created to love Him...

 This week my family is on vacation with all of my husband, Michael's, family. We're staying in a giant, million dollar house that all of my children keep getting lost in! It sits on 16 acres - has a fishing pond, a heated pool and hot tub, a theatre room, more tv's than Best Buy (my children are astounded by that!) wooded trails, deer everywhere and so many spots to hide and find seclusion! YES! YES! YES! My heart needs seclusion. People assume that I'm an extrovert, but really, my heart feeds on silence so that I can joyfully be with people! There's something about being stuck in the middle of nowhere that pulls me to listen more carefully to God calling me, drawing me. It's one of my favorite truths about Him. Song of Songs 1:4 says, "Draw me after You; let us run!" God loves to draw us out, to beckon us, to call us. He loves to see us listen, answer and eagerly run after Him. My 1-year old, Evelyn, does this. When I call her name, or she sees me en...

 1 Peter 2:9-12 "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation."  you are CHOSEN. you are ROYAL.  you are HOLY.  you are HIS.   This is YOU. God's Word says so. This is you and this is the Jesus follower next to you. This is you and this is the Jesus follower in that other church, or the Jesus follower that you disagree with theologically. This is you and the Jesus follower you know who may b...