Liebster Blog Award

And a big shout out to Kim from  http://unwalled.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/liebster-award/

for nominating me for the Liebster Blog award. If you have never checked out her blog Unwalled please give her a read!

For those who may not know, the Liebster Award is an award given to blogs that have less than 200 followers as a way to show encouragement and appreciation to fellow bloggers, as well as to spread the word about new blogs. 

The conditions of accepting the award are as follows:

A) You paste the award picture into your blog.- This picture is at the top of the blog. Prettyish huh?

B) When you receive the award, you must post 11 random facts about yourself.- Those of you who have been reading me for a while have already heard about all my strange musical instruments and know how many kids I have and all the normal 11 things about myself that would make this part of the post boring; So I’m going to take a different tack with this one. I am going to share 11 Scriptures which have special meaning to me.

Here we go.

1. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose. Romans 8:28   This is one of my life verses. I have walked through my share of good and bad. But God turns everything! everything! everything! into a blessing if we do not forget to love Him through the good and bad times!

2. You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Isaiah 26:3 Peace through every moment in life is possible if we only just keep our eyes turned on Jesus. Turn your eyes on Jesus look full in His wonderful face and the things of Earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace

3. Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. John 14:6 Maybe these next two verses should have been numbers 1 and two but I am just laying these out in random order. I am so thankful that Jesus settled this issue for me all those years ago. When I came to the realization that practicing witchcraft was getting me no closer to the living God this verse cleared the way for me to repent and come to a right faith!

4. Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” John 3:3 The next question asked of Jesus was “How is this possible?” With man it’s not but with God it is and I am so glad that Jesus showed me I could be born again spiritually and have a fresh start on life.

5. But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. I John 3:8 Having come from a rather potent sin background myself I was well acquainted with the devil and his demons. I actually called them angels. I talked with them took advice from them, channeled their power. I am so glad Jesus destroyed those works in me!

6.  If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. John 15:7 I love this verse because it reminds me that not all of god’s promises are unconditional. Answered prayer doesn’t come without a constant seeking of God and His will for me and for those I pray for.

7. A psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation— so why should I be afraid? The LORD is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble? When evil people come to devour me, when my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Psalm 27:1,2  I love this verse because it reminds me that even when things look lost and my ship appears to be going down, I am truly unassailable as long as I stay in the place of His grace.

8. ⁵¹ But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed! ⁵² It will happen in a moment, in the blink of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, those who have died will be raised to live forever. And we who are living will also be transformed. ⁵³ For our dying bodies must be transformed into bodies that will never die; our mortal bodies must be transformed into immortal bodies. ⁵⁴ Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:

“Death is swallowed up in victory. ⁵⁵ O death, where is your victory?     O death, where is your sting?”

⁵⁶ For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. ⁵⁷ But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ. I Cor. 15:51-57 Do I really need to explain why I like this one?

9.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the Christians who have died  will rise from their graves.  Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. I Thess. 4:16,17 This is one of the weirdest truths in the Christian faith. It makes me smile to think that Star Trek wasn’t that far off with the whole “Beam me up Scotty!” thing!

10. The LORD appeared to us in the past,  saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. Jer. 31:3 I know this was directed toward Israel, but I am grafted in…adopted. His love is for me as well and for that I can never say “Thank you!” enough.

11. Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, [which is] new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and [I will write upon him] my new name. Rev. 3:12 I just think this verse is great incentive to let the Lord liberate me from every evil thing!

I hope these inspired you! I am way over my word allotment for the day so I shall finish this tomorrow! 🙂  

You Choose the View Pt.5

“How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. ” James 4:14 NLT

      At some point we all tumble to the truth that Keith Ward Wrote about in his famous hymn, “The Solid Rock”,

      “On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand.”

      Nothing in this life, except Jesus, is exempt from change…NOTHING and NO ONE!  I used to think differently. I used to believe that there were some things some relationships which would remain unchanged forever. I was wrong.

      I think change is most painful when it affects our intimacies. We were made for community and fellowship, but that created purpose is hard to achieve when all around us the people we know and love are going through life-change just like we are. Circumstance takes the ability to control our relationships out of our hands. The happenings of life take our connections and turn them into fluid things that run in and out of existence like rushing waterfalls: children grow up and move away, jobs change, friends get busy, people die, passions cool,divorce breaks up, babies are born, relationships blossom, new co-workers edge their way into our lives, people marry and the process starts all over!

      So what do we do? Give up on relationship? Hide in our closet for the rest of our mortal lives? Well that’s a choice…one I sometimes make; But it’s not the best choice; It’s not the God choice!

     The way to live successfully in a world where everything and everyone can change by tomorrow morning is not to hide; It is to find solid ground in a relationship with Jesus and address the rest of your changing relationships from that stand point. So many of us have pinned our hope, our joy and our faithfulness on a fallible person rather than on Jesus. Unfortunately, when that person falters in the process of their own changes we are blown to psychological bits. I can promise you no man woman or child will ever be able to meet all your personal needs. At some point people are going to come up short and turn into the “sinking sand” that Keith Ward talked about.

       This isn’t a blog about ending relationships; It’s a blog about keeping your relationships in proper perspective: Trust Jesus and love people! 

Maybe just maybe that is the point of some change you are going through right now. Maybe Jesus wants you to make Him the solid rock so that you can love someone else through their difficulty!

What do you think?

You Choose the View Pt. 4

     Liza Minnelli once said “Man plans and God laughs.”

     It feels that way sometimes doesn’t it? We set our plans in order. We write down our vision statements, set our long-term and short-term goals, only to have them seemingly slip through our fingertips because of some unforeseen life-change.

      It’s in those moments we can say with Solomon, “In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps. ” Prov. 16:9

     So often those steps are not anything like what we planned. Truth be told, as much as we want to say, “It’s always better than we planned!”, in the moment it sure doesn’t seem that way to us!

     Change generally brings with it a reordering of our goals. In the midst of change some goals remain untouched; some are altered  in time-frame, scope, or purpose; And some just evaporate altogether like a brook in August.

     When life change comes our way we are forced to see that life is not really about the finish line. It’s about the journey. We make a mistake when we make faith about “gettin’ to Heaven” or about “gettin’ to” anything. You see, Christianity does not come with an end in mind; It’s supposed to be an unending journey with Jesus; So it is the pathway that matters most. When we focus on the moment by moment walking, the temporal finish lines promise to take care of themselves.

“Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. The LORD works out everything for his own ends–even the wicked for a day of disaster.” Proverbs 16:4,5 NIV

      So maybe you’re in the midst of a goal-destroying life change just now. Hold on, I know with your limited vision you cannot see how it’s all going to work out. With what you understand, I know it’s almost impossible to see how this could possibly be right. Give God time to reorder your goals. Trust Him that the goals which should remain will. Trust Him to show you what goals need to be altered. Trust Him to take away the goals that never should have been yours in the first place. Trust Him to make it all right!

     

You Choose the View Pt. 3

     What did the deep black waters see

      Before they found me?

       Were they sent?

       Did they decide to melt

       From some mountainside

       To come tumbling down into my life?

       Am I just the lucky one?

       Maybe it’s all three.

     

       What did the deep black waters see

       Which made them come to me? 

     Did they flow

     To the call of God above?

     Did they choose to help my cause?

     Will they wash away the black

     Deep in me?

     Every change gives us an opportunity to check what’s going on inside. With God the internal trumps the external every time. God’s more interested in our holiness than He is our comfort. In fact, He will often arrange a little discomfort to bring out the attitudes which really dwell inside us…the ones we try so hard to deny until they pop out in some moment of stress and become undeniable.

     Our circumstances are not our main problem. How we respond on the inside to our circumstances, that is the primary issue at hand.

    In your current set of life-changes ask yourself:

 

1. Is my attitude through this change pleasing to God?
2. Do I blame my attitude on my life? If so that has to change. You not your circumstances should control your attitude.
3. What is the real reason I feel the way I do? Most circumstances only bring an already existing attitude to light; Where did yours start?
4. What are some steps I could take to change my attitude even before I change my circumstances?

Here’s to change!

You Choose the View Pt. 2

“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten…” Joel 2:25 KJV  

 Life seldom asks our advice; It just sort of decides what’s next for us. Some things are beyond our control. We don’t begin them and we will not be the ones to make them stop. We can only decide how we will respond as we are forced to take the ride.

     What is it you’re facing right now? a deadly diagnosis, the death of a loved one, divorce, the empty nest, a chronic illness, financial ruin, job promotion, recovery after surgery, a child’s return home, a new marriage, a new course of treatment: All change can be daunting because it requires something of us. So often we wish the change away. We forget that God would use it to hone who we are. We don’t control life’s twists and turns, but we do control our responses to them. Our responses determine what we become: Godly responses reinvent us into the image of God; Ungodly responses reinvent us into something less than we were to begin with. Either way we are reinvented.

      God’s point in change is to restore what has been taken from us by the world, the flesh, and the devil. We have to let Him in if that restoration is to begin.

     One area He would right and restore within us is our ability to commit. Every change is an opportunity for us to examine our commitments. 

     I’ve taken many opportunities in this blog to talk about the crazy, complicated lives we Americans live. God did not invent or intend the 24/7 lifestyle; That was all us.

    At the root of this life of complicated rush is a problem with commitment. Somewhere along the line someone told us we could do anything if we were just committed enough. That’s a lie. God can do anything. You can successfully do what God has made you to do. The problem is that some of us have confused ourselves with God. We’ve begun to think that we have an infinite source of commitment; So we just keep committing to more and more, complicating our lives until we are half mad with weariness.

     Sometimes change is God trying to make us realize we need to detach from some of our commitments so that we can become what He really intended for us. Such change is never welcomed at first. It requires us to admit that we can’t do it all. We have to tumble to the fact we aren’t God!

    If you are in a major life-change now why don’t you take some time and reevaluate your commitments to see if they are in line with what the King wants. Ask yourself:

1. Am I over-committed in any area of my life?

2. Is there something I am doing which I was not called to be committed to?

3. Are my current commitments keeping me from something else God really wants me to be doing?

Here’s to letting the Lord restore us in the area of our commitments! May you find the path of peace!