created to love Him...

In Him you also, when you heard the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee (down payment) of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.     ~Ephesians 1:13-14 Anything we encounter through the Holy Spirit is but a taste, a down payment, a fraction of the riches we'll receive when we are face to face with our full inheritance in Christ. What blessings and riches has the Holy Spirit poured out in your life? However beautiful and magnificent His work in your life may be, it is but a fraction of what is to come. What is the worth you would attribute to the inheritance God has coming for you? Whatever that amount of worth is makes Ephesians 1:18 all the more sweet...what are YOU worth as the inheritance of Jesus??! Holy Spirit, you can come deposit as big a down payment into my life as you can possibly make! I'll take it! And may my life be a reciprocator...one who giv...

This morning I slept in past 11:00! Beautiful day off!  I woke up thinking about inheritance, so I decided to get my thoughts down before jumping out of bed to start my day. In Ephesians 1:11 Paul writes, "In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will." When I think about the truth that I have been given an inheritance in Jesus, my imaginative wheels start spinning wildly. What riches are included in this inheritance? What doesn't belong to Jesus, the King of kings? The Psalms declare that all of heaven and earth are His footstool. In Psalms 2:8, the nations are Jesus' possessions. The beauty of heaven, the glory of the throne, the angelic hosts, the weird creatures with the eyes...the list in endless! Paul even tries to give us a glimpse of what our inheritance in Christ looks like in earlier verses in Ephesians 1: *every spiritual blessing in Chris...

Today I feel overwhelmed with thankfulness that I belong to God. I'm so thankful that I have been given knowledge of who He is...not the knowledge that puffs up, but the knowledge that renews my mind to live the way He lives. It's knowledge that renews my mind to think the way He thinks. What a gift! What kind of stinking evil would I be without His transforming kindness? It makes me feel hungry to know more about Him. It makes me hungry to have more discernment. If His ways are higher than mine, than I desire to know His ways better than I know my own...to spend more time in His ways than in my ways. If His thoughts are truly higher than mine, I want to dwell on His thoughts more often than I dwell on mine. It seems that His ways and His thoughts are a higher reality than my simple, faulty ways and thinking. I want to live out of His reality. It's a high goal. 1 Corinthians 2:16 says, " For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct Him? But WE HAVE th...

This morning I was flipping through my Bible trying to find a place to land. Sometimes I'll do this because it's a fun game to play with God...often the random page I land on is the very voice and whisper I need to hear Him speak. Today is no exception. This is where the pages flipped to: All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus' words, acknowledged that God's way was right, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God's purposes for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.                          ~Luke 7:29-30 All the people, even the tax collectors, had a stirring in their heart that Jesus, this new movement and out-of-the-box revolutionary, was the right way. They acknowledged that He was from God. However, this wasn't just a head acknowledgment. Their hear...

You have commanded Your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping Your statutes! Then I shall not be put to shame, having my eyes fixed on all Your commandments. I will praise You with an upright heart, when I learn Your righteous rules. I will keep Your statutes; do not utterly forsake me! I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the extent of what living a righteous life demands. I can't go a day without messing it up. Sometimes, I can't go more than a few minutes without messing it up! Lord, help me! Oh wait...He does! Look at the weight of Psalm 119:4 and how that burden is lifted in 119:5. The weight comes with the command to keep (obey) God's law DILIGENTLY. "Diligent" means to be contstant in effort to accomplish something. Diligent is a heavy, weighty word. The release from this weight is verse 5...we pray to the ONE who is able to help us keep our hearts steadfast. The weight is in the expectation of obedience to every jot and ti...

Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in His ways! The word "blessed" in Hebrew means "happy". There is such a striving around us to find happiness. We look for happiness in many things...relationships, money, possessions, gadgets, etc. Oh! And shoes! The world offers us so many options for immediate happiness, but all of what the world offers is temporal happiness. God is the only One equipped to offer us eternal bliss...and His offer isn't future but very now, very present. Happy are those whose way is blameless. Happy are those who walk in the law of the Lord. King David wrote in Psalm 24, "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy place?" David is asking how do you find yourself in the Presence of God? How do you get there? David is hungry for Presence. David answers hi...

This morning I was reading in Psalm 119 and was overwhelmed by the greatness of this chapter. I think I will be spending time in this chapter for a while and have decided to blog the things that I think or that I feel God reveals through meditating on it. Stay tuned! Here are some verses that really stood out to me today... Confirm to Your servant Your promise, that You may be feared. Remember Your word to Your servant, in which You have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise gives me life. I entreat Your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to Your promise. Those who fear You shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in Your word. My eyes long for Your promise; I ask, "When will You comfort me?" Uphold me according to Your promise that I may live, and let me know be put to shame in my hope! My eyes lon gfor Your salvation and for the fulfillment of Your righteous promise. Your promise is well tried, and Your...

My week has been filled with unexpected ministry moments. I'm learning from Pastor John's example of how important it is to be interuptable. I have much to learn. God has brought across my path this week opportunities to bring truth to people with addictions and dependence on other things. Their situations are desperate, their families being highly affected and hurt by their dependency. I love these people and my heart aches for them to be free...but more than that, my heart aches for them to know the One who can free them. As I've been in conversation with these people, I've been, to the best I know how, pouring out God's truth to them. He is the only way, the only life, the only truth. He desires us to come to Him completely dependent and aware of lack of strength to do anything for ourselves. He desires relationship with Him, where we willingly yield our way of life to take up His. These things are true to the uttermost and I believe them...but to others who have...

This past week at Redeemer we studied the story of the couple walking along Emmaus Road. For me, this story brought new revelation and hope to trust God to finish what He started, even when present circumstances seem bleak, chaotic or confusing. I'm so thankful for the way God encourages my heart and strengthens me to keep running the race He's set before me.  Today while reading, I found some thoughts on this story by Winnie Banov that I think are interesting. I've included them below: In Luke 24 we find two people on the road to Emmaus just days after Jesus had been crucified and buried. As they were walking, the resurrected Jesus showed up and said, "What is going on, guys? You look really sad."  They were so disillusioned and confused. "Haven't you heard? You must be a stranger!" they replied.  Jesus kept His poker face and said, "Tell Me what happened; fill Me in." "We thought that Jesus was going to get us all out of the mes...

TODAY I AM THANKFUL BECAUSE... *my life-story isn't finished yet and God has good things in store for me. *God longs to partner with me and I've been able to ride along with Him the past few days to watch Him work in the lives of hurting people.  *fall is almost here! Bring out the apple cider! *I am not alone.  *God woke me up this morning. His breath is in my lungs.  *I'm alive and healthy. *I have an eye appointment today and I get to order new glasses...accessory time! *I get to spend 4-5 hours of uninterrupted time with my Jesus this afternoon.  *of Isaiah 55:10-13.