Fear of death...

My mom said something today that made me think...am I truly not afraid to die?

I suppose because I grew up facing the reality that nothing in this world lasts very long, I don't cling to it.

Not going to lie, it would be nice to be married and have a family but then again what's that in comparison to meeting The One who conquered death and satan?!?!?!?

This world is not my own...this is my temporary home...no one but You Lord can satisfy the longing in my soul...

Those are some of my fav songs and I suppose there is a underlying message here! At the end of it all, I just want to see my Jesus and my God!

Love God and the rest will follow (an endless hallelujah)

Step out of the ordinary. Pastor Fidel

Matthew 14:22-33

God waits for the fourth watch sometimes... Why? Patience! Are you out there in the dark? Don't think that God won't show up. He is waiting for when you are ready to lean on him and not on yourself.

Are you circling The airport of life but you haven't landed yet? God hasn't brought you thus far to forget you..

Jesus is the possibility of a miracle in he midst of the storm... Don't miss the miracle in the storm!!! He walked to them in the middle of a storm. Don't miss Gods presence.

Our definition of negative or trouble or bad is different from what God defines it. Be careful not to call Jesus a ghost.

When troubles come...look for the Hand of God in it.

Don't ever think you aren't good enough...

Noah:drunk, Abraham:liar, Jonah:ran from God, Peter: denied God, Rahab: prostitute, Samaritan woman:more than one relationship...Lazarus was dead and God used him... What's your excuse??

Phil 1:6 God is not done with you yet. Have faith that He will finish His work.

reasons you might come up with not to step out:
1. Doesn't make sense, sounds too good to be true
2. I am scared
3. People are watching me, what will they think, what are they saying?

Reasons why you should step out:
1. You might touch someone's life.
2. Your actions might tell someone else about Gods love
3. Your actions might take someone closer to God than you think it can.

It might be that you will sink... But just call out, "lord save me" God promises to be there...


Love God and the rest will follow

The LORD said to me, “Go down to the potter's house, where I will give you my message.” So I went there and saw the potter working at his wheel. Whenever a piece of pottery turned out imperfect, he would take the clay and make it into something else.
“Don't I have the right to do with you people of Israel what the potter did with the clay? You are in my hands just like clay in the potter's hands. (Jeremiah 18:1-4, 6 GNT)

This is the verse that has been hounding me/haunting me/changing me/challenging me in the last week or do. I have been journeying through the painful occurrences in Jeremiah's life. This man was called to do nothing but warn and challenge the israelites.

They put him in a cistern filled with mud at one point!!!

Even then he didn't stop sharing gods warnings with them. The kicker? He wasn't making it up and God came through with what he promised.

After all that revelation, i go to church on wednesday and I hear pastor mike rosell speak about the same passage.

Someone out there say it with me: confirmation!!

Here's the thing... When pastor mike spoke he said something that wrecked me! He said the Potter destroys our plans in order to make something he planned all along.

So while I am here thinking nothing worked out in my way, God all along was working on something. In order for it to be fruitful, he had to essentially destroy my plans!

Love God and the rest will follow (according to His will)

We ask this question to the kids in a survey at work. The answer that never fails to bring a smile to my face?

FLY

How many of you agree?

As much as the thought of just walking out my door and taking flight is intriguing to me... I honestly would say i would rather have X-ray vision of sorts... I want an X-ray of a person's true thoughts...

I want to know if people really mean what they say and say what they mean...then again do I? Hmmm

Maybe not...ha!

Ok fine...I want to FLY!

Fly to New York... There you go!

Love God and the rest will follow (except maybe the flying part)

So I was driving back from a friends house tonight...tying up loose ends...

I had this road ahead of me that was pitch black. I have been on that road before but I was always on the phone or singing to some song. Tonight though it was just me and this lonely road.

I am not a fan of silence, its when my thoughts are the loudest! Like clockwork, they began...what will I do next? Is this a move I was supposed to make? Will it be a mistake? So I began to ask my God if I was losing a battle maybe I was giving up and then this song came on by mercy me!


MOVE

I'm not about to give up
Because I heard you say
There's gonna be brighter days
There's gonna be brighter days
I won't stop, I'll keep my head up
No, I'm not here to stay
There's gonna be brighter days
There's gonna be brighter days

I just might bend but I won't break
As long as I can see your face

[Chorus:]
When life won't play along
And right keeps going wrong
And I can't seem to find my way
I know where I am found
So I won't let it drag me down
Oh, I'll keep dancing anyway

I'm gonna move (move)
I'm gonna move (move)
I'm gonna move

I've got to hold it steady
Keep my head in the game
Everything is about to change
Everything is about to change

This hurt is getting heavy
But I'm not about to cave
Everything's about to change
There's gonna be brighter days

I just might bend but won't break
As long as I can see your face

[Chorus]

No matter what may come
Gotta move to a different drum
No matter what life brings
Gotta move gotta move to a different beat [x2]

I just might bend but won't break
As long as I can see your face

[Chorus x2]

No matter what may come
Gotta move to a different drum
No matter what life brings
Gotta move gotta move to a different beat

-mercy me

Annnnnnd my questions died! God has a plan and I will move to His beat! In this case it means a physical move too and if this means I get to go places with God that I have never gone before then so be it.

Love God and the rest WILL follow!!


p.s.
God, next time would you direct the wind more northish though? Like NYC perhaps? Hehe

Let praises ring...

So my attempts to read the entire Bible in a year have failed miserably several times but this time around I am have been appealing to the history nerd in me. I decided to read the Bible using a chronological plan. This meant reading it more like a history book but I know my God and all glory and honor is still his no matter how I read the story He has laid out for this world.

that being said...so far so good. I am currently working my way through 1 kings... I never realized how many psalms were written in between and how different the Bible would look if put together in a historical manner.

I was shown a verse in psalm 71 this morning. Verse 14 says "but as for me I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more" initially I nodded in agreement and moved on but the. He Spirit brought me back to it. The psalmist says he will praise God in hope... Not after the deliverance, not after a sign, not after a voices peaks to him from Heaven! He will praise God in hopes that God will come through.

What a concept!

As I meditated on this verse the Lord began to reveal to me how much I still hold him to his actions. Payment in praise form will only come after my Lord has done what he promised or what I want from him. How sad is that? After everything he has already done for me even just in the salvation he has given me...even just in that I should be singing his praises every waking moment yet I hold out because I want more? There is no more...salvation is basically all that matters. This world will fall away and only thing that remains is TRUE LOVE in the form of GOD!!!

So I thought...solid lesson..now on to my day...not quite!


After a while I got a text reminding me of how similar this verse was to the reminder in Hebrews that faith in confidence in what we hope for... As I read this text the word confidence stuck out to me...soooo then came another epiphany!

Confidence in the humans is virtually nonexistent. I know I certainly do not get a paycheck until after I work my allotted hours for the month. Dictionary.com defines confidence as full trust! Full...trust...entirely...completely!

Sooooo if I don't have confidence in my fellow humans, who can I put my full trust in?

Ahhhh well the folks who have been to Sunday school know the answer... JESUS!

And when we put full trust in God there will be no wiggle room for fear or doubt to creep in...no wiggle room!

So there you have it!

Love God and the rest will follow!

Jan 22, 2012

Josh 3, gen 22, 1 Samuel 15

Wake up early to take the next step...
Joshua woke up early to do just that in chapter 3...

Taking the next step takes scary faith some times. What is God asking you to do today? Take that step and exercise that faith. All things work together for good. Abraham knew that the character of God would not allow for issac to be killed, even if her did it says in Hebrews Abraham knew That God could bring issac back to life.

Conquer your demon...will you ever get there? What is God asking you to lay down? There is no temptation that has seized you except what is Common to man.

Stand upon on the promise, time for you to be trusting. Be victorious in moving to the promise land. Don't idk out of this step...don't miss what the Lord has planned because you are unsure.

Do you pick selective obedience over specific obedience? 1 samuel 15
Heed the voice of the Lord!
Amalikites represent our flesh. Crucify all your flesh, if you leave even a little bit then it will grow and take over.
Saul tried to blame to the people and then say they wanted to sacrifice to God. You can't do that...rationalizing is a sin. To obey is better than sacrifice.

There are so many things you want to do... Move forward, go backward any movement but no! God says to wait on Him! When you learn to wait...God will then show you the next move...the next step.

Get in and watch God work... Don't grow weary and dont give up because you are so close.


To recap: Requirement to occupy the promised land!
Take the next step!!!

Eager willingness
Specific obedience.
Genuine faith.
Spiritual stick-with-ness.




Wowowowowow I can't even begin to explain how this sermon came at such a timely manner. God is amazing! God is crazy awesome! I will take that step Jesus I will stand on the edge and wait on you my God!

Love God and the rest will follow!

A horse...

A verse in psalm 33 says a horse is a vain hope for deliverance... How many times do we try to be verse 17? We take it upon ourselves to be the work horse and figure we will do everything in our power to help or fix issues.

The verse continues to say that despite its strength a horse cannot save. BAM!

You cannot save or fix the issues, you can influence, you can hold on for the ride, you can hope for the best but in the end God does his will and we trust in the end it is always for the best of His kids!

As workers for the Lord we need to remember that this gift is free from God to His people so we need not take it upon ourselves to "save."

That's not our job!

In all that we do we point to Jesus and He does the rest! Stay in the word and stay strong!!

Love God and the rest will follow!

Cleaning up...

Today started out differently than any other day this year... I woke up to a funny dream... I was playing football on the beach with some friends and the dartmouth aires... Ya I know how random...

So I texted a friend who would appreciate that and in turn we ended up having a heart to heart about how our lives went in directions that we didn't see coming...

I got to church and my mentor asked me "how are you?" which I smiled and nodded to and she said "come here" ha!

That lead to an hour long therapy session essentially...

Orchestrated by God I am sure... the time to just hear a perspective that was encouraging was welcomed. So many changes all at once and I am going into it a bit stronger than I was after last night... I had to get out of my head and today I am...

Caught the tail end of what was surely a great sermon by my pastor on cleaning up for the new year.

He said that in order to have a productive year for the Lord we have to be ready to clean out our closets essentially!

The eminent song cleaning out my closet came to mind. Ha I know!

If you are struggling with alcoholism then you can't keep bottles in your cabinet and say I won't go near then or if pornography is your issue you can't hide magazines under your bed and say I won't go near them.

You have to dump the booze and burn the magazines. That's a necessary step in the healing process.

I snickered a little because I can see how that applies to the situation with Danny. God is not going half way on this project of his, he is going to see it through to completion. He is cleaning up the situation once and for all!!

Love God and the rest will follow!

Why...

Things in life occur and often we wonder why...

As a Christian, the standard line is "God has a reason." well somedays I wish I knew that reason.

Danny is in a coma, he got hit by a drunk motorcyclist while crossing the road.

It was his birthday the night he got hit. No one can explain the reason. But in my heart I keep hearing Danny, "God is still God!" no matter what God is in control even if I feel like things are spinning out of control because in the end it's not about me.

In the end God will be glorified because He undoing and doing something in all of us.

So tonight if your world is falling apart, or you are in the process of picking up the pieces, know that there's a lesson in all of this. The key is to find the lesson and apply it to your life.

Application of the lesson is key, let it sink in and make sure there was something that came out all this pain and suffering. I personally don't want to go through all these trials and not learn something.

I am holding on to hope that Danny will wake up and he will live a full life glorifying to our God Almighty!

Join me will you in that prayer?

Love God ( in all circumstances) and the rest will follow!