Empty Traditions

Empty Traditions

I read a few verses in Colossians today in the Message Bible, and boy-oh-boy it sure did have a lot to say to me, directly.  There are too many things in this world that I take for granted, one being my undoubted faith in Christ.  When I start to talk to people that have little faith, it begins to confuse me.  Not that I become doubtful, but confused about myself, rather.  I keep having glimpses of my past that I would really like to forget, but they come at the most opportune time.  I’m either feeling as though I want to go back to my old ways, or questioning why I turned from them to begin with.  I am hesitant as I write these things because I am fearful.  I am fearful of man.  I don’t want to be fearful and I know it is absolutely ridiculous to even take into account what other people think when I write what God is telling me to, but I am human and it just happens. 

I’ve been thinking about my situations for a while and dwelling on them.  I know that is not what God would want me to do at all, but I realize it now that I’ve fallen away from Him.  This is not to say that I’ve gone completely haywire and lost my faith completely, but my faith in Him is being tested.  I can see it perfectly.  And the sad thing is I kind of wished this upon myself.  Now, don’t get the wrong idea.  What I am trying to say is, when you fall on your face it brings you so much closer to Him.  I did not fall on my face on purpose, but I did allow the devil to speak lies into my life, rather than the truth that God says.  This being said, I do not feel as though I am completely back on track with God, but I do feel like I am feeling around for Him in a completely dark room (if that makes any sense).

This morning I read Colossians 2:8-23 in the Message Bible.  I’m not going to post the whole thing but you can go read it here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=colossians%202&version=MSG

The verses are saying that we need to “WATCH OUT”.  What does it mean to “watch out”?  To “watch out” means to ‘be vigilant, be on the lookout or be careful’.

Are we careful with where we go? 

Are we careful with whom we allow in our lives?

Are we careful with the things we watch or listen to?

 Being careful doesn’t mean that we are just “aware” of the harm that it could cause us, but we avoid the potential danger that it might cause to us, physically and mentally.  I can be honest with you I have not been doing this.  I have not been on the “look out” with the decisions I make.  They are sending me down a horrible path and I can see it so clearly.  It’s so easy to step into that direction though, because it’s a comfort.  It may release some tension for a while, but afterward begins a long time of suffering, pain and regret. 

In verse 8b, it says, “They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and empty superstitions of spirit beings.”  The “empty traditions of human beings” is what really hit me right in the gut! 

What are some “empty traditions”?

·         Finding “true love” based on things you’ve read or seen in the movies (girls, don’t lie, you SO do this)

·         Sleeping with your boyfriend/ girlfriend before you get married to “test out” and see if it will work,

·         “Going out” and letting lose because “you worked hard and you deserve it”,

·         Needing more money at your job because you live pay check to pay check and you work hard…

These are just a few of the “empty traditions” that I’ve struggled with.  There are so many more!  But isn’t it true?  Don’t we allow those ideas to spread in our lives and become a huge part of who we are?  There are so many “empty traditions” that we allow in our lives because of the way the human race is.  We fail to see the emptiness it causes because we give it the excuses of “well that’s just the way the world is...”  “That’s just how I was raised….”  “We’re in a different generation now…” 

They are empty, people!  Straight up, empty, nothing good will come from thinking that way!  It only causes destruction and defeat within us.  Why can’t we see this?  Why can’t I see this?  This wonderful author I love, Marion Jordan Ellis says, “It’s not about a set a rules, it’s about a mindset.”  This goes with anything.  If we can’t get into the mindset of understanding that emptiness has surrounded us and chose a different path, then we will continue to be disappointed, fearful, doubtful, anxious, restless, impatient, reckless, impulsive, and irresponsible human beings. 

A Letter from Your First Love

 

A Letter from Your First Love

These are not my words but my Father’s.  We all need to change our dependencies.  We depend on things of this world too much.  What are things of this world, you may ask?  Well, we depend on things like: marriage, children, money, clothes, toys (this can be for little children and/or adults…), family, friends, and even the church, to make us complete.  Why do we think that tangible things can ever be dependable?  When we take something like a family and look at it from the surface, are we really seeing every aspect that makes up a complete whole?  No, because families have issues.  Families make mistakes, families are not God.  What do I mean?  When we depend on someone or something besides God to make us complete or whole, we are robbing ourselves and others of a dependency that was only meant for the One who created us. 

Think about it...  God made you.  He knows everything about you.  Everything you have thought, done or will ever do.  This doesn’t mean that He didn’t give us the free will to choose our own life; it means He sees our future and nothing we do will surprise Him.

It’s hard to imagine right?  It definitely was for me.  But I think that God has infiltrated Himself more into my life than I ever thought was possible.  Believe me, I was not always that girl who let the Lord lead her.  I had to have control of my own life, mostly because I lost control of everything when I was 16 years old.  I looked to anything and everything “in this world” to fill me.  But it never gave me the contentment that I so desired for.  I longed for a relationship with someone that loved me for who I was, who didn’t want me to change a single thing about myself.  I longed for an absolute truth to my questions about who I was, where I was going, what I was doing here.  I believe those are questions that anyone has asked and sought the answers for.  I can’t tell you that my life is perfect, it will never be perfect.  But I can tell you that I got the answers to those questions and the things I longed for, “someone to love me for who I was”.  God, Himself came to me in my despair and lifted me up to solid ground.  I was sinking, and sinking fast.  To this day, I am not perfect.  I make mistakes.  I am human.  But I choose to live a different life than the one that was leading me nowhere. 

You too, can choose that for yourself.  No one can make you.  Only you can decide to choose Him. 

I pray for each and every one of you today, even if I don’t know who you are, God does.  He loves everything about you.  You are His beloved, His cherished one. 

“Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.
There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

“In that day,” declares the Lord,
“you will call me ‘my husband’;
you will no longer call me ‘my master.” Hosea 2:14-16

Reminiscing on my Childhood

Reminiscing on My Childhood

 

Today I started reading Jeremiah.  I found it very fitting because my favorite verse is in the book of Jeremiah and I knew that there could be some more favorites in it.   I don’t know why, but I started in the second chapter, but God revealed some things to me in reading it.  First of all, Jeremiah is a prophet, which means that God is speaking directly through him.  No, not like a crazy séance in which dead people are speaking through a human, but our Creator, God is telling Jeremiah what to say to the people of Israel.  And right now, WE ARE ISRAEL, people!  We have strayed away from our God, gone into exile and are pushing everything we know about how great He is away from us.  So, we are ISRAEL.  Got it?  Good. 

Jeremiah 2:1-2 (CEV)

“The LORD told me to go to Jerusalem and tell everyone that He had said:

                “When you were my young bride, you loved Me and followed Me through the barren desert.”

Can I just say that, the word of the Lord came to me and He said that this is more real to us then we know?  When we were younger in years, like little children, we loved on our parents.  We were so inspired by them.  They taught us everything we know: how to walk, how to talk, the right things to do and what not to do.  They showed us the way and we earnestly followed them.  But as we grew, we grew further and further away from them.  It starts really young too, like three years old… we want to be independent from them and “do it all by our self!”  Because that means that we are a “big kid” and “grown up”.  Trust me; I am having some major issues with this right now with my little one, who is growing up so fast.  They grow up and try to do it on their own, without our help.  Just like we, as adults do, to our Creator. 

Jeremiah 2:3

“You belonged to me alone, like the first part of the harvest, and I severely punished those who mistreated you.”

In these first verses of chapter 2, it is God reminiscing back to when we were “young children” in our faith.  We followed Him, even through the hard times because He was our “Daddy”.  We knew, without a doubt that He was going to care for us.  We trusted Him and every word He said.  What happened to us?  Why did we grow up and away from our Daddy and try to do life our own way? 

We are doing the same thing Israel did in the Bible.  We are turning our back on God because we don’t get what we want.  Just like when a little child doesn’t get their way, they throw a fit and eventually that fit will turn into a complete abandonment from because we grow up and push the ONE who brought us to life, away.  We are stubborn children, but the One who loves us, will never leave us or forsake us.  It’s so amazing to me to see how God feels through being a parent.  Being a parent is hard and there will be moments of rejection from my child that I am not looking forward to, but I know that God created a parent and child relationship to reflect the same relationship we have with Him.  As we grow in life and faith, we experience God in every area of our lives and that is worth living for.  It’s time to turn back to our Daddy and see Him for what He done for us.  We need to think back into our “childhood” and be thankful for a God who has never abandoned us and never will.  Come back to your Daddy and love on Him the way you did when you were a child.  We’re never too old to be a “Child of Christ” again.

Do You Want Fulfillment?

photo by J. P. Robertson- jprobertson.com.au

Do You Want Fulfillment?

Haggai is one of those books that you don’t really hear too much about.  I think the first time I ever opened up to the book of Haggai was about a month or so ago and it was in a Bible study where my leader said the same thing about it, no one really ever talks about it.  But, today was the perfect day to read it.  It’s two chapters and basically all of those two chapters is the Lord is speaking to the Prophet Haggai, telling him what to say to the Jews.  First of all, the title of the first chapter explains it all: “A Call to Build the House of the Lord.”  He says in verse 5 and 6, “Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.  You have planted much, but have harvested little.  You eat, but never have enough.  You drink, but never have your fill.  You put on clothes, but are not warm.  You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”  I’m just dumfounded by this.  The first sentence immediately made me think.  Do I give careful thought to my ways?  In the beginning of the first chapter it gives us an overview of what is happening at this time.  After the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon, they were to go and finish building the House of the Lord.  But they got caught up in worldly affairs and neglected the building of God’s House.  They thought that they would be saving time and money by not building the temple yet, but God brought a poverty upon them in such a way that they were not “filled”.

Now, they didn’t say that they weren’t going to build the temple but, “not right now” (I’m paraphrasing of course).  It’s the same way with us!  Man does not say that they won’t repent and restructure their lives, and follow God, but “not right now”.  I’ll tell you this: I went through a period in my life where I did not want to listen to anything that God was telling me.  I shut Him out completely.  I did my own thing and lived life on my own.   I did what I wanted, used my money how I wanted and said, “I’ll deal with that whole God thing later.”  I worked so hard at shutting Him out that when it came down to measuring up everything I had achieved on my own, there was nothing.  I was empty and alone and had nothing left to offer but my broken heart and body.  I had eaten, “but never had enough”.  But God is sooooo good and faithful that He brings us back to where we should have been to begin with, “building His temple.” 

I don’t know where you’re at right now, but I do know that God is calling us to come and work for Him.  It’s about time we lay down our heavy load and come to Him!  His load is easy and burden is light.  Trust me, I know.  I gave it up to Him and now I’m building His house!  The reward for building His House is much, much more rewarding then we could ever imagine. 

The second chapter of Haggai is phenomenal!  Just when you thought it couldn’t get any better you read, “Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory?  How does it look to you now?  Does it not seem to you like nothing?” (Haggai 2:3) Take a look at your old house, and be proud of what you have been made into.  This was something that I really felt the Lord pressing on my heart.  Many times, I beat myself up about my past and the things I did in my dark times, but the Lord says to remember that old self and what it has been made into.  Remember what He changed us from!  Don’t dwell on the past and all of its heartaches, but rather analyze what we once were (a broken, empty house) and what we are now (the Temple of the Lord Almighty!)  We were running rampant and doing what we wanted, which gave us no fulfillment.  Now, we are a new CREATION and we belong to God!  He has made us into something of greater worth!  Do you get that?  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (1 Corinthians 5:17). 

Once we start working for God and in His house, how could we ever go back to our old, broken house?  There is nothing for us there.  We know there is nothing to gain from this world but the glory of the Lord will reign forever.  I’ll leave you with this: “‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty.  ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” ( Haggai 2:9) 

Gloomy Monday?

 

It's Just One of Those Days

Isaiah 43:11-12

I alone am the Lord;
only I can rescue you.
¹² I promised to save you,
and I kept my promise.
You are my witnesses
that no other god did this.
I, the Lord, have spoken.

 

I picked up this verse off of Bible Gateway as the verse of the day today.  It’s like God was speaking directly to me and giving me the refreshment I needed for my soul.  Do you ever wake up in the morning with a sense of unworthiness hanging over you?  Or maybe there are just some days you feel like your dragging your feet in the mud and life just seems to have this tight grip around you, choking you, giving you, “I don’t want to be here” moments throughout your day?  That’s exactly how my days have been going lately.  I have allowed the never-ending thoughts of my worldly day surround my entire being.  Thoughts like: “I’ll never get moved up here.  Do I even want to try harder at work?”  “Today is going to be a long day.”  “Ugh, it’s Monday.  I hate Mondays.”  “I already have people giving me a hard time and it’s only Monday.”  “Why do I even bother, no one even cares anyways.”

Yes, pretty much every single one of those thoughts has gone through my head already this Monday morning.  It’s kind of depressing, I know.  But if I don’t start my day with a promise of God, it goes on like this the rest of the day.  I’m so glad that the Lord sent me this little reminder today.  He says, “I alone am the LORD, only I can rescue you.” WHEW!  God is the only thing that will save me.  Not my job.  Not my parents (although, I do run to them a lot to save me from my insanity).  My friends won’t save me.  My money won’t save me.  Buying more stuff won’t save me.  Finding true love won’t save me.  NOTHING can save me but my Lord.  Isn’t that refreshing?  We don’t have to rely on things that will fail us, because God is there to ALWAYS pick us back up!  That is so much encouragement for my soul. 

Promises, to me, have always been kind of cliché, when they are made by another human being.  But when I saw that God has kept His promise with me from the very beginning of my life, it changed my whole perspective on the word “promise”.  Promise means a “declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that guarantees that a particular thing will happen”.  I’ve made plenty of promises that I didn’t keep.  “I promise, when we get home, we’ll play with your dollies.”  “I promise that I’ll never do that again, God, if you get me out of this one thing.”   But a promise coming from God is different.  You see, we promise things but we don’t know what is going to happen in the future.  Like when I promise Lydia that I will play dollies with her when we get home, I don’t know if we’ll actually make it home.  Or when I promise to God that I’m never going to do something again, I don’t know what the future holds, plus I’m human and I do stupid things.  BUT, God knows the future.  He knows when He promises us abundant life in Him that we will either accept Him or reject Him, but that doesn’t change His promise.  That makes His promise more meaningful then a human-being’s promise!  God is all knowing.  That means He knows EVERYTHING, people (if you didn’t catch that).  I think that sometimes we devalue Him, and start thinking that he is another human being that will let us down.  BUT HE WILL NEVER LET US DOWN!  He promises to give us rest when we are weary, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).  He promises to lift us up when we are having a hard time, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up” (James 4:10).  He promises to protect us from the evil one, “But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one” (2 Thessalonians 3:3).  He promises to hear us in every need we have, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-- whatever we ask-- we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15).  God loves you and His promises have stayed the same and will always be the same.  Now, I don’t know about you, but that is something I needed to be reassured of on this gloomy, cold, Monday morning.

 

Have a blessed day in Him!

What does it mean to Be Still?

"Be Still..."

What does it mean to be still?  Does it mean no movement or calmness?  We have heard the Bible verses before, probably a hundred times but do we really know what it means to “rest”.  Yeah, sure we could take the humanistic version of the word “rest” and try to match it up with the verses where God says to “rest in Him”, but does it make sense?   The definition of rest is to “cease work or movement in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength” (dictionary.com).  Does that make sense?  “Cease work or movement and know that I am God”, not really.  Because if we know the character of God we know that He wants us to work and continue moving.  But what this scripture is saying is, if we are tired have our minds “cease work or movement”.  How does one do that, you ask?  Well, that can be a very difficult thing to do because there are so many things going on in our daily lives that to really “rest” one’s mind would require time and quite a bit of peace.  Because let’s be honest, who really has “time” anymore?  I mean, we’ve got bills to pay, people to please, lives to live.  Who really has the time to “rest” in Him?  And maybe we have some time, but can we really “rest” or “be still” in our minds and really “know” that He is God?  We struggle daily with things of this world.  What do we allow into our minds that really don’t need to be there in the first place?  99% of the things we worry about are of this world, possibly 100%.   We know that God says He take care of us… “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they” (Matthew 6:26).  We know that everything happens for a reason, and the things we achieve on earth don’t matter… “What do we gain by all of our hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen what difficult things God demands of us. ¹¹ God makes everything happen at the right time. Yet none of us can ever fully understand all he has done, and he puts questions in our minds about the past and the future. ¹² I know the best thing we can do is to always enjoy life, ¹³ because God’s gift to us is the happiness we get from our food and drink and from the work we do. ¹⁴ Everything God has done will last forever; nothing he does can ever be changed. God has done all this, so that we will worship him” (Ecclesiastes 3:9-14 CEV).  We know that God is good and that He works everything out… “We know that God is always at work for the good of everyone who loves him.^[a] They are the ones God has chosen for his purpose,” (Romans 8:28 CEV). 

We know these things, and yet, we still can’t find time to “be still”, or be tranquil, or peaceful, or calm.  We worry about the things of this world.  Why do we do that?  God tells us to know that He is God.  God is the Creator of the entire Universe.  He is merciful.  He loved us from the beginning of time.  He never gives up on us.  He restores our souls.  He leads us in the path of righteousness (Psalm 23:3).  He wants our heart and full attention on Him.  Not on the things of this world, because, He knows that the things of this world will always disappoint.  The things of this world will never fully satisfy.  The things of this world will never give us peace.  We have to find “rest” in Him and breathe in His promises to us.  Let Him lead our hearts to what He desires for us.  He knows us better than we know ourselves.  Today, I want to challenge you to “be still and know that He is God” (Psalm 46:10).  Whether it’s taking 5 minutes to really pray to Him about His will for us or to sit and listen to what He has to say to you through His word.  I feel as though the Lord wants to speak to us in a new and restoring way. 

Heavenly Father,

We know that You desire for us to be intimate with You and You alone.  Father, we ask that You would help us to see You today Lord and know who You really are.  We need to be close to You and to feel You soak in to our lives.  Thank You Jesus, for giving us Your Holy Spirit and allowing us to see this world for what it truly is.  Lord, we lift up to You our lives and pray that we can focus on You. 

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen.

The Desires of Your Heart??

The Desires of Your Heart???

Psalm 37: 1-9

Don’t be annoyed by anyone who does wrong and don’t envy them.  

[envy means- a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities or luck.]
² They will soon disappear like grass without rain.

³ Trust the Lord and live right!  The land will be yours, and you will be safe.
⁴ Do what the Lord wants, and he will give you your heart’s desire.

⁵ Let the Lord lead you and trust him to help.
⁶ Then it will be as clear as the noonday sun that you were right.

⁷ Be patient and trust the Lord. Don’t let it bother you when all goes well for those who do sinful things.
⁸ Don’t be angry or furious.  Anger can lead to sin.
⁹ All sinners will disappear, but if you trust the Lord, the land will be yours.

Ok, did anyone besides me just have a “dang-it, I envy people all of the time” moment!  Especially those people who “look” like they have it all together (side note: NO ONE HAS IT ALL TOGETHER).  I’ll be the first to admit that I envy women that are beautiful, or women who have a nice family, or women who have a great job and making good money.  But the Bible says DON’T DO IT!  Don’t envy those people!  We should especially not envy people who are going against God in their everyday life.  This does include but is not limited to: sex outside of marriage…example: chick flicks which include sex outside of marriage is a popular, yet destructive way to engage in covetous actions.  Women, when we see a happy couple on the TV livin’ it up and sleeping together, not married, we begin to desire that kind of relationship in our own life.  Think about it… when have you ever not envied Hilary Swank in P.S. I Love You, or Kate Winslet in the Titanic?  Every time we watch it, right?  And maybe you don’t watch those kind of movies, but haven’t you ever just thought, “if I had a car like that” or “if I had money” blah blah blah.  It’s all envy, people!  And God says do not be envious of people who “do sinful things”.  Every time I am on the right track with the Lord, it always seems like the devil has it out to get me to doubt God and go back to my “old ways”.  Does it seem like that for you?  Maybe right after you leave church you see someone driving a really nice car and you can’t help but think, “man, I really wish I could have one of those cars, then I would be happy.”  Well, you know that’s not true.  You wouldn’t be happy if you got one of those cars.  You would only turn and look at the next thing and desire for it.  Or maybe you see an old friend and they don’t seem to be struggling with doing things the way the world is.  I mean, they never had a problem with doing those things in the first place, so why would they?  We struggle with envy because we are humans. 

I just love when this verse says “Trust the Lord and live right!  The land will be yours,
and you will be safe.   Do what the Lord wants, and he will give you your heart’s desire” (verse 3-4).  I’m pretty sure we all think that we know what is best for ourselves.  But do we really?  I came to this realization when I moved back home, that maybe my mom really did have my best interest in mind when she told me to do certain things.  Here I was, back at my parents’ house with a clearer mind.  A clearer mind, that, when my mom tells me that doing these things will keep me safe I actually believe her instead of rebuking her for “trying to tell me what to do”.  It’s the same with God.  He wants to keep us safe, and He wants to give us our hearts desire, but can He do that when we are living in sin?  Just like, can a parent give a child a present when they don’t obey?  Any parent will tell you, that is a mistake waiting to bite you in the butt.

 

On an ending note, I'm so thankful for ya'll that read my blog.  It means so much to me to know that God is using little ole' me for something bigger then I could have ever imagined.  And I just write what He tells me to.  I mentioned a while back that every time I type one of these things, I say a little prayer that God will speak to His children exactly what He wants them to hear.  So, everything said comes straight from the Father.

Praying for each and every one of ya'll. Lots of Love.

The Old Me is Gone...The New Me is Free

The Old Me is Gone...The New Me is Free

 

Romans 6:1- 14 (MSG)
“So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land!

^3-5 That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.

^6-11 Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.

^12-14 That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God."

 

I feel like this verse is the exact description of my new life.  It hit me like a ton of bricks! 

I think back to a little over a year ago and what was going on in my life.  Everything was so uncertain.  I didn’t like who I was; I felt empty and sick with despair of everything I had become.  I had absolutely no hope in anything.  And this was only a year ago, people!  I held on to that emptiness as if it was the only thing I had left.  Which doesn’t make any sense, because in reality, how could one hold on to nothing?  But I did.  I guess, in a way it all about my pity party.  I had struggled with not “feeling” anything as a teenager.  I felt no remorse, no sadness, no happiness, no love, and no desire to do anything with my life.  My life was governed by choices I had made and was still making.  I grew up in a Christian home.  I went to church twice a week, was involved in mission trips and church events.  But I never took any of it seriously.  I just played along.  Even now, it’s hard for me to admit that I just played along with the “Christian” thing.  But I did.  There was no real relationship with Christ because I was too busy thinking about myself.

When I was baptized for the second time last year, (yes, I did say second.  The first time was in junior high with a church event.) God really opened up my eyes to what I was living in.  I’m not sure if I really knew what I was getting myself into at the time of my baptism, but it would soon seep in.  My life, and direction that it was going, would do a complete 180.  Addictions were lost, feelings of despair were released, a new mindset was given and nothing could alter it.  Months later, I was blessed with a friendship that would teach me so many things about God and His merciful love for me.  It was such a treasured time in my life and I’m so thankful for it.  God was our firm focus and He revealed to both of us a different path.  But we were in His will and we knew that we had to let Him have it all, so we let go and allowed Him to work in both of our lives.  And, boy-oh-boy, has our God worked and is still working in both of our lives! 

God is real and He’s really inside of me this time.  Before, I couldn’t say that with very much confidence and do you know why that was?  Because I was still letting sin, “run little errands” in my life.  I still did certain things that would cause me to doubt God.  I didn’t give it ALL to Him.  I didn’t allow myself to be complete only with Him.  I looked for other things to complete me.  I looked for relationships, love, clothes, cigarettes, drugs, and things of this world, to complete me and make me “feel” something.  But it was never good enough, it never lasted.  Do you know why?  Because it was not God.  And still even to this day, I fall back to the things of this world to see if they can “complete” me and then I realize that it will NEVER satisfy.  It’s like having one of those “dope” (bang your hand against your head) moments.  That’s why I love God because His love for me never says, “Ok, Sarah, you’ve made far too many mistakes and you keep doing stupid things so I’m letting you go.” NOPE!  His love for me and for you is ENDLESS!  When does that end? 

NEVER! 

Woop Woop!

 Haha! 

 I’m so giddy right now; it’s not even funny… well maybe a little. 

So, now that I’ve gotten that all out maybe we should all go re-read Romans 6 and allow them to shed a new light on our lives. 
Do we still let sin run “little errands” in our lives? 
Is it worth it, living in that sin, or can we just let it go and let God have control?
It's time to really believe in Jesus, don't just say it, DO IT!

 

Looking for a Real Relationship? (not a dating ad)

Looking for a Real Relationship?

(not a dating ad)

 

So, I’ve been reading this book for quite some time now and every time I read just a few lines in it, I’m just blown away by what it is telling me.  The way it is written makes it seem as though God is standing right in front of me speaking to the depths of my heart.  I can’t help but break down every single time I read more and more of this book.  The book is called Captivating, Unveiling the Mysteries of a Woman’s Soul by John & Stasi Eldredge.  It’s not a super long book but for some reason I want to breathe each word in and study each thing that is being said.  A lot of women I know have read the book and they all say the same thing I am saying.  It’s “mind-blowing”.  What’s it about, you ask?  Well, exactly as it states in the title. 

While I was sitting in the lunchroom at work the other day, this man saw me reading and asked what it was that I was so intently reading over there.  I told him the title and he said, “Well that’s funny because you’re a woman already, you don’t need to understand your own soul.”  But that might be what a lot of people think when they hear the title of it or many may think that it sounds a little too “churchy” or “spiritual”.  This book is far from “churchy”.  In fact, I feel as though it’s a necessity for learning and growing in any relationship I have in my life, male or female.  We, as women, are more than what we think with our minds.  We are deeper than just human beings on earth trying to live their lives.  We have mysteries that even we don’t know about.  God designed us that way, so we would search for Him and draw close to Him.  We long for a “relationship”, a true and perfect relationship.  And sometimes we get distracted or blindsided by the world that we don’t even know what a “relationship" means anymore.

When I was living in, what I call my “dark times”, the word “relationship” was something that was abused and manipulated by all of my surroundings.  In high school, relationships were the thing to have.  Everyone had one and they changed all the time.  But relationships in high school weren’t even close to being mature.  In fact, what we learned in high school about relationships was that they change through different seasons and that it is all about the “learning experience” (this can be friendship or boyfriend/girlfriend relational).  What we learned to like or dislike in relationships, we learned to hold on to or let go of in the future.  Right?  It makes sense.  If we dislike something about a relationship we had in the past, we probably won’t go into another relationship just like that one.  Ideally, that would be logical thinking.  But most people don’t grow up and learn from their mistakes, so their meaning of the word “relationship” doesn’t change.  It stays the same and immature. 

In college, relationships were the thing “not to have”.   Really, because everyone who wasn’t in a relationship didn’t have all that extra baggage.  “We can live free and do whatever we want to do.”  Since our relationships stopped growing, we stayed immature during that time as well.  We lived like the Israelites in Judges did.  “At that time there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing” (MSG). 

It’s true though, right?  When the word “relationship” is placed in the same sentence as God or Jesus, we just brush it off like we already know what a “relationship with Jesus” is.  But do we really know what a “real” relationship with Jesus looks like?  Try to think about the word relationship and not immediately think about something or someone that is of this world, its hard right?  God is not of this world, and it’s hard to think that we can be in a “relationship” with Him?  But if our mind is set on the worldly view of a “relationship” then we can’t imagine what a true relationship with Jesus Christ looks like, because it is still under “immature thinking.”  Once we begin to see God for all He has done and is doing in our lives, we can begin to understand what a “relationship” with Him looks like. 
Do you long for a relationship with some One that will NEVER change during a different season of life?  Aren’t you ready to put the “dark times” behind you and “grow in a relationship” with some One that will, not only direct your path straight, but love you more than you thought you could ever be loved?  Then lay down your immature thinking and take a hold of the promises He has for you!

“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.” Ephesians 4:14-15

“Do what God's teaching says; when you only listen and do nothing, you are fooling yourselves.  Those who hear God's teaching and do nothing are like people who look at themselves in a mirror.  They see their faces and then go away and quickly forget what they looked like.  But the truly happy people are those who carefully study God's perfect law that makes people free, and they continue to study it. They do not forget what they heard, but they obey what God's teaching says. Those who do this will be made happy.” James 1:22-25

“When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”  1 Corinthians 13:11-12

Blessings...in Disguise

Blessings... in Disguise

Today, I’m reminded that my treasure or my things here on earth are perishable.  In that, someday, that amazing car I want to get or that house I want to invest so much into will be wiped away as if it was never there to begin with.  Now, that’s not to say that I can’t have a house that I invest money into or even a car that I enjoy driving, but what do I value most in the things that I have?  Do I value my home or my car for building up myself to look good, or for building up my GOD to look good?

What does that mean anyways?  We’ve probably heard it a hundred billion times or maybe we’ve never heard it before, but what does it mean to use things of the world that God has given us for His Kingdom?  It seems kind of heavy, right?  I mean what could I possibly do with my possessions to help God’s Kingdom?  Well...When I am given the responsibility of something on earth, what am I doing with that?  Am I using it for my own glory or for God’s glory?  For example, my beautiful little girl, God gave her to me to do something great through her.  He gave her to me so that I might teach her about His Kingdom and all the wonderful things He has for us up there in Heaven.  That’s a big responsibility.  But we have been blessed with all sorts of things on earth and yet, we only see them for building up our own glory. 

Can I tell you how to fix that?  REMEMBER WHO GAVE YOU EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!  You may not have a house to call your own, and you may not even have a car (or even a very nice car), but you still have something right?  You have life.  You have freedom so that you can worship God without being killed.  You have a roof over your head and a bed to sleep in.  We have been given all of these things, but we don't appreciate them.

Why do we take these things for granted?  I’ll tell you why, because we have never known a loss as having nowhere to sleep, or having to hide when we read our Bible for fear of being killed.  We take our lives for granted.  That’s the bottom line.  What if today you were to see everything you have for its value and Who gave it all to you?  Would you look at life differently? 

Today, I want to challenge you to write out some of things in your life that God has blessed you with and then next to them write what you could do to use it for His Kingdom.  I’ll post mine at the top.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in a steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where most and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in a steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Matthew 6:19-21

Blessings

My Family

photo by CB Jones Photography

 

My Baby Girl

photo by CB Jones Photography

 

My God

photo by Me

 

 

 

 

What is Faith?

 

What is Faith?

What is Faith?  You have probably heard the word a hundred times, if not more.  What does it say to you?  Maybe it says “a high belief in something you can’t see”, or maybe when you hear the word “faith”, you immediately think of God or some sort of religious word…  BUT, there are many things we have faith in everyday that aren’t “religious”.  For example, we have faith that our cars are going to run all day, right?  Or we have faith that the sun is going to come up in the morning and that it will go down at night.  Those are all faithful acts upon which we live in every day. 

So, why do we have faith in certain things but not others?  Is it because they are consistent, or seem to work out for us for a solid amount of time?  We as humans love consistency, don’t we?  When something happens just the way we planned, it feels like the world is going our way, doesn’t it?  What if something is inconsistent?  Then we begin to feel like our world is falling apart.  It’s like if something doesn’t go our way, or if it’s inconsistent, unpredictable, unreliable, or even unbalanced we push it out of the way.  We try to get rid of it as soon as possible, because we know that with the unknown out there, it’s just not enough for us to “have faith that it will all work out.”  What if, for once, we decide to embrace the unpredictable acts of the world and cling to a certain type of “faith” that has a huge effect on our souls, as well as our lives here on earth?  It may be scary at times, and it may seem unstable, but if we take a look deeper into the Word of God and all He has done, we become filled with an overwhelming amount of peace. 

Take a look at my past blogs and you shall see, peace will only come from One thing and that’s complete and absolute faith in God Almighty, the Creator of the Entire Universe!  He is calling you right now to give it all to Him.  Trust in Him and He will make your paths straight. 

Proverbs 3: 5-8 (ESV)

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.
⁷ Be not wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
⁸ It will be healing to your flesh^[b]
and refreshment^[c] to your bones.

Hebrews 11:1-2 (MSG)

The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It's our handle on what we can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd.