He Knows!

Often times I think I know exactly what I need.  Often times I think I know exactly how things should happen!  Often times I like to be in control. Often times I like to think that I know what is best.  But often times I am wrong!

A mother of a couple of my teens is going through a really hard time right now.  She just lost somebody really close to her.  As I was talking with her this week I told her to let me know if there was anything that I could do for her or her kids.  She asked me to be praying for her to have strength.

I definitely wanted to honor that request and pray for God to provide her with strength!  She texted me right before I went running, so as I was running she was heavy on my heart and in my prayers.  While I run my mind wanders.  I have music playing but I rarely listen to the songs.  A couple of weeks ago it took me two miles before I realized that I had been listening to the same song on repeat the whole time.  So as my mind was wandering and as I was praying for my friend God reminded me of something that I often forget!

He Knows!  As I prayed for God to fill her with strength He reminded me that He knows what she truly needs.  She may need strength or she may need peace or she may need support.  He knows!  Whatever it is that she truly needs He knows!  And He gives us what He Knows we need.

This whole conversation came up again only about an hour after that with my sister-in-law Erin.  My brother and sister-in-law have been planning on leaving for El Salvador in less than a month to serve with the Peace Corps for 27 months.  Last Friday was Erin's last day as a 6th grade science teacher.  She said goodbye to her students and gave up her job that she loved knowing that she was going to be moving to El Salvador in just a few weeks.  That same day Braden and Erin found out that the Peace Corps had cancelled their assignment in El Salvador because of safety concerns.  All the plans that Braden and Erin had been making for the past few months just got chunked out the window.  I can only imagine how overwhelming of a day that had to be.

As I talked with Erin on the phone yesterday because it was her birthday she said, "God is teaching me patience.  Your brother has plenty of it, but God is teaching me to be patient."  I told her that I completely understand!  There have been times in my life when I thought I knew exactly how things ought to go and what I needed and my frustration with God grew as He wasn't giving me exactly what I thought was best.  I didn't understand why He wasn't doing something.  Little did I know He was doing a whole lot of something!

The funny thing about that is at the end God always gives me something better than what I thought I really needed.  He knows better than I do exactly what I need.  I trust that He knows better than Braden and Erin exactly what they need as well.  It's not that He doesn't have the power to give us exactly what we want,  it's that He loves us so much that He doesn't want to give us anything less than the best!  I trust that my God knows what we need better than we do.

My prayers often focus on things that I think I need.  But I find so much comfort in knowing that I serve a God whose power is limitless and knows me so much better than I could ever know myself.  He knows my past, my present, and my future.  There is no one more qualified in knowing my needs than my Creator Himself!  May we remember that He knows our needs and that He is the God who provides!  May we remember that His desire is for us to desire Him!  He is God!  He is Good!  He Knows!!!

That's how Rumors get Started!

"For we have heard how the Lord made a dry path for you through the Red Sea when you left Egypt...For the Lord YOUR God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below."-Rahab

Joshua 2:10-11

Rahab had heard what God had done!  Everyone had heard what God had done!  People couldn't stop talking about all that God had done for His people.  The news of what THEIR God the supreme God had done was spreading!  

Iv'e never seen my God part the Red Sea for me to walk across on a dry path, but I have seen Him do so many other amazing things.  I have seen Him answer prayers.  I have seen Him provide.  I have seen Him deliver!  I have experienced His faithfulness.  People need to know that my God He is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below and that He is their God as well!

What have people heard from you about our God?  Have they heard what He has done for you?  Have they heard how He has rescued you?  Do you know what He has done for you?  Can people look at your life and know that the Lord YOUR God is the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below?

Tell somebody this Christmas what your God the supreme God of the heavens above and the earth below has done for you!

What are you Looking At?

What are you looking at?  Right now I'm sitting in Starbucks looking at my large over priced coffee and reading through the book of Hebrews.  It's only natural to look at what is in front of you.  It's hard for me to look at or even imagine something that hasn't happened yet.

Spiritually what are you looking at today?  Are you caught up in what you don't have or are you praising Jesus for what you do have?  Are you seeking comfort here on earth or are you storing up far greater treasures in heaven?

As I read through Hebrews 11 verse 26 stood out to me.  The author is writing about Moses and he says,

"He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was LOOKING AHEAD to his great reward.  It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the King's anger.  He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible."

 Hebrews 11:26-27

Moses knew that he had a great earthly reward if he stayed in Egypt, but obviously Moses knew that that earthly reward could never compare to the reward God had in store for him.  Moses gave up a reward from the richest kingdom on earth because he knew God had something greater in store for him.  Are we willing to give up our earthly rewards in order to pursue Him at ALL cost?  Do we even realize that our reward in heaven is greater than all the riches of Egypt?

I LOVE the last part of verse 27...He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.  That almost seems impossible.  How do you keep your eyes on something that is invisible?  As you seek Him you see Him.  Although our God may be physically invisible His works are not.  As Moses kept his eyes on our invisible God he saw His very visible works!  The 10 plagues, the parting of the red sea, the cloud by day and the fire by night, the manna from heaven, somehow our invisible God has a very visible presence!  His works are very visible to those who are seeking the invisible!

I believe the same is true today!  As we seek the invisible God we see His visible works!  We see Him answer prayers, we see Him heal, we see Him provide!  May we learn to be like Moses and look ahead to our great reward and may we keep on going even when times are scary and hard because our eyes are fixed on the one who is invisible!

I Just Want a Clean Kitchen

As a child I was probably one of the most unorganized people who has ever walked this planet!  I never made my bed.  I never put up my laundry.  I just stuffed everything into my backpack and hoped that it would all work out when I got to school.  As a teenager most arguments between my mom and myself stemmed from the fact that you couldn’t even see the floor of my bedroom.  For some reason she thought that was unacceptable?!?  But then something weird happened!

I went off to college and I became a gazillion times more organized.  I think it all changed when I realized that I didn’t like it when my roommate’s stuff was all over the place so I better make sure that mine was all picked up!  Once I moved out of the dorms and into the apartments and had a kitchen that became a huge deal as well.  If there is one thing that I really don’t like it’s a dirty kitchen!!!  I began to make my bed every single day and make sure all of my clothes got hung up and that they were all hanging in color order and organized by season.  Organization became key!

I am still like that today for the most part!  Each morning I roll out of bed and the first thing I do is make the bed!  There is just something about a room with a bed that is made that makes it look so much more put together!  I try to keep the closet organized and never let the dishes pile up in the sink.  I like having a clean place!  I like having everything all put together!  I like organization! But…

Sometimes life gets a little crazy.  I told some of my kids the other day, “You can always tell how crazy my life is by how color coordinated my closet is.”  Well right now my clean clothes are sprawled out all over the floor.  They haven’t even made it to the closet! I have returned to my high school days.  If my mother were here she would have a fit because you can barely see the floor of my room!  Life is crazy right now!

I don’t mean crazy in a bad way!  I mean crazy in a way where I am watching God involve me in so many incredible things and I am spinning around like crazy!  He’s constantly filling my cup and pouring me out!  These next few weeks are non-stop crazy!  I look at my calendar and I see a breakfast with a different teen everyday of the week!  I look at my calendar and I see a different teen to be picked up from school each day!  I look at my calendar and I see endless opportunities to grow with my sisters in Christ.  I look at my calendar and from the outside it would look packed.  And it is!  But it works!

It works because I make sure that there is time in each and every day to sit and be still with my God.  To be honest there have been plenty of times where I have been in my apartment and could have hung all of those clean clothes up on hangers, but that would have come at the expense of losing that time alone focused on my Savior and His Word.  He is so much more valuable to me than a neatly organized closet!

So as the craziness of the Christmas season keeps us all spinning, may we never forget to focus on our Savior!  May we realize that time with Him is so much better than having a clean kitchen, a made bed, and an organized closet!  He has so much in store for us!  He is so real and powerful!  We must focus on Him!  May your time with Him be more valuable than a clean kitchen or an organized closet!  He is perfect and so good!  

The Joys of my Job

Blessed!  If there was one word I had to use to describe how I feel right now that would be it!  Blessed!

God is so good!  His faithfulness is amazing.  I love seeing and experiencing all that He is doing in my life, but a close second is seeing everything that He is doing in my girls' lives!

He is amazing!  I love watching their faith in Him grow!  Most of my girls know that anytime they get in my car for me to take them home that before they get out of my car we are going to pray.  I love spending time in prayer with my girls!  It's one of my most favorite things ever.  In the past I've always had to ask them, "Hey, before you get out of the car can we pray?"  But this week things have changed.  I took one of my girls home on Tuesday after spending the afternoon at my apartment and as we pulled up to her place she looks at me and says, "Hey, are we going to pray?"

I'm pretty sure my face must have lit up right away!  She had been looking forward to us praying together! My hope is that prayer doesn't just become something they do with me whenever we hang out, but that they make prayer part of everything they do!  As if once this week wasn't enough, last night one of my girls spent the night with me.  We had stayed up late talking and crying and laughing, and we were emotionally exhausted. As we crawled into bed she looked at me and said, "Can we pray together before we go to sleep?"

How else can you answer a question like that other than, "OF COURSE!"  They are falling in love with their Savior and it fills my heart with so much joy!  He is so good to us!  I pray that they will continue to taste and see that the Lord is good!  Little things like this remind me of why I have the best job ever!  I am doing what God has called me to do and it is a joy to be a part of His story!

How They Loved Me!

I’ve mentioned over and over again how blessed I was as a child and even am now as an “adult” to have the most amazing parents!  I know that there has not been a single day since I was formed in my mother’s womb that I have not been prayed for. I have never had doubts of their love for me!

Sometimes I wonder why God has blessed me so much.  Why did God give me two parents that love me unconditionally when some people don’t even get one?  Why do I have two parents with great jobs that can provide for me when some people don’t have money to put food on the table?  Why did I get two parents who love the Lord with all of their hearts when a lot of kids never have that example?  Why me?  God why have you been so good to me?

Sometimes I almost feel kind of guilty about it.  But then I remember that they are amazing gifts from God.  They have taught me what it looks like to pour out unconditional love.  Lets be honest, if their love was conditional there were plenty of moments throughout my childhood where I would have been in a pretty bad condition, but there love for me was always present no matter the circumstance.  I am so thankful for that!  They taught me how to love people by how they loved me and my siblings!

The ways they showed us their love are countless.  I can’t count the number of hugs and kisses I have received from my parents over the past 23 years.  There has never been a day that I have walked out of my house with my mom present without her saying, “I love you.  Be careful!”  My parents spent almost 20 years in the gym watching me play basketball.  Nothing says love like watching girls basketball!  My dad would spend hours with me at the gym rebounding for me!  My parents gave up time, sleep, and so much more to show me their love.

Tonight a dear friend pointed out to me a glimpse of maybe why I was blessed with such amazing parents.   She told me, “Maybe He gave you all of that so that He could prepare you to love others the way they loved you.”  And that clicked!  That seems like that should have been something so easy for me to see.   All along He has been teaching me how to love unconditionally.  He has been teaching me how to love my girls even when sometimes it costs me a little sleep.  He has been teaching me how to love my girls through hours of bleacher booty watching girls basketball.  He has been teaching me how to love my girls when they come to me with their pain and mistakes.  He has been teaching me how to love my girls even when they try to push me away!  He gave me two incredible parents who continually pour out their love on me so that I could learn how to pour out that love on others!

He is so good and His ways are so much greater than anything I could ever imagine.  He prepares us for what He calls us to.  His faithfulness endures forever.  His presence is inescapable.  He is God and He is good!    

The Darkest Valley

Last night before I crawled into bed I got to spend some time with my Holy God in prayer!  As I lied there with my face on the carpet my God brought to mind one of my most favorite Psalms!  If you grew up at Memorial Road you probably know this one by heart thanks to Mrs. McBride!

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.  He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He refreshes my soul.  He guides me along the right paths for His name's sake. Psalm 23:1-3

As these verses that have been engraved on my heart came into my thoughts I couldn't help but think...This is where I am at right now!  I am lying in green pastures beside still waters!  I am so thankful for that.  Praise God for the rest, peace, and strength that He is allowing me to receive right now!

But as I began to think about the following verses my prayer became something that I can pray only because of Him being alive in me.  It is against every instinct that I have, but I truly believe that sometimes it is what is best.  I love where I am at right now!  I love the time of rest and peace that I am enjoying in the green pastures, but this isn't the place that I am meant to permanently live.  My desire above anything and everything else in this world is to know my God more fully!  I want to learn to cling to Him above all!  So my prayer is that if these green pastures become a place where my growth stops that my savior will lead me through the darkest valley.  I know that the valley of the shadow of death is where I learn to cling more and more to my God.  I know that the valley of the shadow of death is not fun, but that it is a place of growth.  I know that the darkest valley is a place where I must depend on Him to guide me through when I can't see.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows.  Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  Psalm 23:4-6

May I trust my God so much that I can pray that in His timing I will leave the green pastures and go with Him into the darkest valley.  God if it takes going through the valley of the shadow of death to grow in my faith and dependence on you then I am willing to go there.  I trust in You!  I know that you will be there close beside me!  That is what I want more than safety, more than comfort, more than family!  I want You! I want to live fully dependent on you!  I want to dwell in your house forever!

Fall on Your Face

I have come to realize that there is this amazing thing that happens when we remove ourselves from what makes us comfortable.  It seems as when our comforts slip away we find ourselves closer to our God.  Think about the times that you have felt closest to God.  When I examine my list each time has something in common, it's missing my "comforts."

There are a few specific examples that I can think of!  Honduras is a place like that for me  One night while I was brushing my teeth with bottled water I felt something on my leg and looked down to see a giant roach about mid calf.  GROSS!!!  I would have screamed but Amber was already sleeping and I didn't want to wake her.  I didn't quite have the comforts there that I am used to here in the States, but that place always makes me more aware of my God and draws me closer to His heart.  Comforts don't equal happiness!

Fasting is another one of those moments where comfort is removed but closeness to God is undeniable!  He has this way of filling the space of things we give up!  When will we realize that He is more than enough?

This last one is so simple but so powerful to me!  It has to be one of my most favorite things!  Giving up the comforts of a chair!  Sounds silly right?  But there is something so right and humbling about being face down on the ground crying out to God in prayer.  Nothing draws my heart closer to Him than falling on my face in prayer.  There is nothing wrong with praying sitting in a chair or a pew, but personally face down on the ground is where I feel closest to my savior!  I read through the Bible and time and time again I see examples of believers falling on their faces or falling to their knees in praise and prayer!

Something about being on your knees just feels right.  It's a gentle reminder to me that I am approaching the King!  It's a gentle reminder that He is all powerful and I am His servant.  It's a gentle reminder that He is God and I am not!  And even though the rough carpet isn't exactly what I would call comfortable it is there in that place that I am overcome with joy and love for my God and all that He has done for me!

It's amazing to me how much easier it is to hear His voice when I take time to fall before His throne.  It's amazing how much easier it is to open my heart to Him when I go to the place I am supposed to be!  I am reminded that there would never have been any way for me to save myself.  He did so much for me, and I should be falling before Him daily to thank Him! He alone is God!  He is so good!

What changed?

I love reading about Peter.  Besides Moses and of course Jesus, I think Peter has to be one of my absolute favorite men ever.  He was always so quick to open his mouth.  Sometimes that got him in a little bit of trouble.  Fear tended to cripple him.  When he stepped out of the boat to walk to Jesus on the water he allowed fear to slip in and began to sink.  When he was following Jesus as they took him away for trial He denied that he even knew Him three times.

He denied Jesus three times!  Just hours earlier he told Jesus to His face I will never deny you.  Peter had no idea that things were about to get scary.  Up until this point following Jesus had meant leaving family, giving up their jobs, and probably a bunch of funny looks; but the risks were about to go way up.  Jesus tried to explain to His apostles time and time again that the time was coming for Him to be crucified, but they just didn't get it.  They didn't realize just how messy things were about to get.

When things got scary and Peter started to realize that they were going to crucify His Jesus he began to get a little bit confused.  None of this matched what his view of the Messiah was.  When asked if he was one that had been with Jesus, He denied Him three times.  Fear slipped in and faith slipped out.

Can you imagine the guilt and shame that Peter felt knowing that he had denied Jesus.  I can only imagine the feeling Peter must have had in his stomach when he heard the rooster crow and saw the face of his Jesus.  The very man that He loved.  The man that had shown him so much.  His Jesus.  He had denied Jesus.  The man that had turned his life upside down.

But something changed.  When we skip forward to Acts Peter arises as the early leader of the church.  He speaks God's word boldly and fearlessly.  In Acts 4 Peter and John are standing before the council after getting in trouble for preaching about Jesus.  Acts 4:19-20 says, "But Peter and John replied, "Do you think God wants us to obey you rather than Him?  We cannot stop telling about everything we have seen and heard."  Their lives are on the line here.  They could whipped, thrown into jail, or even killed; but they have no fear.  They can't stop speaking about what they have seen and heard.

What changed?  Why did our fearful Peter who denied Jesus three times have such a change of heart?  What was it that he had seen and heard that completely changed his life?

He saw His savior Jesus raised from the dead.  The resurrection changes EVERYTHING!  If my Savior Jesus was still in the grave then He would just be another great guy.  He would just be another prophet who did great things.  But He is so much more than that.  He did something that only He could do.

So often I think we down play the impressiveness of Jesus raising from the dead.  We have heard about His resurrection since we were little.  Do we truly grasp how amazing it is for someone who was dead to come back to life?  He wasn't just unconscious.  He wasn't just sleeping.  He was dead, and now He is alive!  Peter knew He was dead and then He saw Him alive and that was something that He couldn't stop talking about.  There was no way to shut him up.  The only way to keep Peter from talking about what he had seen and heard was to kill him.  He wasn't going to make the same mistake he made before the crucifixion of denying Jesus again.

Peter knew what he had seen and what he had heard and it changed his life.  He was not going to shut up.  He had seen His Jesus raised from the grave.  I have to think Peter had to be the most excited about seeing Jesus alive after His last encounter with Him before His death.  To receive forgiveness and grace from His Jesus after denying Him three times must have been a sigh of relief.  Peter wanted everyone to know about his risen Lord.

So my question to us today is, "What have we seen and what have we heard?"  Have you encountered Jesus in a way that has changed your life?  Have you encountered Him in a way that drives away fear?  Have you encountered Him in a way that makes it so that you can't stop talking about Him?  Have you encountered Him in a way that says, "I don't care what man thinks, I am here to please my God"?

Has He changed your life?  His resurrection changes EVERYTHING!  Tell somebody about it!