A Year In A Nutshell

In God's grace, I have learned a few things: Faith, hope and love. I can hold onto these for the rest of my life and they have completely changed the way I am and live my life.
 Faith. Faith in prayer and of moving mountains. (Mat 17:20, Luke 17:6), giving all glory to the Father for his great and wonderous works, even before seeing the fruit of his mighty hand. That is this faith.
 Hope. Hope in God's words and in him alone. I cannot put hope in family, friends, the church, or just in man in general. They all will let me down. (Rom 3:23) I have learned that my hope is in God's promises. I put my hope in Your word, Lord. These I hold onto. I wait on You.
 Love. I have learned to love the people that fill this world. (Mark 12:29-31, Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:15-16). I finally understand what it means to be in this world but not of it. I want to live a life taking up the call Jesus gave his disciples before ascending into heaven. The Lord God has given us areas in our life to be in the world. May we not forsake these. Whether it's our job, our neighborhood, our clubs or hobbies, our sports and activities, school, whatever. This is our mission field. I am on a mission to love God and love our neighbors, to make disciples of all nations, giving them the real hope in Jesus. The world needs Jesus and real, loving friends/people (not church, but the church).
Please join me...

God, wherever You take me and my family, I will reach out to those that are around me in Jesus name and love. May I be fearless, wreckless in love, compassionate, as wise as a serpent and as gentle as a dove. Amen.

Doubting Reality

With transparency and trust, a friend shared their heart to us. From this confession my mind was stirred, like always. And here is the fruit of it.
There are days when we step back and think about the reality of life, God, heaven, spirit, Bible, and wonder is it all too good to be true? Are we grasping at something to get us through life on Earth? But, wait. There is so much "coincidence" in just my life alone, that it has to be all real and all true. Wait again! Is not coincidence a man made word, in a world that does not believe in the reality of God? Believing in coincidence would mean I do not see and choose to ignore the perfection of God, his hand, plan and processes. So, there is nothing left but God, heaven, spirit, and Bible (the word of God).
Doubt is something we attained when we ate from the tree of knowledge in the beginning of man's time (Genesis 3:1-7). Doubt gives us the time and ability to weigh between good and evil. Doubt is part of our being, and God knows this. But, because we are not perfect and we are all able to fall into evil, we must keep in check all abilities and knowledge. Without keeping them in check with the Holy Spirit, they can lead us to sin and away from our loving Father. The knowledge we wanted can ultimately lead to our destruction. Thank you Jesus for tearing the veil in your last breath (Matthew 27:50-51), and allowing us to be united with our Creator and attain your helper, the Holy Spirit.

A Church Without Walls

I am reading through Israel's history, when they were held under Babylonian then Persian rule. I have read 1&2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Haggai and now Zechariah. It is awesome to see God raise up men around the same time to rebuild Jerusalem. Ezra, he called out of Persia, to be a priest and to bring God's laws and statutes back to the people. Nehemiah, he was the king of Persia's cupbearer. God called him to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and also to be governor. Haggai, a prophet was told by God to rebuild the temple. Zechariah, I am just now reading the book of Zechariah, God's prophet. In Zechariah 4:2 I read these words, "...Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it."
My husband and I have been called to our city for this reason by the Lord. "A church without walls" someone once said. I was not clear what that meant. Then, the Lord showed me that verse in Zechariah. Jerusalem was to be built as "towns without walls", meaning they were going to grow! If there were walls, then the growth would be contained and stunted. We christians have taken our faith and placed it in "walls", or I like to see it as a box, contained. This faith does not branch out into the world. This box sometimes looks like church walls, sometimes like one area of a person's life; In some, like a group of people or friends, and other things that only our God knows. Without walls, without a box, without containment; God's people will grow! An uncontained faith can be like a consuming fire, taking the land and it's people. How awesome would that be?
May we be a church without walls! Growing from one house, to two, to thirty, to the world.
Do not let any walls hinder the spirit of God! Let's go beyond them! Branch into the world...

Being A Servant

What is it that most of us miss? We accept Jesus' blood. He died for us because their is no other way for salvation. We seek his forgiveness. He becomes and we recognize him as our savior, but what about our Lord? Do we miss that? How many of us are willing to die to ourselves each day and do what he has for us instead? Is not that what it is when someone is Lord of your life? You do what they want you to do and not what you want to do. If we really, truely understood the Love our God and creator has for us, wouldn't we want his will over our own? Jesus was the perfect example for us, he was a servant. That simple. Anything he did was after waiting upon God for direction nothing was selfish. He gave his entire life to the will of the Father. Why should we do anything less. That is if he is our Savior, our Lord...

Here is an excerpt from the book "Road to Reality" author K.P. Yohannan:

The only way to walk as a true servant is to decide right at the beginning to accept being a nobody like Christ, making yourself of no reputation. You must decide it isn't going to matter to you what people think or say about your lifestyle. You're going to obey Christ whatever the cost, and so the matter is settled.
God may ask you to throw away your future, give up your education and career, abandon your business and inheritance, leave family and friends. He may ask you to drive an old car, wear out-of-fashion clothes from a swap shop, give up romance and plans for marriage, go to the foreign mission field, or move into an inner city slum. And of course, He may ask you to stay just where you are and live a life of sacrifice, service and witness amoung your own people. For many, staying home may be harder than going.
But whatever He asks you, you can be certain one of your biggest challenges will be dealing with the problems of rejection and acceptance from your peers...Today, God is calling out an army of Americans who will feel his heartbeat and accept the call to live a life of radical Christian servanthood. The temptation is to dialogue with the world, seeking understanding, acceptance and sympathy.

test-drving marriage

i came across this article today. i have posted it for you to read, it is very short. i have been married since august 30, 2009. when my customers at work, fellow students and other aquaintances found out i was getting married, they congratulated me. when they found out that after our honeymoon we would move in together for the first time, their was shock in their faces. it amazes me. does no one wait until they get married to live together? my husband and i are now married a little over 8 months, and with God's amazing grace and the fact that we make it a point not to live for ourselves (our natural selfishness). i believe we are laying an amazing foundation for our life-long commitment of marriage. please read this short article. if you would like to read others similar, please visit www.focusonthefamily.com and click on the button labeled "marriage".

Test-Driving Marriage

by Focus on the Family

No strings attached. Test-driving a relationship by sharing living quarters appears to be the perfect solution. If it works out, great! If not, no harm done.

Or so you thought.

Damage does occur when couples choose to live together. Marriage cements love with a commitment. Living together leaves you vulnerable, causing you to doubt the level of your partner's dedication.

Studies show that couples who live together before marrying have a higher tendency to divorce. It seems the short-term commitment of living together often equals short-term commitment in marriage.

If you're not ready to get married, do you really think you're ready to live together?

Copyright © 2009, Focus on the Family. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

Day One

i always have so much to share... so many great things that i wish i could pass around. i'm going to try blogging these. Maybe this is my way of shouting them from the rooftops. My blog is in your hands God.