Jesus

Jesus is God.

Jesus lives.

Submit to Jesus.

Before it is too late...

"God raised Jesus to the highest place. God made his name greater than every other name so that every knee will bow to the name of Jesus- everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And everyone will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and bring glory to God the Father." Philippians 2:9-11

I am committing to incorporating the name of Jesus into more of my speech on a daily basis!
One day everyone will praise the Lord Jesus's name, atheists, agnostics, Muslims, Hindus, Christians.
Everyone will kneel before the throne of Jesus and proclaim that Jesus is the Lord God and that he is greater than any other name.
I desire that people will have an opportunity to speak is name before they are forced. Before it is too late...

Are you ready to Die? Today?

"Trust is confidence in the character of God. Firmly and deliberately you say, "I do not understand what God is doing or even where God is, but I know that he is out to do me good." This is trust. This is how we wait." -Richard Foster

Are you ready to die? If you were to take your last moment as you read this blog, would you be ready to meet your Creator?

It is a curios thing because I often wake up in the middle of the night and unlike waking up in the morning or waking up from a mid-afternoon nap, when I wake up to complete darkness, I am always terrified. Completely struck with the power of God and completely terrified that God would choose that moment to come back.

I believe completely that on account of putting my hope in Christ that I am going to Heaven. So why am I so afraid to die? I shouldn't be, but I still am, time and time again.

I think it is not so much that the process of death is terrifying to me, it is all the unknowns that are involved. What will Heaven be like? Was I supposed to do something today with my life that I didn't? Was I supposed to go somewhere today and share your love with someone, and I didn't?

Evangelism cannot occur in Heaven, and I am continually gripped with terror that I will have no more chances.

So why don't I run out to the street corners proclaiming Christ? Why don't I call up everyone that I partially know and share with them.

Is it fear? Is it not feeling to act in that way so I don't?

It says in the Bible that God is not willing that any should perish, but why then does he allow so many children to be born? Why then are so many people born and so many people die every day without hope of hearing the Gospel?

Will those who do know have to pay in Heaven severe consequences for not sharing with more people that have never heard?

I am scared to know the answer to this question...

I am often plagued with guilt. Often plauged with worry. I know God tells us in the Bible not to worry, but when these kinds of questions are floating through my mind every day, it is very difficult not to worry.

Am I doing enough? Am I sharing enough? Am I living for Christ enough? I don't know, but I desire that the answer to that question be yes. I desire more than anything that people would look at my life and see Christ.

What do I do with those that have heard but not responded? These individuals tear at my heart. I pray and pray and pray for them, but isn't salvation a work of the Holy Spirit? Isn't it impossible for me to force them to come to faith? Yes. I alone cannot save ANYONE. But just because I can't, doesnt mean I should stop trying.

Where do you want me Lord? Where would I be most effective?

Where are you sending me? Why do I feel that you want me to travel overseas to reach the lost? I will, and I am, but sometimes I struggle with the feeling that being an alien in a new culture will make me less effective.

Please take my worries. Please take my heart. I thouroughly, completely give my life to you, and my heart, and my future.

I desire to be well, I desire to have a big family and to be able to care for them, I desire to be effective for your kingdom.

I pass those desires to you and pray that you would be there, directing, leading, empowering.

I am nothing on my own. Purify my desires and make them yours.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

“I was just thinking how nothing ever lasts.” Proclaimed Benjamin Button to the only love of his life, Daisy.
Have you seen this movie? It is a powerful example of the power of love, the inevitability of time, and the way that certain things in life are impossible to change.
We are all dying, slipping closer to the grave with each gasping breath. You can’t escape death. You are walking down the dark tunnel towards your last heartbeat whether you think about it or not.
Are you prepared? Are you living your life in light of eternity? Are you spending your days pursuing things that will last? Are you making the most of the days that you have been given, no matter how short?
I regret to recount that I cannot always answer yes to these questions. I have the tendency to live without reflection. To focus on tasks and to do lists instead of the magical quality of each passing day.
Life is beautiful. The tragic and moving film with that title is yet another reminder of the brevity of life.
Why aren’t we given longer? I don’t know, but I do know that it is something we cannot control. You need to be ready when your time comes, and in the meantime, live dynamically. Today is all you have. Live it well…

With arms wide open

“Daily Cast all your anxieties on the Lord for he cares for you.”

I spread out my hands to you dear Lord, spreading out my fingers so that everything that at one time I was clinging to with tenacious ferociousness are now sliding through my fingers, slipping out of my control. My dreams, my possessions, my limitations, my future. It is all yours, and I am not supposed to hold it. I see myself with arms to my side, legs spread apart, my face looking up towards the Heavens.
Lord, your mercies are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness!
I have so many plans. So many things that are so difficult for me to drop on the floor in front of your throne, but I will and I am going to start today.
I feel the tension ebbing. I feel the stress fading. It is too much for me to hold it. It is too heavy, too overbearing, too much of a responsibility.
I am looking up at you, waiting. My heart is calm. My breath is even.
I am confident that whatever storms blow through my life. You are there. Whatever emotions tear at my heart and leave my mind in confusion. You are there. With open, waiting, patient arms. Ready to take me to the place and the people that you have planned and purposed me to reach.
For your glory I sing. For your glory I lift my face to you. For your glory I worship you and you alone!

Pure Joy

“Broken I come to you for I know you satisfy. I am empty but I know your love does not run dry so I wait for you so I wait for you. I’m falling on my knees, offering all of me. Jesus, you’re all this heart is living for.”

What does it mean to be broken? And why is it so important? God is a jealous God, which is a negative attribute for a human to have, but for God who set the world in motion, created every species of fish in the sea, and crafted every face present on the planet, it is absolutely, wholly necessary.
Think about it. Would you want to worship a God who thought that he was not worthy enough or powerful enough or complete enough to command all of your love and devotion and who thought that it was okay for you to believe in and cling to Him along with everything else in your life?
But wait; in your clinging to everything, aren’t you saying that God is a liar? God claims to be the way, the truth, and the life. The only way to Heaven. The Savior of the world, and He commands us not to worship anyone or anything outside of himself. We are deceived in thinking that God is okay with polytheism. He is not. He never has been, and God is constant, meaning that he never will be.
Trust me, God deserves all of our love and attention. And since this is so hard for us to grasp and live in the daily reality of we tend to fail repeatedly, turning to the right or the left for pursuits that are less than honorable. We think, myself included, that our plans, purposes, and possessions are more important than, as important, or almost as important as God in our lives. Or we feel that God is just not great enough at this point of our lives to give up all that for Him.
But why not? What are we living for anyways? Why do we have such a hard time giving up our career plans? Or giving up our salaries? Or spouses? Or children?
By giving up, I am not saying to sell them or walk away from them. I am talking about how we want to hold these things in our hands, to control the switch that determines what will happen with the things that we believe are in our sphere to control.
The ironic thing about this paradigm is that none of these things have ever been or ever will be in our control in the first place. God is all-powerful and his enemy the devil also possesses a huge degree of power, although it is pennies compared to the majesty of the almighty, all-powerful God. Everything in our life can change in a moment. Everything that we have worked so hard to control can be ripped from us in one single moment. So why do we do it? We can’t control it. God doesn’t want us to hold it. In fact, he commands us in his word to daily surrender all of ourselves at the foot of the cross.
We do it, but it hurts us every… single… time.
So don’t. Surrender. Give it up. Every last thing that your hands are trying to grasp hold of at this moment. Your future, your plans, your dreams, your money, your marriage, your children.
Give it to God. He cares for you. He loves you. He created you, and what he desires more than anything is for you to surrender every part of yourself to him. Lay is at his feet. Pray to the Lord to take it. Live in a way that demonstrates your knowledge, understanding, and joy in the fact that God is the driving force of your life. And pray this with me for he is certainly worthy to receive honor and glory, forever and ever-amen!

I come before you Lord God, broken. Laid bare. Completely at a loss for words at what you have done for me. I don’t know why I hold on so tightly. Have no idea why time and time again I try to regain control over things that were never mine to begin with. Please take it. All of it. And may you use to glorify yourself. For you are worthy oh Lord in every sense of the word to receive glory and honor. Blessed be your name!

You are involved in a war right now, whether you know it or not...

We are up against far more than we can handle on our own.
We are in a war. A war that we cannot view with human eyes. A war against the principalities and powers of the unseen world.
The devil hates you. His entire goal and fueling passion in life is to bring you down. He wants to bring you as far from God as possible and to keep you in that place as long as possible.
If you have yet to believe in Jesus Christ, he is pleased. He desires for you to die in this state of unbelief so that he can own you, in his dark, lonely place of pain for all of eternity.
If you are a believer in Christ and his saving work on the cross and resurrection from the dead, you have displeased him. He is not able to retrieve your soul because it has already been bought and redeemed by the blood of Christ, but he is able to distract you, to tempt you, and to cause you to be unsuccessful in the goals and purposes for which you were designed, which are bringing glory to God and seeing other people worship God through sharing with them about Jesus.
The devil is a prowling lion who is seeking to destroy you, but most of the time he doesn’t crawl around the world dressed as a lion. He likes to disguise himself, to dress in a way that makes it very difficult at times to see the difference between him and the truth. He inspired cults that look very much like truth on many different angles, throwing in enough lies to keep its members deceived enough so that they are unable to enter into relationship with Christ without outside intervention. He also works at providing appealing sinful avenues that he can use to lure you away from what God has for you, sexually perverse activities, desiring for wealth, clawing for power… the list goes on forever.
But don’t lose heart. There is a way out of the devil’s clutches. Without God, we are the devil’s children, born in sin and walking directly toward his Godless eternity of continual, unspeakable pain. But in this darkness, the light of God burns brightly, burning away the pain, loneliness, and hopelessness with his truth and love. God sent, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, to this earth to set the captives free, to bring those drowning in the darkness into a place of forgiveness and peace. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. The Bible promises. He is waiting with arms outstretched, ready to forgive every sin that you have ever committed and every sin that you haven’t even thought to commit in the future.
Once you are forgiven, your eternity with God in Heaven is secure. However, the devil and his angels will continue to work at making you ineffective for God and his kingdom. To avoid these dangerous pitfalls, you must cling to his Word on a daily basis, fellowship with other believers, and pray continually to God your Father.
Learn what your weaknesses are. These are the areas that you will most likely be targeted in. Surrender these areas to God on a daily basis and establish an accountability network with other believers so that you can grow towards God and not towards his enemies. The Battle has already been won. God is the victorious one so fight boldly and bring as many to the winning side as you can!
God loves you and Good luck!

What is an idol?

We tend to read the Bible and imagine that bending our knee to an idol means kneeling before a golden statue, one set up in a temple.
Did you know that there are many other things that we can set up in our own lives as idols?

An idol can be anything that sets itself up as more important than God in our life. It is something that we strive for, are motivated by, love, devote time, energy, and effort to.

If we seek anything over and above God in our life, than we struggle with idol worship.

Is there anything in your life that threatens to wiggle itself in place of God in your life? When you make a decision, what is it that you use to determine what you will do:
Is it how much it will cost, how it will impact your reputation, how others might view you if you do this thing?? Instead of whether or not God and his word told you to do this thing.

Idols can look very different for different people:
Money
Cars
Friends
Prestigue
Position
Good grades
Security
Always being in fashion
Boyfriend, husband, wife
Buddha statue

What is it that you worship?

"Lord, I pray that I will worship you and you alone. I pray that I will seek you first and always and that I will lean on the rock of my Salvation. Please help all other things that compete for the first position in my heart and life fade away. I am yours.
-Amen"

Beginnings

January 1st, 2009

Suffering…
Isolates
Depresses
Bring me to my knees
Breaks down my walls
Destroys my pride
Humbles me
Prostrates me
Breaks me

I want you Lord, but I don’t understand what you’re doing.

I want you Lord, but I don’t think I can handle it.

I want you Lord to be…
My driver
My friend
My Savior
My rock
My redeemer
My father

I desire to put you over…
Me
My dreams
My ambitions
My families
My body

“Broken I come to you for I know you satisfy. I am empty, but I know your love restores my life.”

Thank you for lifting me from a pit, for pulling me out of the darkness for dying for me.

I do not deserve you! The truth is: I never have and I never will!

I surrender all!
My health
My husband
My books
My career
My future
My future kids
My family

I know being in your hand is the best place, but it’s not safe or easy or gentle or smooth.

Things could happen.
It could hurt.
My life could be broken.
Everything stripped from me,
But that’s okay.
Because I know and will rest and rely on the fact that my Jesus lives.

He lives, he died, he rose, he loves, and I will faithfully, constantly, joyfully proclaim His name.

I will not let my fears, my friends, my husband, my limitations hold me back! Nothing!

Thank you for breaking me, for teaching me that I am nothing without you. I can never be good enough. I can never do enough. I place my life at your feet.

I have no idea what you want or why you shaped me this way or brought me to this place. It’s hard. I don’t like it. It causes me to bleed, to mourn, to cry, to lose myself.

I place it there in your hands.

Please use me however you see fit. Please make me a worthy vessel.

I feel like no one understands me, like no one has sat here, but I know that you have gone before and that you are waiting with open arms to take me home!

“Broken I come…”
Heal me.
“To you for I know”
You are sovereign.
“You satisfy.”
My every need.