created to love Him...

  Evelyn on Christmas break...resting!   Rest. Trust. I'm not a New Year's resolution kind of girl, but if I were to try to pinpoint what I feel God saying to me as I enter 2023 it is these two words. Rest. Trust.  I haven't written a post in over a month. My family has been plagued since October with RSV, the flu more than once, head colds, chest colds, strep, etc. With my husband, Michael's travel schedule, it's been challenging keeping up with our schedule & responsibilities in between sick kids and their sick mom! We entered Christmas week on antibiotics hoping that this would create some supernatural bubble of protection that would allow us to celebrate Christmas with our family and friends...and to give us a reset physically to be strengthened.  In the middle of this exhausting season, I am grateful. Though, I haven't been grateful at every moment. I get very stressed when I'm not able to handle my agenda with excellence, when I have to let things ...

  There are 138 passages of Scripture on the subject of thanksgiving and some of them are so powerfully worded.  Colossians 3:17        "And whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."  1Thessalonians 5:18        "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."  In EVERYTHING??? I used to read this verse as a daunting, impossible command. I used to chalk it up as one of those verses in the Bible that I'll just rely on Christ's blood to cover me because I know I'll never live up to THAT! Now, though, I read it differently. Now, this verse to me is an invitation. If God commands us to give thanks in everything, there is a promise within the command. This verse means that in everything, there is something to be thankful for. God is giving us a key to a mindset that also keeps us stay connected directly with Him.  P...

Staying in a place of awe or being WOWED by God is the key to childlike worship. Paul in his letter to the Romans writes that way better than I did!  Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgements, and His paths beyond tracing out!  "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?" "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay Him?" For from Him and through Him and for Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever! Amen.    ~Romans 11:33-38 Maybe it's because I've officially reached middle aged status. Maybe it's because I'm now a parent who has to have the answer and solution for all things and often feel like I'm scrambling for wisdom. I don't know why...but I'm at this place with God that the more I know about Him, the less I know. I feel this great caution in holding a mentality of solid rightness in my understanding of God. Obviously, by experience and study ...

Abba - Johnathan Helser What comes to mind when you hear the word "God?" What is your concept of the Creator? Some people view God as a life-coach. There's no real relationship, at least not on a personal level because joining a church is kind of like making the team. God is perceived to communicate with commands, rather than soft-spoken encouragement or loud directives. One's responsibility is to train hard and perform well.  Others think of God more as a teacher. To them, being a Christian means studying harder, learning more, memorizing doctrines and Scripture, and then being able to regurgitate it at all the right moments. The important thing is getting a good grade and graduating to the next level of spirituality. God's role is to make sure we spell His name right or to give detention when we misbehave.  Then there are those who view God as their boss. Getting a good job in the Kingdom is priority one. Christians are just so many employees who are responsible...

I'm American. It's in my national, cultural DNA to rebel against this dirty word. The "S" word. Dare I speak it? SUBMISSION! Oh how we hate that word! Especially as a woman, I have this engrained inner diva in my spirit that, with hands on my hips, highly wants to refuse to acknowledge this word. I'm American. Ain't nobody gonna tell ME what to do or how to do it. Nope.  The truth? You are not a worshiper of Jesus without submission. Without submission, you are a worshiper of self. You have so placed yourself higher than God, expecting God to bow His ways and thoughts to yours. This is our culture. And sadly, this is growing in the Western church culture. Without submission, we can simply scroll through the Bible and pick out the verses we like or agree with and throw out the ones we don't like. Submission is the right approach to God's Word...even the verses we don't like, we don't understand, we don't agree with, or that we deem only to b...

  Psalm 16 (Fullness of Joy) - YouTube The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;  You hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;  indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night my heart also instructs me.  I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. THEREFORE, my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let Your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.        ~Psalm 16 The Lord is my CHOSEN portion...I HAVE SET the Lord ALWAYS before me... This is an intentional lifestyle that goes down to the core of conviction deep within me. I have a choice. Not a one-time choice.  God gives us the gift of choice and every moment of every day is a new opportu...

Here's where the dead things come back to living I feel my heart beating again God is in the waiting. He's in the silence and unknown. He's in the place where my feet are frozen, unsure of which way to look, think or move. He's in the place where either way could be the way, or no way at all. He's in the places we assume He's not, where our logic and reason take up more space than His infinite self. He's in my successes and my failures, simply because He is a Father ready to celebrate, ready to restore. Always there. Every moment holy because He is the maker of days and the giver of breath.  We are returning.  God is calling the church away from issues, agendas, debates and back to His very self. Away from the grandstands to the humbled place at the feet of Jesus. Away from the fight the world wages and back to obedience and marching orders springing from the peace beyond understanding. Communion. Common union...shared union. Christ in us and us in Him. So c...

 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...

  "The future of worship does not belong to the most brilliant song writers, musical virtuosos, or gifted vocalists. IT BELONGS TO LOVERS." ~ Jeremy Riddle from, "The Reset."   I read this quote over the weekend and it hasn't left me. I know this is true. I know this is true from my own relationship with Jesus. I'm a pretty task-oriented person. I can get caught up very easily in the business of creating, composing, doing, accomplishing. Those verbs are all very comfortable and set my heart at ease. I want to handle life well and my personal, fleshly litmus test is how well I can do at keeping order in my life and keeping up with the never-ending check list. I know in some ways God made me to be this kind of person and I know in other ways I've been raised to be this kind of person. But there are times I feel tired with this. I just want to...BE and not...DO. I want to love and be loved. I want to see and be seen, hear and be heard. I am learning this p...