created to love Him...

Satan is called, "the accuser of God's people," in Revelation 12:10. This verse not only gives our enemy this name but also it talks of his demise: "And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. (vs 11) And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony , for they loved not their lives even unto death."   The heart of the accuser is looking for faults, failures, screw-ups, imperfections, poor performance...anything that he can bring up to make our minds linger on who we were, instead of who God has made us to be. Lingering here, dwelling on our sin nature, keeps us in performance mode...trying to fix it, trying to make things right, trying to change our own hearts and actions. This was the life of our old self befo...

This year I have been participating in Bible Study Fellowship's bible study called, "The Kingdom Divided." BSF has had a huge impact in my life and given me a great love for God's Word...HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT! I've been leading a group in my home in hope to help bring this great ministry to my home town in Monroe, Michigan.  I can't even begin to write about the impact this study has had. It has focused on the Old Testament stories of the divided kingdom of Israel & Judah, and all of the prophets who were sent with God's loving, desperate call and pursuit for His people to repent from idolatry/sin and to return to His heart and desire for them. I have seen great sin, great rebellion, great stubbornness, great stupidity in humanity in this study...I've seen my own heart in need still of God's healing and purifying work in my heart. I've seen our nation in this study and cultural downward spiral. Most importantly, I've seen the incredible ...

Is Jesus the King of your life?  If not, why? How would your life change, do you think, if He were your King? If so, how do you know? What does that mean to you...today?  We celebrated Palm Sunday yesterday. This is quite possibly my favorite Sunday out of the year! I'm always excited & ready for Holy Week to come...what would I be without the resurrection? Dead. In my sin. In absolute bondage to my self-centered ego and ridiculous silly logic as the trajectory of my life. I would be filled with selfish purpose, greed and self-preservation. I would live in fear of others and their opinions. I would live obsessed with status and getting ahead. Sin. Dead in my Sin.  My living began not 44 years ago on December 7th, 1978 when my mom labored for my earthly entrance. That was the beginning of the hope of my living. As we all were, I was born with a sin nature and so if what I believe is true, I was born in death. That's a happy thought right there!  My actual living b...

 God is love. God is "agape." Agape is different than "eros," which is most often the definition of love that the world offers and understands. Every song on the radio is about this kind of love.  "Eros," is physical, sexual, emotional. Agape is also different than, "phileo," which is the word for brotherly love, like the love we have for our family and friend relationships.  Agape is different and holds a different strength, power and motivation. It's the word used to define God's love in 1 John 4:7-21. I've been caught by this section for a few weeks now. Agape is a love that transforms us to our very core to look and act like God, Himself. It's a love so powerful that it actually changes us and changes our perception of God, ourselves and others. Agape love brings the awareness of how holy God is, my sin nature in comparison and how incredible it is that God sent Jesus for us - it's self-sacrificing for the sake of another ...

We do not define God. God defines us.  This is the starting point of my faith. This is the beginning of humilty for me, a heart bowed low in worship.  Like a tantrum-throwing toddler, I may not always like the sovereignty or the parenting of God, but I am content that He is the end all, has the first and final say. He is the Potter. I am the lump of clay that needs work, molding, refining fire, redeeming beauty. HIS love defines me, not this world's perverse understanding of "love." HIS love defines me, not even the church's definition of love does this because His love is higher, more powerful than we mere humans could arrogantly assume we understand, or tie up in a nice, logical box.  How high, how wide, how deep, how long is the love of God (Ephesians 3:18)?  I do not accept our world's weak view of love, more importantly God's love. "Love is love" is just...FALSE. Any love isn't love. How ridiculous it is to believe this! Any love, without bo...

 A few weeks ago while I was leading worship at Redeemer, I told our congregation that I will not allow the enemy to steal God's goodness from me. Many of us have been praying and contending for over a year now for a sweet friend of ours to be healed from cancer. In the middle of this same year, there have been others we have prayed for as well for healing, and yet that healing never came. At least, not in the way I was praying. Now my friend, Lin, is quickly deteriorating and my friend, Mark, is grieving and praying for a miracle for his wife in what looks to be like her last days. I stand by what I said. The enemy will not steal God's goodness from me because God's character isn't proven or disproven by circumstances. He is the I AM. He is who He is and I find great comfort in that because His character is the only thing steadfast in my life, the only thing that doesn't go up and down with life's glories and trials.  But I am disappointed.  I'm disappointe...

We are saved to worship God, to love Him in relationship. All that Christ has done for us in the past and all that He is doing now leads us to this. What, then, is true worship? Jesus told the Samaritan at the well in John 4 that a day is coming and has already come that God's people would worship Him in Spirit and in truth. In truth. Truth...the absence of all things false, fake, perverse. What does worship in truth look like?  I'm a worship leader, a worship song leader, so I say this next thing with a bit of irony, maybe. Our corporate worship is the smallest act of worship we bring. The American church, or maybe the Western church in general has exalted this Sunday moment as the most important act of worship. I know this because worship has become an industry filled with lights, auditoriums, a high focus on emotions and how worship makes us feel. The church spends its money on stage equipment, promotion, cameras, buildings...all for the 1 day a week culmination of 25 minute...

  Here's a happy little saying:   Rebellion is the opposite of rest and trust. 😁 I just finished rocking Evelyn to sleep for her nap. Sometimes I linger longer than I need to...because she's cute and so sweet when she sleeps! But that has nothing to do with this post, other than it allowed me time to read. Michael bought me a Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas and that gift has restored my ability to read! I find myself reaching for that instead of my phone...and so, while I rock, I read. Today I was reading Isaiah 30.  I am allowing God to teach me about rest. And as I grow in the ability to rest, in the ability to live and move from rest, my trust in Him will grow, too. I am allowing God to teach me how to slow down in my approach to life. I am allowing God to teach me how to pray, rather than respond to what happens around me. This will be a long lesson because I am allowing God to engrain in me a deeper habit, a deeper way. Rest allows God to be God for me. Rest gi...

  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...