This morning God just kinda hit me with this thought... My life, is completely beautiful. This journey I am on, is a beautiful journey. It is a journey where living with people, living in biblical community, learning to love people in a way I never have before, falling more in love with God each day, learning how to deal with things in the midst of always being around people....is so beautiful. Not everyone has this. And I feel like I have been taking it all for granted so far. I havent been seeing the privelage of living this way. The perks of living this way, the blessings of living this way. and God kinda opened my eyes this morning.
It helps that He has been teaching me about having a grateful heart. And He has been in the process of softening my heart a lot. and with that, comes a grateful heart. the ability to see things the way God does. To see the blessings, and appreciate them. To see the people, and love them. To see all that God has done, is doing, and will continue to do, and feeling like you are living the life He has for you and loving it.
It is a beautiful thing.
"Enter His gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. give thanks to him and priase his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations." Psalm 100:4-5
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
God's Love
My heart feels very fragile right now. And I know that it is God completely transforming my heart and making it His own. Which is very needed.
One thing that in the last couple days God has kinda spoken to me about, and that my heart is just crying out for...(which there is a lot..but this is just a piece!) is to speak and boast in His Love. It just kind of hit me...that I tend not to focus on God's love a whole lot. I tend to not actually talk about God's love for me, and for His people, to His people. Which as a believer and lover of Jesus Christ, this is not very good. And with God softening my heart and molding it, this is something that He is just pouring into me. I just need courage and boldness from His Spirit to walk in His love, to boast in His love, and to have it as my focus.
I want to encourage. I want to speak Love. I want to live Loved.
"...for our of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks."
Matthew 12: 34
If my heart is overflowing with the Love of God, the words that come out of my mouth will be honoring to God. This is one of the desires of my heart.
P.S.
I really like God's word. Like, a lot!
One thing that in the last couple days God has kinda spoken to me about, and that my heart is just crying out for...(which there is a lot..but this is just a piece!) is to speak and boast in His Love. It just kind of hit me...that I tend not to focus on God's love a whole lot. I tend to not actually talk about God's love for me, and for His people, to His people. Which as a believer and lover of Jesus Christ, this is not very good. And with God softening my heart and molding it, this is something that He is just pouring into me. I just need courage and boldness from His Spirit to walk in His love, to boast in His love, and to have it as my focus.
I want to encourage. I want to speak Love. I want to live Loved.
"...for our of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks."
Matthew 12: 34
If my heart is overflowing with the Love of God, the words that come out of my mouth will be honoring to God. This is one of the desires of my heart.
P.S.
I really like God's word. Like, a lot!
Monday, January 18, 2010
Just a snippet
Seeking God:
One thing I am praying right now that I learn, and that I am in the midst of learning and forever will be learning I feel because there is so much to learn on this one subject! let alone so many others!!
So here are my thoughts:
Seeking God is and should be the center of our actions, our attitudes, our thoughts...
All through our lives we will either be seeking God, or we won't be seeking God. About every story in the Bible, in its essence, whether it was meant to be shown or not, is about whether the people are seeking God, or not seeking God. When we seek God, we are fixing our eyes on Jesus, on God's ways, His Holiness and power and forgetting ourselves.
There are so many verses in the bible, on seeking God.
a few are:
Luke 11:9 "So i say to you: Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and you will find knock and the door will be opened to you." Are you seeking God like you would search for a hidden treasure?!?!
John 15:7 "If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you." Keep your focus on God, keep His words and His statutes in your heart and mind and seek Him and you will find and receive what it is you desire and long for IN HIM!
Right now i am reading Fearless by Max Lucado and this is an excerpt from the book.
"Seek first the kingdom of wealth, and you'll worry over every dollar. Seek first the kingdom of health, and you'll sweat every blemish and bump. Seek first the kingdom of popularity and you'll relive every conflict. Seek first the kingdom of safety, and you'll jump at every crack of the twig. But seek first his kingdom, and you will find it. On that, we can depend and never worry."
We will always be seeking something, whether we are aware of this or not. So my prayer is that we are aware of what it is we are seeking. and that we are seeking God in all things. and submitting ourselves to His ways and to never stop seeking Him.
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:33
One thing I am praying right now that I learn, and that I am in the midst of learning and forever will be learning I feel because there is so much to learn on this one subject! let alone so many others!!
So here are my thoughts:
Seeking God is and should be the center of our actions, our attitudes, our thoughts...
All through our lives we will either be seeking God, or we won't be seeking God. About every story in the Bible, in its essence, whether it was meant to be shown or not, is about whether the people are seeking God, or not seeking God. When we seek God, we are fixing our eyes on Jesus, on God's ways, His Holiness and power and forgetting ourselves.
There are so many verses in the bible, on seeking God.
a few are:
Luke 11:9 "So i say to you: Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and you will find knock and the door will be opened to you." Are you seeking God like you would search for a hidden treasure?!?!
John 15:7 "If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you." Keep your focus on God, keep His words and His statutes in your heart and mind and seek Him and you will find and receive what it is you desire and long for IN HIM!
Right now i am reading Fearless by Max Lucado and this is an excerpt from the book.
"Seek first the kingdom of wealth, and you'll worry over every dollar. Seek first the kingdom of health, and you'll sweat every blemish and bump. Seek first the kingdom of popularity and you'll relive every conflict. Seek first the kingdom of safety, and you'll jump at every crack of the twig. But seek first his kingdom, and you will find it. On that, we can depend and never worry."
We will always be seeking something, whether we are aware of this or not. So my prayer is that we are aware of what it is we are seeking. and that we are seeking God in all things. and submitting ourselves to His ways and to never stop seeking Him.
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:33
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
A call to Unity among God's People
I love reading books about people's lives. I love reading the Bible about peoples lives and Jesus' life. I love learning. like, LOVE learning(that is, if its something i want to learn about!) and I'm realizing that I need to spend soo much more time learning and studying God's word.
As well as just reading. and learning from other people who have experienced God in their lives.
So for the past like year (yes i read like 5 books at once which then takes me forever to finish) i have been reading The Heavenly Man. I picked it up again yesterday, and read for about 2-3 hours. I love this book. I highly suggest it to ALL OF YOU! It's about this man, Yun, and His life and His desire and longing and love for God. He is in prison for a lot of His life. He fasted for 74 days in prison, was humiliated and tortured beyond anything we here in America can even imagine. and yet amidst it all, He stayed faithful to Jesus. He remembered Jesus' sufferings, and He had joy. He reached thousands of inmates and guards in these Chinese prisons. God's story through Him is incredible, and scriptures that He recited just come alive in a new way.
But at one time in his life, He is out of prison and is working with all the house churches in China. He is realizing that so many of them are not unified. They are not the way they used to be where they all relied on God and all sought God. Now, they were all starting to believe different theologies, and not being willing to work with other believers because they believed in different things (like women preaching, or different denominations). they were being separated because of all the resources and influence of other people's beliefs. they were taking their eyes off of God and onto themselves. They were zealous for God, but not in the right knowledge of God.
For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Romans 10:2
Yun noticed this, and vowed that it had to change. That it was not biblical. It was not the way Jesus lived. Yun sought out people, and prayed to God earnestly for this. For unity among the hosue churches and people. He started discipling the people in his own church. He reached out to other leaders in other churches that he knew, and soon enough they all were broken and realized that their eyes needed to be on Jesus and not on all the different types of beliefs. But on one belief, and that belief being Jesus Christ!
God put this on Brother Yun's heart in 1994. and He hasn't stopped with him or in China. Ever since JEsus' life and the church of Acts. God has been calling His children to be unified. We just so often miss it. We are to fixed on ourselves. or what other people are telling us. We have so many resources out there in the Christian world, telling us what's right and what's wrong in the church. all these different beliefs on how to live for Jesus. But what happened to just simply believing and living the word of God!?! We are all called to be unified. To be a community. To love each other. Why are we so focused on ourselves?! and so focused on other people believing differently than us?! If we all believe in the same God, same Jesus, we are one. We can settle the differences, rather then let them turn into bitterness. There is love.
Unity keeps love and keeps the focus on One being.
My prayer is that all our eyes are opened, and that we choose to love and to be united and that "our hearts will be conquered by God's love!"
"They found that their theological differences centered upon issues that weren't essential to the faith." Brother Yun.
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. Acts 4:32
As well as just reading. and learning from other people who have experienced God in their lives.
So for the past like year (yes i read like 5 books at once which then takes me forever to finish) i have been reading The Heavenly Man. I picked it up again yesterday, and read for about 2-3 hours. I love this book. I highly suggest it to ALL OF YOU! It's about this man, Yun, and His life and His desire and longing and love for God. He is in prison for a lot of His life. He fasted for 74 days in prison, was humiliated and tortured beyond anything we here in America can even imagine. and yet amidst it all, He stayed faithful to Jesus. He remembered Jesus' sufferings, and He had joy. He reached thousands of inmates and guards in these Chinese prisons. God's story through Him is incredible, and scriptures that He recited just come alive in a new way.
But at one time in his life, He is out of prison and is working with all the house churches in China. He is realizing that so many of them are not unified. They are not the way they used to be where they all relied on God and all sought God. Now, they were all starting to believe different theologies, and not being willing to work with other believers because they believed in different things (like women preaching, or different denominations). they were being separated because of all the resources and influence of other people's beliefs. they were taking their eyes off of God and onto themselves. They were zealous for God, but not in the right knowledge of God.
For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Romans 10:2
Yun noticed this, and vowed that it had to change. That it was not biblical. It was not the way Jesus lived. Yun sought out people, and prayed to God earnestly for this. For unity among the hosue churches and people. He started discipling the people in his own church. He reached out to other leaders in other churches that he knew, and soon enough they all were broken and realized that their eyes needed to be on Jesus and not on all the different types of beliefs. But on one belief, and that belief being Jesus Christ!
God put this on Brother Yun's heart in 1994. and He hasn't stopped with him or in China. Ever since JEsus' life and the church of Acts. God has been calling His children to be unified. We just so often miss it. We are to fixed on ourselves. or what other people are telling us. We have so many resources out there in the Christian world, telling us what's right and what's wrong in the church. all these different beliefs on how to live for Jesus. But what happened to just simply believing and living the word of God!?! We are all called to be unified. To be a community. To love each other. Why are we so focused on ourselves?! and so focused on other people believing differently than us?! If we all believe in the same God, same Jesus, we are one. We can settle the differences, rather then let them turn into bitterness. There is love.
Unity keeps love and keeps the focus on One being.
My prayer is that all our eyes are opened, and that we choose to love and to be united and that "our hearts will be conquered by God's love!"
"They found that their theological differences centered upon issues that weren't essential to the faith." Brother Yun.
All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. Acts 4:32
Monday, December 14, 2009
Amazing Grace
God has been teaching me a lot about His Grace within this past month, and most recently He has kinda pointed His grace out to me once again.
Just this past week I was finding life a little complacent...i tend to get bored with life and myself if change is not occuring in my life. I thrive off of change and new things in life for the most part. But what I want to share is this:
Sometimes, I really wish we could show God our love for Him and serve Him in our own strength. But this my friends, is impossible, as I am learning. There is nothing good in me. No strength in me to live a godly life. I NEED God's Spirit to guide me. To help me to love Him better. To serve my Savior and to liv a life of love. I cannot do it on my own. I will always fail if I try. So this past week God has really shown me (once again) how weak I am, and how strong He is. Also that IT IS OKAY to need Him to love Him. He actually really likes it that way. It keeps us remembering who He is, and who we are! Having that reverence for a Holy God whom we cannot live without!
2 Corinthians 12:10
For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Just this past week I was finding life a little complacent...i tend to get bored with life and myself if change is not occuring in my life. I thrive off of change and new things in life for the most part. But what I want to share is this:
Sometimes, I really wish we could show God our love for Him and serve Him in our own strength. But this my friends, is impossible, as I am learning. There is nothing good in me. No strength in me to live a godly life. I NEED God's Spirit to guide me. To help me to love Him better. To serve my Savior and to liv a life of love. I cannot do it on my own. I will always fail if I try. So this past week God has really shown me (once again) how weak I am, and how strong He is. Also that IT IS OKAY to need Him to love Him. He actually really likes it that way. It keeps us remembering who He is, and who we are! Having that reverence for a Holy God whom we cannot live without!
2 Corinthians 12:10
For the sake of Christ then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Monday, November 30, 2009
When God lays something on your heart...
"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 perserverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
Hebrews 12:1-2
In times of corporate worship, God tends to lay things on my heart for everyone in the room. And the one thing that I just can't get out of my mind and that is on my heart...is this verse. and the importance of it.
I believe that we all, hold onto things. whether we realize we are holding onto something or not, we are. We like how people make us feel, we like being with others, we like being loved, and there's so much more. spiritually we like to stay complacent. we like to hold onto pride, or our gifts. the list goes on...we can and do hold onto anything and everything.
by holding onto things, our eyes are not fixed on Jesus. and it hinders us. when our eyes are off of Jesus, we are blinded. this happens all to often in my own life.
I strongly feel like God just wants us to examine ourselves. To SEEK HIM and Him alone. not other people. not emotions. not ourselves. but HIM. I strongly feel like God wants us to see what we are holding onto, and to just let it go. To be RAW with God. To not count on anything, but Him alone. Just let go. Stop holding on.
Holding on ruins you. Holding on strips you of who you are meant to be. Our hearts are a precious and delicate thing. Guard it. Protect it. Examine it. and Let God mend it. Let God have it wholly.
Don't count on others. Count on God. Seek God. not others. Hold onto Jesus, and nothing or anybody else. Nobody or anything comes close to doing for you what God can and desires to do for you.
Hebrews 12:1-2
Seek God. Examine your eyes, your attitude, your viewpoint, your heart.
Hebrews 12:1-2
In times of corporate worship, God tends to lay things on my heart for everyone in the room. And the one thing that I just can't get out of my mind and that is on my heart...is this verse. and the importance of it.
I believe that we all, hold onto things. whether we realize we are holding onto something or not, we are. We like how people make us feel, we like being with others, we like being loved, and there's so much more. spiritually we like to stay complacent. we like to hold onto pride, or our gifts. the list goes on...we can and do hold onto anything and everything.
by holding onto things, our eyes are not fixed on Jesus. and it hinders us. when our eyes are off of Jesus, we are blinded. this happens all to often in my own life.
I strongly feel like God just wants us to examine ourselves. To SEEK HIM and Him alone. not other people. not emotions. not ourselves. but HIM. I strongly feel like God wants us to see what we are holding onto, and to just let it go. To be RAW with God. To not count on anything, but Him alone. Just let go. Stop holding on.
Holding on ruins you. Holding on strips you of who you are meant to be. Our hearts are a precious and delicate thing. Guard it. Protect it. Examine it. and Let God mend it. Let God have it wholly.
Don't count on others. Count on God. Seek God. not others. Hold onto Jesus, and nothing or anybody else. Nobody or anything comes close to doing for you what God can and desires to do for you.
Hebrews 12:1-2
Seek God. Examine your eyes, your attitude, your viewpoint, your heart.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Time with Jesus.
I am learning a whole lot right now. Especially about myself. But right now what I feel like sharing...is just how much love God has for us.
God has been teaching me about prayer and time with Him lately. and is continueign to teach me. which im very thankful for! I love being taught. But one thing that this morning, and that I'm just being shown right now by God. Is that, we don't HAVE to have our times with Him scheduled. they don't have to be perfect. All that He really cares about, is that we make the time to spend with Him. is that we INVITE Him into our day and into times when it's just us. or even with other people. I am a HUGE believer in time spent alone with God. I personally need a whole lot of it. But i also tend to lack in actually taking the time. I tend to get distracted by too many things..especially tiredness.
But back to the point! Im learning that even when I'm just sitting at my computer, with music on, talking to people, or doing whatever I am doing on the interweb or facebook. Whatever my intentions are. That even here, on my computer...I can embrace God's love and grace for me.
I am learning that i dont have to have a set time of prayer. I just need to take the time. Iv learned I can shower in the mornings before I pray so that I am more awake! I learned i don't have to take the whole hour i set aside for prayer somedays. I learned that i can pray while I am journaling. As im turning my lights out to go to bed. As I'm waking up in the mornings. Ive learned that I can just sit on my floor for ten minutes and that be my prayer time.
Prayer, and time with our Creator comes in more ways than we can even think of. It's jsut a matter of, are we taking that time?! Even if its only 5 minutes of pure aloneness w God one day.
He is with us all the time. He desires for us to invite Him into our lives and into our daily activities. and also to take time out for Him. to just BE with Him and ENJOY Him. its not so much about rules, and about exactly how much time we spend, whether we go short or go longer...its jsut that we are with Him. period. its okay!
He is showing me...that things in my life, how I am...its all just okay! Because of His grace! His love.
and so He continues to teach....
God has been teaching me about prayer and time with Him lately. and is continueign to teach me. which im very thankful for! I love being taught. But one thing that this morning, and that I'm just being shown right now by God. Is that, we don't HAVE to have our times with Him scheduled. they don't have to be perfect. All that He really cares about, is that we make the time to spend with Him. is that we INVITE Him into our day and into times when it's just us. or even with other people. I am a HUGE believer in time spent alone with God. I personally need a whole lot of it. But i also tend to lack in actually taking the time. I tend to get distracted by too many things..especially tiredness.
But back to the point! Im learning that even when I'm just sitting at my computer, with music on, talking to people, or doing whatever I am doing on the interweb or facebook. Whatever my intentions are. That even here, on my computer...I can embrace God's love and grace for me.
I am learning that i dont have to have a set time of prayer. I just need to take the time. Iv learned I can shower in the mornings before I pray so that I am more awake! I learned i don't have to take the whole hour i set aside for prayer somedays. I learned that i can pray while I am journaling. As im turning my lights out to go to bed. As I'm waking up in the mornings. Ive learned that I can just sit on my floor for ten minutes and that be my prayer time.
Prayer, and time with our Creator comes in more ways than we can even think of. It's jsut a matter of, are we taking that time?! Even if its only 5 minutes of pure aloneness w God one day.
He is with us all the time. He desires for us to invite Him into our lives and into our daily activities. and also to take time out for Him. to just BE with Him and ENJOY Him. its not so much about rules, and about exactly how much time we spend, whether we go short or go longer...its jsut that we are with Him. period. its okay!
He is showing me...that things in my life, how I am...its all just okay! Because of His grace! His love.
and so He continues to teach....
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