My Olympics

It's Olympic's time, for some it's very exciting, for others it's an interruption to their favorite shows. But to the Olympiads it's everything. They have been training for years. Day after day, year after year. Early mornings, painful workouts, self-denial all for a few moments in time. All for the hope of gold on a ribbon and a place in the pages of history. 

Imagine it, you've trained for years, sacrificing, pushing yourself beyond every limit you thought you had and now it's time. You enter the arena wearing the uniform that signifies you belong to Team USA. You hear the deafening roar of the crowd. The energy and excitement is tangible. Your heart beats loud and strong in your chest, you can't help but smile as you realize, they're cheering for you. You're caught up in the moment and you let out a shout. This is it! This moment, right now, is what it was all for and it was worth it. Whatever happens at the end of the journey, whatever medal you may or may not leave with, it was all worth it, you would do it again in a heartbeat, no regrets. 

Seems like an incredible fantasy doesn't it? But I've got a secret, it's our reality. When you received Jesus as your Lord and accepted His payment for your sin on the cross you became an active, irreplaceable member of Team GOD. You are no longer clothed in shame and sin but you now wear the uniform of Team God, the robe of righteousness and the garment of praise. You have been assigned to an event, you've been given a gift, a talent, something special, a purpose only you can fulfill.

Just like the figure skater doesn't resent the skier for his abilities, neither should we resent others for their calling and gifting. Rather the skater and the skier, the athletes in general, recognize and appreciate the skill and ability in their fellow athletes. We too would be wise to not be jealous, to not be envious, rather see the God in people, see how God uses them and praise God for it! What God has placed in you is precious and highly valuable, do not despise your "event" if you will.  

And lest you get discouraged remember that you too are surrounded by multitudes rooting for you, cheering you on and believing in you. 

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." Hebrews 12:1

So what is your event? Where have you been placed to represent Team GOD? A homemaker, singer, athlete, teacher, greeter, doctor, receptionist? Your life, that's your event. No one else can fill your spot, only you have been prepared every second of your life for this moment. It's all you baby. You have everything you need, you lack nothing.

"Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 1:7-8

The Olympics last a few weeks every 4 years. But we train for a greater purpose and a greater end. This is our moment, right now, we're suited up and ready to go. The crowd cheers for us. Our coach is by our side to guide us and correct us. Our teammates run alongside of us supporting and encouraging. And our Father is waiting to welcome us across the finish line, take us in His arms and say well done.

 

To Be Held...

Have you ever agonized over a decision? I'm sure you have. Have you ever needed to do something that wasn't the easiest but was the best for your family? I'm sure you have. Have you ever been judged? I'm sure you have. 

Have you ever been ostracized?
................................... lied to?
................................... taken advantage of?

As I'm sure you have, that is exactly what I've been walking through the last 9 months. Ever since we began looking for a new job and then felt we found it we've been battling for what we believed God said is ours.  And we battled and we won. Brian got the job, we made the move, done. Let the party begin, right? Not exactly.

See, the fight was only just beginning. We never believed that this job in and of itself was the fullness of the blessings God has for us. We do believe that it was a turning point in our lives as we begin to walk in the promises and dreams, the blessings and favor that God has for us. And that is when the real battle began. 

I cannot go into details about the battle, it really doesn't matter, we all have battles, mine are no greater than yours. When you're in the battle some days you're strong, others you are miserably weak. Some days you can see the victory and then you turn a corner and are blindsided by a new attack. Some days my heart is full of faith and others my heart is just broken. 

When my surroundings begin to suffocate me, when the night brings no sleep, when my eyes are blurred with tears it is then that I must simply be held. I must hear my King tell me that He is for me, that no weapon formed against me will prosper and He is in control. He fights for me, He is my defense and if He is for me who can be against me? 

Oh how I need to be held. To feel the warmth of my Father wrapped around me like a warm blanket. To hear His heartbeat and be filled with the peace it brings. To sit and be held, to let the tears fall, with no words to speak, He knows. He knows my heart. He knows how I hurt, He knows my fears, He knows and understands my confusion. 

When I don't even know what I'm feeling, He knows. 

In the midst of this battle I won't give in. What God has for me is worth fighting for. Don't be fooled by the tears, my resolve is set. I want all that God has for me and my family and I will not give in to the taunts of the enemy. I will not listen to the jeering and lies. Rather I will lift my voice and sing to the One who has declared that vengeance is His. Through it all I will continue to praise Him. I will not be silent. And when it is necessary I will crawl up on my Savior's lap and allow Him to heal my brokenness, restore my strength, give me wisdom and ready me for war.

I am forever His and His is eternally mine.

To Embrace a Porcupine

I was watching "My Friends Tigger and Pooh" this afternoon, if you've never seen it, it's very cute. On this episode the character Porcupine had a pen pal, the pen pal wrote saying he was coming to visit and couldn't wait to give Porcupine a hug. This was a horrible thing for Porcupine because, well, being a porcupine she wasn't very huggable. Poor Porcupine tried to find a way to make herself huggable but found nothing. At last she decides that it would be better to simply not meet her pen pal rather than deal with the embarrassment of her quills. 

How many of us are just like Porcupine? We hear about Jesus and want to know Him more intimately, we want to let Him hug us, if you will, but we're too ashamed of who we are. We try to pray a little more, go to church every week, join bible studies, raise our hands in worship, you name it, if we think it'll make us more acceptable to God, we try it. But those things are not what God is looking for or at. 

"Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." 1 Samuel 16:7

You see, none of those things matter if our hearts are not right before Him. We could go to church every week and still not know the Lover of our soul. God longs for so much more than a superficial relationship with us. Those things may look good on the outside, people may think you are the greatest God-lover that ever lived, but it's what's in our heart that matters. 

At the moment what's in our hearts may be ugly, broken, dark and wounded and that's ok. God still wants our heart. You may think your heart is unrepairable, hard as a rock, impenatrable, God still wants your heart. There is no sin, no hurt, no damage beyond the grasp of our Father's merciful, healing touch. But we have to willingly surrender our hearts and give ourselves over to Him - brokenness and all. 

When Porcupine's pen pal showed up everyone was surprised, relieved and joyous to discover that he was a turtle.

You see, what Porcupine saw as a barrier between her and her dear friend turned out to really be nothing, her quills were no match for Turtle's shell. And likewise, whatever we see as a barrier between us and our Savior is truly no match for His cleansing blood and redeeming love. 

So don't run and hide, rather seek Him, go after Him with all your heart (yes, all your heart) and He will be found with open arms and you will never regret it.

 

Tear Down the Barn

I'm sure we aren't, but I certainly feel like we live in a suburb of the middle of nowhere. We aren't exactly in the heart of nowhereville but just a short drive away. The other day we were driving home and I noticed several shabby old broken down barns in people's backyards. I thought to myself, "Why in the world don't people knock those ugly things down?". I asked my husband his thoughts and he figured it's just too costly to tear them down. 

Then I thought that as Christian's we have old barns hanging out in our backyards too. Broken, unusable, unsightly... um, yeah, that would describe my past pretty well. Without Jesus I am all those things. But I have Jesus and I am no longer those things, now I am whole, usable and precious in His sight. But I have an enemy who wants me to forever be looking out at my old barn and feeling guilty and unworthy of the abundant life Jesus died to give me.

As long as I keep the old barn of my life erected I will forever look out my window and be reminded of all I was and all I did. Now don't get me wrong, we need to remember where we came from so that we don't go back there again. We must never forget all the ways that God's grace and mercy were so richly poured out on our lives. However, some people live with monuments erected to the past. Their minds are full of thoughts like, "I don't deserve God's goodness. God can't bless me, I've done too much. I should be grateful just to be going to heaven." But that's not the life that God has for us nor that He wants for us.

Tearing down the barn is costly. It will cost us everything to throw away old mindsets and grab ahold of the truth of God's Word. We will have to completely give ourselves to Christ, wholly surrendered, wholly His. No room for broken down old barns. The grace of God does not count our past against us. He does not remind us of our sin. In fact the bible says He keeps no record of it. 

So let's tear down the barns of our past and in honor of the Lord plant a beautiful garden where we sow the seeds of His promises and love and His blessings bloom daily in our lives. A garden that when people drive by they stop to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and are drawn in by the aroma of His love and they themselves desire to plant a garden like ours. A garden where there is such an abundance of goodness that all who stop can freely take as many blooms as they wish because there is no shortage of God's goodness. 

I don't know about you but I would rather a garden in my backyard over a ratty old barn any day.

Sowing and reaping His goodness....

Warning!

I was just watching the news and they had live coverage of a small, twin-engine airplane that was going in for an emergency landing. Apparently an indicator light came on that alerted the pilot that there was a problem with the landing gear. The pilot then prepared for his landing and I was able to watch the whole thing happen.

Do you know that we have indicator lights as well? We do. We get warnings that something isn't right in our marriage, with our kids, with our job, at school, with our health. The key to averting disaster is recognizing the warnings and then jumping into action dealing with what we've been warned of. 

What would have happened if the pilot ignored his warning light, just glanced at it and then kept right on doing what he was doing?  Crash and burn baby, that's what would happen. It doesn't take an air force pilot to know, ignoring the warning is NOT the right thing to do, yet as Christians so many of us do this very thing. We act as though we don't even have a clue when there are red lights and warning bells going off in every direction.

The Holy Spirit is our indicator and we'd better know His voice so that when He speaks and warns us we recognize that it's Him. The Holy Spirit will warn us that we are about to make a poor decision. He will warn us that something is going on with our child and we need to get involved. He will warn us that our marriage is in need of TLC. He will warn us and then He will instruct us as to how to deal with the warning.

The pilot of the airplane knew exactly how to handle the problem that was on his hands. There was something wrong with the landing gear and I don't know much at all about flying planes, but I'm pretty sure that those wheels are pretty darn important to getting you back on the ground in one piece! This pilot knew what to do, why? Because he had studied and prepared himself for this moment.

We are to be studying and preparing ourselves for whatever comes up in life. We study the Word of God, hide it in our hearts and then when problems arise the Holy Spirit is faithful to bring to remembrance God's instructions. Whether it be, "be slow to speak and quick to listen" or "a gentle answer turns away wrath". How about "vengeance is mine says the Lord" or "pray for your enemies". Whatever the indicator light is warning us of, God has the plan for how to land safely. But we MUST be prepared. You cannot expect the Holy Spirit to remind you of God's Word if you haven't spent any time in it. 

I was really impressed with the pilot's ability to avert disaster, how much more does God help us do the same? He gives wisdom freely and holds back no good thing from His kids. So let's start studying our flight manual and spending time with our flight instructor so we can be prepared for whatever crisis may arise.

Fasten your seat belts because it is a bumpy ride!

 

All You Need is Love

In about a week, people all over the world will be declaring their love for one another. This will be done through the giving of gifts, flowers and candy, sending cards, writing poems, dedicating songs and numerous other heartfelt displays of affection. What a great thing, to focus on someone else and make sure that they are sure of your love for them. We all love to get Valentine's, don't we? And if you're like me, you love to give Valentine's just as much if not more than receiving them. I think we should celebrate Valentine's at least once a month - I mean really, once a year is not enough.

Why do we hold back expressing our love for one another? Yet we seem to have no problem with letting our displeasure be known. Why is it so easy to let the criticism fly out of our mouths but to pay a compliment is work? And we are the worst with our own family. Those that we share our lives with are the ones that we take for granted. We all do it. 


God is working on me and hopefully with me to change my ways. I need to walk in love so much more than I do. I need to be aware of my tone of voice and the words that I speak and the wounds they inflict or the healing they provide. I am made in my Lord and Savior's image and God is love, therefore, I am to abound in love. That is how He created me. It goes against my hard wiring to operate in anything but love. Why do you think angry and bitter people are so miserable? It's because we weren't created to be that way, we were created to love. 


The Holy Spirit is correcting and training me and I want to be a good student. So, for this special month of love I am giving myself a little homework. I encourage you to do the same. Here's the assignment... 

Show an expression of love to someone once a day for the rest of February. Hopefully this will go beyond saying "I love you" when you hang up the phone. Challenge yourself, get creative and find a way to show your love. It may be putting a note in your child's backpack, it may be baking cookies for your neighbor, it may be sending an actual snail-mail letter to a friend far away or down the street. 

Let me know what you're doing and how it goes. 


I don't know about you but I want to look like and act like Jesus and He is love, so the more loving I can be the more like Him I will be. 


Now get out there and show some love!

How's Your Monitor Working? Part 2

Yesterday I posted a little about the difference between floor monitors and in-ears. How we really need to be monitoring our voices, what we say and how we say it. Here's a little more on this comparison...

Floor monitors are in general, an easy and inexpensive solution whereas in-ears are costly. Most places use floor monitors instead of in-ears for these reasons, floor monitors are common, in-ears are not. So, as a Christian are we running our lives with floor monitors or in-ears?? You be the judge. 

Floor monitor - you share with others
In-ear - it's all your own

Is your faith your own or are you grabbing a hold of someone else's revelations and wisdom? Far too many Christians rely on other people's time with God and glean off of that instead of investing their own time in fostering a relationship with the Lord. For example, do you read more books about the bible then you spend time reading the actual bible? When something comes up in your life that needs prayer, do you immediately head to your nearest prayer warrior to pray for you or do you actually pray? Is the only time you spend praising and worshiping the Lord when the worship leader of your church is in front of you leading? It's great to learn from others, it's great to glean from others, it's even greater to know your Savior personally, intimately - He's a very personal God.



Floor monitor - what you hear is not necessarily up to you 
In-ear - it's all your own

Are you running with the crowd or are you set apart for the Lord's purposes? Many fall into the trap of social pressure. This may have seemed like an issue from high school, but I think we, as adults, should recognize the signs of it in our current lives. For example, are you a slave to the latest trends, whether it be movies, books, tv, fashion etc. Do you have to go see a movie the weekend it comes out or it drives you nuts? Can you not handle missing your favorite show? Are you constantly checking the latest happenings online, facebook, twitter etc.? These things in and of themselves are not bad, what causes a problem is when we become slaves to them. Once we can no longer maintain our blood-pressure at a safe level when the thought of missing our show comes up, that could be a clue that you are no longer in control, rather society is controlling you.



Floor monitor - creates a lot of "stage noise" making it hard for others to hear 
In-ear - it's in your ear, no one else is hearing it

Are you someone who never stops talking? Do you make a lot of "noise"? Do you have to comment on everything? Or are you someone who chooses their words wisely and when you speak people listen. I, by my own admission, am a very opinionated person and am working very hard at learning to keep my mouth shut and listen to the Lord and follow His prompting as to when to speak and what to say. It's not easy. My husband on the other hand is not so much a talker, as a result, when he does speak up, people listen to him, they listen and actually hear him. The bible said it, "be slow to speak".

Floor monitor - they are ugly on stage  
In-ear - no one sees them

I think that when God sees His kids walking around chasing after the things of the world, taking the wide road and being poor examples of Jesus, He is not pleased. I believe that when we are less than what God calls us to be we are unable to be the light and glory that God designed us to be. Have you ever seen a girl/woman walking around with way too much make up on? When you see her what do you think? I'll tell you what I think, I think it's a shame that she is destroying her natural G0d-given beauty. The excess make-up covers her beauty and makes her "ugly". In an attempt to make herself beautiful she actually creates the opposite affect. As Christians, I think we, many times, do the same. In an attempt to fit in, be noticed, be special, we mar ourselves and diminish the gifts, abilities and inherent beauty God has blessed us with.



Floor monitor - less expensive  
In-ear - more expensive

^{In the book of Matthew the bible says}
  "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."  

Being a follower of Christ is not easy, it is costly. It may cost you your friends, family, job, money, dignity, pride and more. If it's not costing you anything you should re-evaluate where you're at in your walk with Christ. Knowing the Creator of the universe in a personal, intimate and real way is a rare and precious gem, in earthly terms it would be the finest diamond and we all know that diamonds are not cheap, in fact they are expensive, but what girl doesn't want a beautiful diamond on her hand? I've never heard a woman say that the diamond wasn't worth the price, and I promise that you will never say the relationship with God isn't worth the price. 


So, there's my rough and tumble comparison of the Christian life in terms of monitors. Silly I know, but that's how my brain works. I guess when it all boils down, I really don't want a floor monitor, now that I've had an in-ear, I don't want to go back. And the same could be said of intimacy with Jesus. Before I knew what it was like to talk with Him and hear from Him and know Him, I was satisfied with what everyone else told me about Him, but now that I know, I never want to rely on anyone else again.  

So what are you using in life? Floor monitors or in-ears? The choice is completely up to you.