Regardless of how you voted this week or how you feel about the outcome, if you are a Believer, this applies to you:
"I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.
Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity."
1 Timothy 2:1-2
God's goals for us are often different than our goals. God's goal is to bless us, but I don't think He ever wants comfort and prosperity for us to the point that we forget Him. His goal is for people to come to freedom through Jesus Christ and to intimate with Him.
"O God, I beg two favors from you; let me have them before I die.
First, help me never to tell a lie.
Second, give me neither poverty or riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.
For, if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, 'Who is the Lord?'
And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God's holy name."
Proverbs 30:7-9
May we be marked by godliness and grace and dignity and may we never dishonor the name of our amazing God!
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Mature Faith
Moses named the place Massah (which means "test") and Meribah (which means "arguing") because the people of Israel argued with Moses and tested the Lord by saying, "Is the Lord here with us or not?" Exodus 17:7
Then He got into the boat and His disciples followed Him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waters swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke Him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"
Matthew 8:23-25
"If God's goodness and faithfulness come into question every time life gets hard, we are not going to get where we want to be in our faith." Rob Mehner
When life gets hard, is that where we go? Do circumstances and heartache make us ask:
Is God even here at all? Is God good? Is God really able? Does God care? Has God abandoned us? Did I miss a step somewhere and now He's left me?
IS JESUS SLEEPING AND NOT SEEING WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE????
The disciples "followed Him" onto that boat and "without warning" a storm hit them and they didn't think they would live through it.
Mature faith will take us to: I know God is good in spite of what I can see and understand, God's got a plan that is working in ways that I cannot see, He is with me and promised that He would never leave me......
I want mature faith, crazy trust in who He is, but I have to move past questioning His goodness and faithfulness. Otherwise I am like a rat running on a wheel, around and around but never really getting anywhere.
"Once I settled the issue of God's goodness and faithfulness after my 14 month old daughter's sudden and unexpected death, I was good for life! I never went back to that question again."
Pastor Thomas
God is good, always with us, navigating in ways we cannot see or could imagine. We can bank on that and move forward in faith and trust.
Then He got into the boat and His disciples followed Him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waters swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke Him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"
Matthew 8:23-25
"If God's goodness and faithfulness come into question every time life gets hard, we are not going to get where we want to be in our faith." Rob Mehner
When life gets hard, is that where we go? Do circumstances and heartache make us ask:
Is God even here at all? Is God good? Is God really able? Does God care? Has God abandoned us? Did I miss a step somewhere and now He's left me?
IS JESUS SLEEPING AND NOT SEEING WHAT'S HAPPENING HERE????
The disciples "followed Him" onto that boat and "without warning" a storm hit them and they didn't think they would live through it.
Mature faith will take us to: I know God is good in spite of what I can see and understand, God's got a plan that is working in ways that I cannot see, He is with me and promised that He would never leave me......
I want mature faith, crazy trust in who He is, but I have to move past questioning His goodness and faithfulness. Otherwise I am like a rat running on a wheel, around and around but never really getting anywhere.
"Once I settled the issue of God's goodness and faithfulness after my 14 month old daughter's sudden and unexpected death, I was good for life! I never went back to that question again."
Pastor Thomas
God is good, always with us, navigating in ways we cannot see or could imagine. We can bank on that and move forward in faith and trust.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Measure
"The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation."
Corrie Ten Boom
How do I measure my life? What is my standard of a life well lived? What do I hope to lay at the feet of my Savior and hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." ?
I hope that whenever this life is lived and I take my final breath, that the measure will be love, generosity, having done for the least of these, having faithfully obeyed all that He asked of me.
I've got a long way to go. I've got to lay aside so many other things that compete to be the measure; things that keep me awake at night and in the end won't matter.
May the measure and focus of our lives be on donation, not duration or accumulation.
Corrie Ten Boom
How do I measure my life? What is my standard of a life well lived? What do I hope to lay at the feet of my Savior and hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." ?
I hope that whenever this life is lived and I take my final breath, that the measure will be love, generosity, having done for the least of these, having faithfully obeyed all that He asked of me.
I've got a long way to go. I've got to lay aside so many other things that compete to be the measure; things that keep me awake at night and in the end won't matter.
May the measure and focus of our lives be on donation, not duration or accumulation.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Nuggets of Wisdom
More wisdom from Pastor Thomas:
"God always knows what He's doing."
"As long as you give him the credit, He will continue to bless you."
Simple truths that stand on their own.
Thank you, Pastor Thomas!
"God always knows what He's doing."
"As long as you give him the credit, He will continue to bless you."
Simple truths that stand on their own.
Thank you, Pastor Thomas!
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Downcast
"Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God." Psalm 42:5
I wish I could say that my soul never felt downcast or disturbed, that I never felt hopeless. But I can't. There are days when just the daily tasks seem too big and my heart feels heavy, and the future is a blur.
One of the greatest things about the Bible is that it tells the truth....the whole truth. And the truth is that we have a God who loves us more than we can imagine, who is intimately involved in our lives, who is patient and kind and faithful and good to the core. It's also true that humans living in a fallen world can feel downcast in their souls and hopeless. We have a God who "knows how we are formed and that we are made of dust" (Ps 103). He is patient and understands our downcast souls.
I get into trouble when I put my hope in anything other than God. If I start to put my hope in my own ability to handle things or figure things out and handle it all, or in a system that supposed to take care of my son's needs, or in teachers who are supposed to find answers, or in a church that's supposed to be perfect, or.....well you get the picture. God alone can be my hope, my Savior, my son's Savior, my husband's Savior.....
When my soul feels downcast and my heart feels heavy I have to pause and refocus my hope.
I pray that you will have the grace today to lay whatever feels heavy to you at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ. And that you will find Him trustworthy and able to carry the burden with you. I pray that His peace will fill your heart and soul and that you will not be disturbed within.
"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light."
Matthew 11:28-30
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God." Psalm 42:5
I wish I could say that my soul never felt downcast or disturbed, that I never felt hopeless. But I can't. There are days when just the daily tasks seem too big and my heart feels heavy, and the future is a blur.
One of the greatest things about the Bible is that it tells the truth....the whole truth. And the truth is that we have a God who loves us more than we can imagine, who is intimately involved in our lives, who is patient and kind and faithful and good to the core. It's also true that humans living in a fallen world can feel downcast in their souls and hopeless. We have a God who "knows how we are formed and that we are made of dust" (Ps 103). He is patient and understands our downcast souls.
I get into trouble when I put my hope in anything other than God. If I start to put my hope in my own ability to handle things or figure things out and handle it all, or in a system that supposed to take care of my son's needs, or in teachers who are supposed to find answers, or in a church that's supposed to be perfect, or.....well you get the picture. God alone can be my hope, my Savior, my son's Savior, my husband's Savior.....
When my soul feels downcast and my heart feels heavy I have to pause and refocus my hope.
I pray that you will have the grace today to lay whatever feels heavy to you at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ. And that you will find Him trustworthy and able to carry the burden with you. I pray that His peace will fill your heart and soul and that you will not be disturbed within.
"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light."
Matthew 11:28-30
Monday, July 9, 2012
Borrowing Problems
Pastor Thomas is a retired pastor who spent many years pouring out his life in the "Ghetto" (as he calls it) of Cape Girardeau. When you get the chance to sit and listen to him talk about the Bible or Jesus or his life or just life in general, you are really blessed and always walk away full.
This past week I got that opportunity. Just before I walked out the door he said to me, "You need to stop borrowing problems from the future!". I knew exactly what he was saying and that he is right. I keep having to learn this simple Biblical principle over and over!
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34
So before I crawled out of bed this morning I prayed:
"Lord, please give me wisdom and grace for this day. I want to be a good Ambassador for you today, representing your heart everywhere I go and to every person I encounter. I do not want to be so absorbed with my own problems that I miss opportunities to express your love and concern for others. Give me grace to trust you with the things that press on my heart and threaten to steal my peace. Give me grace not to borrow problems from tomorrow but to live in your grace for today. Amen."
The issue is not how big or urgent my problem may be (or how big it may be in the future) but where is my hope and trust.
I'm going to try to pray that prayer every day before getting out of bed and to leave tomorrow's problems where they belong...to tomorrow.
This past week I got that opportunity. Just before I walked out the door he said to me, "You need to stop borrowing problems from the future!". I knew exactly what he was saying and that he is right. I keep having to learn this simple Biblical principle over and over!
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34
So before I crawled out of bed this morning I prayed:
"Lord, please give me wisdom and grace for this day. I want to be a good Ambassador for you today, representing your heart everywhere I go and to every person I encounter. I do not want to be so absorbed with my own problems that I miss opportunities to express your love and concern for others. Give me grace to trust you with the things that press on my heart and threaten to steal my peace. Give me grace not to borrow problems from tomorrow but to live in your grace for today. Amen."
The issue is not how big or urgent my problem may be (or how big it may be in the future) but where is my hope and trust.
I'm going to try to pray that prayer every day before getting out of bed and to leave tomorrow's problems where they belong...to tomorrow.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Babel
"Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." Genesis 11:1-2,4
"so that we may make a name for ourselves"..... I wonder how many times I've been there and not even realized it. How many times have I set out to do something great and the hidden motive in my heart has been to make a name for myself?
How often have I masked my own selfish ambition with doing something "for God"? How often have I longed for the place that only belongs to God?
"But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel —because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth."
Genesis 11:5-9
And how gracious is God to see me on a path that will not be good for me and intervene, confuse things, do whatever it takes to remove me from a destructive path?
He knows that making a name for myself would not go well for me. He knows that I am most fulfilled and safe when I am bearing fruit for His glory and completely dependent on Him and not myself.
And how often do I shake my fist in His face for confusing my plans, for setting up a roadblock on the path I was on. I will never know on this side of heaven what He saved me from when He interrupted my plans!
I pray that my life would make a name for Jesus Christ, for His glory, for His fame and that God would confuse and prevent any plan that is to make my name known.
I won't always understand what He saw down that path that He didn't let me stay on, but I will trust that He is good and is always at work to protect me and draw me closer to Himself!
Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." Genesis 11:1-2,4
"so that we may make a name for ourselves"..... I wonder how many times I've been there and not even realized it. How many times have I set out to do something great and the hidden motive in my heart has been to make a name for myself?
How often have I masked my own selfish ambition with doing something "for God"? How often have I longed for the place that only belongs to God?
"But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel —because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth."
Genesis 11:5-9
And how gracious is God to see me on a path that will not be good for me and intervene, confuse things, do whatever it takes to remove me from a destructive path?
He knows that making a name for myself would not go well for me. He knows that I am most fulfilled and safe when I am bearing fruit for His glory and completely dependent on Him and not myself.
And how often do I shake my fist in His face for confusing my plans, for setting up a roadblock on the path I was on. I will never know on this side of heaven what He saved me from when He interrupted my plans!
I pray that my life would make a name for Jesus Christ, for His glory, for His fame and that God would confuse and prevent any plan that is to make my name known.
I won't always understand what He saw down that path that He didn't let me stay on, but I will trust that He is good and is always at work to protect me and draw me closer to Himself!
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