Sopping Wet November 12, 2009

Coming out of stormy waters . . . we are tired . . . we almost drowned . . . we’re afraid the tide will come and snare us again.  But we live with a promise.  Songwriter Christa Wells (sung by Natalie Grant) eloquently reminds me that the promise takes it’s full hold when we are sopping wet and worn down to the bone from our fight with the sea. 

Who told us we’d be rescued?
What has changed and why should we be saved from nightmares? 
We’re asking why this happens
To us who have died to live?
It’s unfair.

This is what it means to be held.
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.
This is what it is to be loved.
And to know that the promise was
When everything fell we’d be held.

This hand is bitterness.
We want to taste it, let the hatred know our sorrow.
The wise hands opens slowly to lilies of the valley and tomorrow.

This is what it means to be held.
How it feels when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive.
This is what it is to be loved.
And to know that the promise was
When everything fell we’d be held.

If hope is born of suffering.
If this is only the beginning.
Can we not wait for one hour watching for our Savior?

2 Timothy 4:17-18
But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen

even still, God October 3, 2008

Lord – I want to know what the next steps are.  Do I stay where I am at or do I move on to that which I think You are calling me?  How do I know that it is You and not me?  Will I be able to handle the pressures – the stress?  Do you want to use me?  God – I don’t question You – I question me.  Am I stepping forward in Your desires or my own – or am I doing something worse – not even stepping forward?  I want the job I do to glorify You, God, because You deserve it.  I want to walk boldly in faith – have God spoken discernment.   Lord – would you use the community around me – the people around – Your Living Word – and Your precious Holy Spirit to speak the truth to me – so that I can walk confidently that I am moving in the tide of the ocean that is You?  Propel me Lord.  Bring me to Action.  And in the moment of rest Lord, even still, God – I praise you for keeping me thus far – for the fact that You alone are God – there is none above You – For You are RULER of ALL!  Amen

hyoo mil’ i tee July 13, 2008

Lord – help me to think less often of myself and more of others.  Place my focus on Jesus.  Do not let me boast or drown in self pity.  Take away my pride.  Develop in me only “God Confidence” and not “self confidence”.  Help me to be humble – and to do this naturally – without thinking.  Lord, make this my mindset – so that it is not contrived or false – but authentic and natural.  Amen

FAITH: the Antidote For Fear May 18, 2008

Victory over the world (and by the world I mean those who do not not know the truth – those who are false prophets and who are at the whim of any spirit and ultimately are separated from God) comes from believing that Jesus has the power to redeem our souls.  And when we have faith in this, the testimony of God - His truth and love – will live in us.

By His love there is no fear.
So Faith is the antidote for fear.

1st John 4:1-3  Beloved do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.  By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. . .

1st John 4:16-18  We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.  God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.  By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgement; because as He is, so also are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

1st John 5: 4-5  For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.  Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

this is what it means to believe April 30, 2008

Here’s what sunk into me during last Sunday’s service.

• God is asking us to put all of our eggs in 1 basket and that basket is the Jesus.  God wants us to believe the truth – that Jesus is the only way to salvation.  The path is narrow.  To really believe we place all our hopes in Jesus – knowing that these hopes are secure in the arms of the true God.
• When we believe that Jesus is our Savior we “hear His voice” and “we follow Him.”
• Belief requires the knowledge of Jesus and the actions must be aligned with Him

like a seasoned chef April 22, 2008

Hebrews 4:10-12

For anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.  For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Lord God – Let us fall into Your rest.  Let us drift into Your word.  Let us live by Your truth.  Like a seasoned chef – shape us into Your image, Lord, with Your might sword – Your word.  Amen

Irresistible Beauty April 19, 2008

Father God – Have mercy on us - call us to You.  Allow us to see Your irresistible beauty, Your truth, Your Son Jesus, Your compassion, Your ways.  God – help us to come to You when You call us.  Lord, help us to wait quietly only for You.  For in You there is life;  abundant life – a life where we hunger no more.  Amen

Set My Heart At Rest April 6, 2008

1 John 3:16-19

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

God – Thank You for pouring Your love down on me.  Thank You for the life You gave to me.  God – please make me a woman who sees and responds without hesitation to the needs of others.  Make me less concerned about my own self and more and more concerned about what other people need.  God let my actions be filled with love – not pride or recognition.  I long to set my heart at rest in Your Presence by doing as you have willed me to to – love others.  Amen