Give “It” Away

We started our December series called Give It Away and we are talking about giving our money away, giving our salvation away and giving our legacy away.  We sang this Robbie Seay song and I love it…it is called Rise and it fits nicely into this series.  This is the season of giving and not getting.  For God so loved that he gave…let’s remember this during the Christmas season!

Slow down, be still
Let go, we will
Be here, be now
Slow down, be still
Breathe in, refill
Be here, be now

If you choose to love
To know that the call
Is to give all you are
To give love away, away
Rise, rise, people of love rise
People of love rise, give yourself away
Rise, rise, people of love rise
People of love rise, give yourself away
Give yourself away, give yourself away

Slow down, just breathe
Be still, believe
Be here, be now
Slow down and see
It’s all you need
Be loved and free

And to hear the call, is to give your love away
And to hear the call, is to give your love away
And to hear the call, is to give your life away
Is to give your life away

We’re not safe, we’re not safe
But we will rise

Meeting God in an Authentic Way

As I have been going to church the last few weeks – worship has become more important to me not the sound but the words and the attitude of my heart.  The worship is important because that where we meet God or one of the ways.  I heard it said once in college if you can’t sing from your heart don’t sing.  I was getting more and more convicted of this and saw that I was not connecting with God in worship at the campus I was worshipping at.  It’s not a matter of getting feed or the exciting songs but am I meeting God.  I changed where I worshipped and I love it – I can meet God and sing songs from my heart and that is the first time in more than six months.  I thank God for this move because that allowed me to worship from my heart.  He is a mighty God and he is waiting for his bride to come to him with an open heart and trusting heart.  Thank you for loving me!  Thank you for healing me! Thank you for saving me! 

This post comes from an overflowing heart tonight!

A New Old Conviction

This week God again reminded me of the need for me to disciple someone but until tonight I got discouraged because I was counting on my church having a minitstry and yet tonight I was reminded that it is MY responsibility and I can do discipleship or mentoring without having a program – all I need is someone who I see potential and ask them.  It is my responisibility.  God teach me and let me hunger for you.

What is God teaching you?

My First Place

I bought my first place and I have been hard at work since then I have learned how to paint groves and how to edge with an edger.  I am learning and my parents are helping so much.  I have taken some pictures of before and after.  Here is the basement – I have painted it and I will be having carpet installed in a week and so excited to have a room done.  I love my new  home and look forward to being in it full time!  I am looking forward to opening it up and having my friends over and opening up my family room to them.

Six years ago…

It has been six years – six years ago this weekend I walked out of a church angry and hurt and questioning the leadership of the church.  Six years ago I walked into my current church and my current church has taught me a valuable lesson – NO CHURCH IS IMMUNE TO PROBLEMS!  Two years ago in April a big crisis hit my current church and I am truly excited where God is taking us.  It is because of God that I am there – not relationships even though I love those people but because I see God at work. 

This is not the purpose of this entry though – it’s about my old church.  I have been watching and seeing what has happened there since I left and yes I have heard and seen the problems.  It is in the public eye yet I dislike the hatred and bitterness that I see in some people’s lives who have left that church.  It hurts my heart because it is those people who are hurting not the church – the church is trying to take more ground for Jesus Christ and  as a Christian I will say go God!  God works through broken people and sinful people – Christians are not perfect we just have a God that loves us and forgives us if we ask him to forgive us.  I have a love for that church that only God has given me.   God is working there and pray that it will reach the community around that building. 

I will say what if the church was united in heart and would support other churches like it should.  What if indeed?   Words to the Church of Jesus Christ: DREAM BIG!  We have a God who says all things are possible with him. DREAM BIG!

Breaking free

I read this in the devotional Breaking Free by Beth Moore…

“We can be saved and yet continually live in defeat because the enemy can outwit us if we do not depend on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.  We’ve got to know that we’re being swarmed, wise up to the Word, learn what our rights are, and use the equipment God has given us.”

A good word by Beth Moore.  Am I in the word?  Do I hunger for the Word?  Do I stop and listen to the one who does have everything under control?  Do I cry out to the Lord?  Do I live like one who has a God given destiny?  Am I equipped so when the enemy strikes I will be ready?

God be the center of my life and where I fix my eyes…

Good Friday…

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we still sinners Christ died for us” – RM 5:8

I am thankful on this Good Friday what was done for me on the cross.  I am amazed that God loved me so much to die on the cross for me.  It’s amazing that it can be so personal.  I thought of the song Amazing Love and it captures my heart today.

I’m forgiven because You were forsaken
I’m accepted, You were condemned
I’m alive and well, Your Spirit lives within me
Because You died and rose again

I’m forgiven because You were forsaken
I’m accepted, You were condemned
I’m alive and well, Your Spirit lives within me
Because You died and rose again

Amazing love, how can it be
That You, my King, should die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true
It’s my joy to honor You
In all I do, I honor You

I’m forgiven because You were forsaken
I’m accepted, You were condemned
I’m alive and well, Your Spirit lives within me
Because You died and rose again

Amazing love, how can it be
That You, my King, should die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true
It’s my joy to honor You
In all I do, I honor You
In all I do, I honor You

You are my King
You are my King
Jesus, You are my King
You are my King

Amazing love, how can it be
That You, my King, should die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true
It’s my joy to honor You

Amazing love, how can it be
That You, my King, should die for me?
Amazing love, I know it’s true
It’s my joy to honor You
In all I do, to honor You

In all I do, to honor You,
In all I do, Let me honor You.

Have you been Thrown?

Okay,  I need to continue blogging about Beth Moore – GET OUT OF THAT PIT.  I have made it goal to read a chapter a day until I am done with the book and of course I have picked out several books on my bookshelf that I haven’t bothered to read, but today was all about being, “thrown into a pit.”  She said you are thrown into a pit when you get into a pit when you are innocent and something happens that causes you to get into a pit.”  She used Genesis 37:23-25 as a reference when Joseph was thrown into the  pit by his brothers.  A pit is when  you get stuck, you can’t stand up, and you have no vision because of what someone has done to you.   I have been there.  I can remember staying in the mess also.  Beth made a point if someone else did it to you – you need to forgive that person.  I understand that – a few years ago I was in a pit and I went to a counselor and she got to the heart of the situation, of my hurt and that is the lack of forgiveness on my part and let me tell you it was not fun being me for about a week struggling with the lack of forgiveness in my heart.  I blamed them – IT’S ALL THEIR FAULT.  I love how she said that the only person who is hurting when you hold a grudge is you.  I was holding a grudge and it was only hurting me – deep down. (I could write another whole thing on forgiveness but that isn’t what this is about).

The second way we can get into a pit is self-blame.   I need to add some of Beth’s words because her words are better than mine -”Satan is a master at using our own insecurity against us.  He knows that deep in our hearts we’re so fragile and injured by life that his faintest whisper will talk us into feeling guilty even when we’re not.  Satan know the hardest person for us to forgive will always be ourself. Most people never do forgive themselves.   – Have you forgiven yourself for a wrong you committed and how did you finally forgive yourself, because to be honest I get angry at myself for some things I have done in the past?

And lastly It’s all God fault.  I have never said that – I might have said – “Why did God allow this to happen”.  I love how Beth Moore said in her latest study we can have a reversal of destiny.  This reversal of destiny happens we you finally understand that God wants to use your hurts – the rejection of peers, the words that were said to you.  At the end of this chapter she says this and it made me stop and pause -Would I be willing to hear those same I words I spoke to Keith?  YOu have the capacity to be a ten times neater person healed then you would have been just plain well.  Your wealth of experience makes you rich.  Spend it on hurt people.”  GOD CAN USE YOUR BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT AND HURT!  God can change the course of MY life and that is what I am praying that God uses all these situations and use them to further his kingdom.   He is EL ROI!!!   The God who sees!

At the end of the chapter she ended with this – “Beloved, let this one sink in deeply: if God allowed you to be thrown into a pit, you weren’t picked on; you were picked out.  God entrusted that suffering to you because he has faith in you.  Live up to it.  All the way up.

When I finished reading this chapter my heart was heavy.  “Lord, make me an instrument to reach those that you love.  Make me an instrument to those people who have the same experiences as I had.  Change the direction of my life.  Let me have a peripety in my life”

Are you a pit dweller?

Excuse me?  Are you a pit dweller?  No, I don’t mean stuck in a hole somewhere – I mean a spiritual pit, a mental pit.  Let me define it for you (all credit for this goes to Beth Moore – from Get Out of that Pit!):

1. Are you stuck????   Do you feel trapped??  Do you think you can’t get much lower and instead you do – Beth made a point that you can’t live at maintenance level in a pit  She says that we can’t get ourselves out of the pit.
2. Can you stand?  Beth – “If you and I are going to be victorious people we’ve got to stand with our town own two feet on solid ground…Drawing from the figurative application, we’ll define pit this way: a pit is an early grave that Satan’s digs for you in hopes he can bury you alive. Should you fall into it, make no mistake, HE CANNOT make you stay.  Ironically, neither will God make you leave. LIKE IT OR NOT, some things are simply up to us.
3. Do you have vision?  A pit is so poorly lit that things that seem so obvious to us and one time doesn’t seem like it during the time we are a pit dweller.     We lose hope – we feel so buried in our present state to feel passionate about a promised futre.  We are here with purpose – God didn’t create us to go through the motions – God meant us to be part of something bigger than we are, something vital.

I know all about pits I have been in one and it was a struggle to get out – but thanks to some awesome sisters in Christ I got out.  I stopped looking at my feet and see them sinking and sinking and sinking – I was thrown into a pit  when I was young due to some cruel things that was said to me by peers and my folks not realizing how hurt I was – I DEFINITELY was a pit dweller.  I loved the pit – it was the only thing I knew but two sisters came a long side me and loved me in two totally different ways – one challenged me to change and the other walked with me while I was getting out of the pit.    I got out of the pit when I realized there was hope – I didn’t have to hurt anymore – I could forgive and get out of the pit.  I had some tough cards to deal with but God brought me through it.  I am so thankful for the last few years and those women who walked with me.  I still need to stop being a pit dweller when tough cards come my way….

I will write more as I read Get Out of that Pit by Beth Moore!

Girlfriends in God

I get a daily devotional in the e-mail everyday and I thought I would share this one it’s called Bailing on God. It’s by Mary Southerland who writes some of these devotionals (it’s called Girlfriends in God and you can find at crosswalk.com) Anyway here it is:

March 9, 2009
Bailing on God
Mary Southerland

Today’s Truth
Proverbs 3:5 “Trust God from the bottom of your heart.” (The Message)

Friend to Friend
I absolutely love being a grandmother and wholeheartedly agree with the saying, “If I had known grandchildren were so wonderful, I would have had them first!” Our fifteen-month-old granddaughter, Lelia Kay, sparkles with joy and has an infectious laugh that instantly captures your heart and compels you to laugh along with her. Consequently, our son, Jered, is always looking for ways to make her laugh. On a recent visit, he proudly demonstrated one of the new “tricks” he had taught Lelia. I was horrified!

Jered came home from work, scooped up his squealing daughter in his arms and gave her a big hug. Lelia giggled, grabbed her daddy’s shirt in both hands and looked up at Jered, a mischievous sparkle in her eyes. He looked over at me and said, “Watch, mom!” Jered tightened his hold on his daughter’s chubby little legs, and said, “Bail, Lelia!” Surely, I had heard him wrong. Nope! My precious grandbaby immediately fell backwards through the air, hands dangling loosely over her head, swinging her little body through her daddy’s legs, laughing hysterically. My stomach fell and my mouth flew open as I watched her repeat this terrifying toddler version of bungee jumping. Not once did Lelia seem to be afraid or even cautious as she totally abandoned herself to the security of her father’s arms and heart.

That picture of faith took on a whole new meaning as we replayed it over dinner. Jered said, “I have to be careful. Lelia will sometimes bail on me when I’m not expecting it.” (Yes! That statement did increase my prayer life.) I looked at Jered and like so many times over the years, marveled at his strength, thinking of the countless hours he has spent lifting weights, playing football and now building and remodeling homes. His massive arms and shoulders are a testimony of discipline and power. No wonder Lelia feels safe and secure in those arms.

I decided then and there that I want to be like Lelia. I want my faith in God to grow to the place where I can bail on God and totally abandon myself to my Father’s safe, strong arms, secure in the knowledge that He will catch me when I fall. I want to obey God without fear, trusting Him to be all I need. I want to depend on and experience God’s power and strength as I plunge into His plan for my life, knowing that He is aware of every step I take, that He monitors every breath I breathe and sees every tear I cry.

How about you? Are you ready to bail into the arms of God?