow Jesus. Meditating on the path that he has for daily living is not a burden - his directions for living are not meant to be a burden but to make our life beautiful.

I know that when I die I will be with my Father in heaven. What joy that day will be. I cannot take anything from this life with me. I want Jesus to pour himself every day into my life, into my home. I want more of him in my heart, I want a deeper and even closer relationship with him. Yesterday I heard this song and fell in love with it. "Open up the sky, fall down like rain I don't wany anything but you..."

Worship your creator and your Savior. He deserves all our praise. Draw near to him and he will draw near to you.

Smile

"You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." James 4:14

That's us - here and gone, yet we so often don't live our life this way. Verse 15 and 16 say "As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." Clearly there is no room for boasting. Clearly there is no room for not living out the Christian life. Boy have I ever failed in these areas but I am so thankful that the word of God convicts me. It helps to put me back on track, reminds me of these things. Sure I know I'm not suppose to boast and I know that I am suppose to do good but reading it in the bible and being convicted of my failures is go good for me. I know that I am forgiven and redeemed when I fail. Praise Jesus for this! I think that it is so important for me/us to be convicted in areas of our life. How else are we going to grow in our faith and as a person?

To me this sin of not doing the good that we ought is really a reminder to be living out the Christian life. There are many who call themselves a Christian but their life doesn't look any different than those who don't know Christ. James 4:4 says "Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."

So let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus - every day. My life verse is in Hebrews "Draw near to me and I will draw near to you." I love that I read the following this morning in James. "Come near to God and he will come near to you." Spoken in the same way as in Hebrews. These words are spoken as a promise. Never ever forget this promise. Jesus longs to be near you - he longs for you to bask in his love and forgiveness.

Smile today - you are so loved by Jesus.

Tongue

I love reading the book of James. It is full of straight forward talk. Easy to understand.

Don't you get mad at yourself when you say something to someone where you totally put your foot in your mouth? Maybe you spoke without thinking - been there, done that, or you meant so say something that was meant to be nice but somehow came out wrong. James 3 says "We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check." Whew - this made me feel a whole lot better. Those blunders in our words will happen. But James doesn't let us off that easy either. "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be." No excuses - we are forgiven when we blunder our words. Thank you Jesus!! But think of all the times that we have spoken against someone else and/or our words don't speak the life of a follower of Christ.

My tongue? - well it could use some work. This day - I choose to make it a vessel for Christ. Good chance I'll slip but I choose to pay attention to my words knowing that it reflects my heart and that it sings and praises God.

What will my/your tongue speak today?

ASK

The Christian faith is not a religion but a relationship with Jesus Christ. Hear what James 1:27 says about religion. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

This is pretty convicting to me. I currently live in a community where I don't see much need. Oh the need is out there for sure, but the eye doesn't see it. Do you know what I mean? I personally understand the feeling of not letting others know how I really feel or what I am really going through. Our society is not very open to helping each other. We all stay in our own little safe box and don't get very vulnerable with others about life. So unhealthy. This bible verse about looking after the orphans and widows is pretty easy to read but when we extend that out to looking after each others needs that begins to get a little hard. Why? Because we don't know what each others needs are and were afraid to tell someone what they are.

Me? Well - I guess I should start. I need prayers for provision, deep spiritual friendship, encouragement, and a part time job. I'm getting a little vulnerable here so bear with me - I hope you don't mind. Getting vulnerable opens yourself up to get hurt, that's why we don't do it much. Jesus got vulnerable, he became weak and frail for us, he came alongside fallen disciples who weren't always the best of friends, he became vulnerable in his preaching, and became vulnerable and went to the cross - but kept loving people. He was rejected by many but still kept on being vulnerable and loving. So I share with you some prayer needs - why? Because if Jesus could get vulnerable, and he is our example, I guess I/we should too.

What are your needs?

So I had my husband read this blog before I posted it. I never do that but I wanted to make sure that nobody could read this and feel bad in any way. Please don't. My readers and my friends are very dear to me. It made me realize how "concerned" our society has become over sharing our needs with each other. He finished reading this and said "You do not have because you do not ask God." James 4:2

Thanks for your prayers.

Precious

My daughters are so precious to me. That word fits well how I feel about them. Just Precious! I miss them so much too. Denise and Mike are back from overseas but we are not in the same town. That's weird to me. We will get out time together when they come and stay with us for a week and that too will be precious.
(first day back - so tired from over 50 hrs. of travel)

I was reading Psalm 116 this morning and verse 15 says "Precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death of his saints." Have you ever thought about the death of a friend or a loved one this way? That the Lord sees it as precious that we are home with him? I think that is a beautiful picture to me - as I think about how precious my girls are to me - the Lord thinks how precious it is when one of his children come home to him. That is so cool to me.

David continues in the psalm "O Lord, truly I am your servant...you have freed me from my chains. I will sacrifice a thank offering to you and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord..." David knew that the Lord had freed him from so much sin in his life. Freed him from the guilt and from the chains that he was carrying.

Whatever you are facing in your life remember that Jesus thinks you are precious. He died on the cross and took all your sins and your crap with him to the cross so you can be free. So that you could be made new and you can have eternal life, glorious life. New life here on earth and a new and glorious life in heaven when we die. And when one day he calls us home to be with him - wow, we are precious to him, that is just the greatest.