Tag Archives: faith

Blindness was comfortable


Wow! David Platt knows where to hit and exactly how hard to punch.

Chapter 6- HOW MUCH IS ENOUGH? American wealth and a world of poverty

David talks about all of us having blind spots- areas that need to be discovered so we can fix them and live like Jesus calls us to. Most of the time, we don’t realize they exist, even when someone points them out to us. “Part of our sinful nature instinctively chooses to see what we want to see and to ignore what we want to ignore.” Pg 108

Mark 10:21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” Jesus saw the rich mans blind spot, and that was his love of possessions. So He called him out on it.
So, then, what if he told you and me to sell everything we have? What if he told us to sell our houses for simpler living arrangements? What if he told us to sell our cars for more modest ones- or for no cars at all? What if he told us to give away all but a couple of sets of clothes? What if he told us to empty the savings account we have been building for years if not decades? What if he told us to change our lifestyles completely? Pg 121
What if??

I’m thinking. We have a nice house, but I’ve been longing for a nicer one. I tell myself we NEED another bedroom so the boys don’t have to share. What I’m blind to is the blessing of a roof over our heads, running water, and heat in the winter. I am blessed. As a family we have two vehicles to drive. I have excess, and wants, and months where we are stretched. What do I do with that? I go on, blind to much. Where do I go from here? I’m still wrestling with that, so I’ll just leave you with a few quotes that I highlighted from chapter 6.

“I wonder at some points if I’m being irresponsible or unwise. But then I realize there is never going to come a day when I stand before God and he looks at me and says, `I wish you would have kept more for yourself.` I’m confident that God will take care of me.” Pg 123

“We sell them and give them away because Christ in us compels us to care for the needy around us.” Pg 126

“Why not begin operating under the idea that God has given us excess, not so we could have more, but so we could give more?” Pg 127

“The way we use our money is an indicator of our eternal destination.” Pg 138

This is me, still struggling. Wrestling with myself hopefully, and not Jesus. Trying to figure it all out.
For more insights on chapter 6, go visit Marla.

The end of me

Radical-chapter 3

The American Dream says we can accomplish anything we set our minds to. High paying career, fancy house, model kids, and happiness are at our fingertips if we believe in ourselves. The gospel actually calls us to die to ourselves and believe in God. We can do nothing apart from God!
“The American dream has a goal to make much of us, whereas the goal of the gospel is to make much of God.” We live in a me world, self-centered, self-pleasing, egotistical, sin filled world. Would it be this way if we were seeking God more? God actually “delights in exalting our inability. He intentionally puts his people in situations where they come face to face with their need for him.” (pg 47) Wow! I admit that often times when He places me in those situations, I choose the wrong response. It’s that free will that gets me every time, and that goes right back to the center of me. I over analyze and make things all about me, trying to see all sides of any given situation, and take God out of the picture completely. I’m making Him small, and myself big. O Jesus, please forgive me! I don’t give You credit, nor do I seek You for wisdom. I’ve had seasons of spirit filled days, and then walked away when the going got rough. When I should’ve sought You harder.
David talks about the book of Acts, and how the church is different from modern day churches. Acts 1:14 tells us how they were joined together constantly in prayer. Instead of relying on themselves, they were pleading for the power of God, knowing that they can do nothing without His provision. Acts 4:13 says “when they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.” (pg. 51) Did you catch that? They took note that they had been with Jesus. I want people to hear me talk and know that I have been with Jesus!! How can I do that? By being in His Word daily, a healthy prayer life, expressing my need for Him daily, and letting the Holy Spirit and His power reside in me.
“God, I know you are busy running the universe and keeping all of creation alive, but I have this problem in my life. And, God, I don’t really want comfort for the moment, and I don’t really want guidance for the moment. Would you… would you just come down, live in me, and walk through this for me?”(pg 58)
He gives us all the power we need to accomplish anything in this Kingdom. I want to desperately seek Him for that power, and use it to glorify Him. So this is the end of me as I know it. Changes need to happen in me and my heart, and they need to be radical. I’m listening God. Show me the way. I am Yours to do with what You want. Use me. Even as I type this, satan is whispering in my ear, telling me I am not strong enough. My weaknesses are too great. But that’s OK satan, I don’t have to be strong enough by myself. I have Jesus, ready to give me His power. The same power that is victorious over you.
To read more about Radical, visit Marla.

Radical-Chapter 2


David begins by telling of the underground house churches who couldn’t get enough of the Word. They studied for hours on end, and still they hungered for more. These people were risking their lives to attend these meetings, and leaving their farms unattended, but they continued to meet and study.
Is His Word enough for me? Do I hunger for it regardless of my circumstances?
We like to think of God as a loving Father, but He is also a wrathful judge who hates sinners. I’m a sinner, so that is hard to chew! ” He demands more than I give.
“We are each born with an evil, God hating heart. In our evil we rebel against God. Everything in all creation responds in obedience to the Creator, but we have the audacity to look God in the face and say NO.” (pg 30 & 31) Would I choose to say no if Jesus were physically standing in front of me??
Often times we don’t like what we see in the bible, so we change it to make it more acceptible to our beliefs. We take all the power away from God and place it on ourselves with the New Age beliefs that our positive thoughts can change our situations. What we really need is unconditional surrender of all that we are and all that we have to all that He is.
I admit that I desperately, daily, need His grace. He gives me that through the Holy Spirit, and renews my heart. It involves a hunger for God. A need for Him. “We want Him so much that we abandon everything else to experience Him.”
Create in me a clean heart O God, one that is only satisfied by your Word. Change me and make me into a Radical Disciple for You.
You can find more Radical responses here.

Radical-chapter one

Someone Worth Losing Everything For
Jesus took the few who believed him when he said radical things, and turned the course of history in a new direction through radical obedience. What am I radically obedient to? If Jesus came to me today and told me to pick up and leave my family to follow Him, would I? Author David Platt talks about his fear of pastoring a modern day megachurch, where success is measured by the size of your crowd, building, and budget. Faced with the realization that Jesus spurned what his church culture said was most important, he asked himself two questions.
1. Am I going to believe Jesus?
2. Am I going to obey Jesus?
We can choose to believe and obey Jesus, to find true satisfaction that only comes from radical abandonment to Jesus. The central message of Christianity is about abandoning ourselves. Abandon our comforts, and all that is familiar and natural to us. Would I still proclaim to be a Christian if I had to attend an underground church without a place to sit or cool air in the summer? If I knew I was risking my life to study the bible, but my hunger for His word was so strong that I didn’t care?

“The cost of discipleship is great. But I wonder if the cost of nondiscipleship is even greater.”
So in answer to the two questions above, I commit to believe whatever Jesus says. I will say yes to the words of Jesus before I even hear them. I commit to obey what I hear. And that my friends, honestly scares me. Scares me a lot, but I need to be on this journey! For more responses to this book, hop on over here.

Radical

A few weeks ago I happened on a blog about the book by David Platt called Radical, taking back your faith from the american dream. I quickly ran to my local Christian book store and they were sold out, so I downloaded it on my Nook. Quickly noted that I was taking lots of notes and wanted to hold the actual book in one hand with a highlighter in the other. So I went to another Christian book store and found a large display! Yeah, it’s that good.
Tomorrow I will be posting about Chapter 3, along with 1 & 2 as it seems satan is upset that I’m reading this book, and every time I tried to post from home the internet wasn’t working. It became funny when everyone else could get online, but not me. Ha! satan, I will win this, because Jesus has already won the battle!!
Anyway, I digress.. go on out and buy the book, then join in on the discussions at Marla’s blog.

The Christian Atheist

Sunday’s sermon was so powerful and convicting. It was one of those fire and brimstone, digs down deep into the matters of your heart kind. I was moved, convicted, and repentant. I hardly wrote anything down on my outline, afraid to look down at the page for fear that I would miss something. Have you ever experienced that? It was GOOD! So good, that I have to share it. It won’t be as good, since I’m not Pastor Scott, but you’ll get the gist of it.

He starts out with this statement. I believe in God, but I don’t fear Him.

Yes, God is good, we have heard that. But God is also a just God, mighty, omniscient, omnipotent, fierce, jealous, terrifying, cunning God too. Do you fear Him? He holds your eternity in His hands. Fear Him now? Noah did. If God asked me to build an ark today, would I start the project or ask lots of questions? Abraham feared God, and was obedient. He was willing to sacrifice his son, and God stopped him when He saw that obedience. He later sacrificed His own Son. Do you fear Him?

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God–having a form of godliness but denying its power. 2Timothy 3:1-5 (NIV) Wow! What a powerful passage that clearly describes things we can relate to as seeing in ourselves or someone we know. You’re calling me out now, and I can feel the heat! I’ll just go through some of them that were screaming at me from the page.   Forgiveness is a big struggle for me, and I wrestle with God many times before I can finally let go and give Him control of it. So that one jumped out at me. I don’t really think of myself as an ungrateful person, but I know that at times I ask for His blessing and He never receives a Thank you. That is ungrateful! And here is the big one, the one monster in my closet if you will. A couple weeks ago at the race track, my son was getting some bad calls. In the grand scheme of life, I know that it’s no big deal. But that Friday night it was. I lacked self-control and acted in an unholy manner. I knew it at the time the words came out of my mouth, but I was so angry, and had let satan grab hold so tightly, that I could not stop. Physically, I could not stop. I was sorry that I yelled at that corner worker that way, and ashamed of my behavior. I apologized to the people around me, and deleted the video that I was recording. Yeah, I was that bad. I had my younger son right beside me, and apologized to him, saying that mommy should not have said those things. Over and over I apologized, but I never let go of it. I never felt released from it. It was ugly!

Sin whispers to the wicked, deep within their hearts. They have no fear of God at all. In their blind conceit, they cannot see how wicked they really are. Psalm 36:1-2 (NLT)

When you fear God, you will serve Him wholeheartedly without any conditions. I’ll serve You Lord, but don’t ask me to give anything up. I’ll take Your blessings, but don’t expect me to be thankful or use them the way You want me to. We make God into our image, and that’s not what Abraham did. We need to be fully committed. For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the eart to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. 2Chron. 16:9 (NIV)

Fear of God is reverent Awe. Experience Divine Wow.

When you fear God, you will be forever ruined. You will never be the same again. Your priorities will change. He will bring you to the end of yourself. God will convict you, He will appear to you, and heal you. The power of God restores and renews us.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, hight and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”  Isaiah 6:1-8 (NIV)

So at the end, there was an altar call while the worship band was playing. The prayer benches were up front, and we were encouraged to use them if we felt the need. Of course, I felt the need. The whole incident at the track had not left the forefront of my mind, I had unclean lips. Let me tell you that I knelt at that prayer bench and felt God’s love on me. It washed over me. I cried, I repented and asked for forgiveness, and received healing and love. My guilt was taken away and my sin atoned for. I don’t want to be a Christian Atheist. I don’t want to be one of those Christians that non Christ followers point to and call a hypocrite. I want to be a light. A good example to others, especially my kids.



Love is a choice

I love my husband.  I do!  But life seems to happen and we get busy with the kids and neglect to spend “quality time” with each other as a couple.  Friday night we changed that.  Our church hosted an event called Married Life Live and it was awesome!  Laughter, tears, kissing, hand holding, goofy, and totally what we needed.  Our homework is to continue on with a date night for the next 6 months.  We are going to take that time for us, because it will strengthen our family as well.

Another amazing thing happened at our church yesterday.  Pastor Scott concluded his sermon series on marriage by calling all the husbands in the room to go to the back and pick a red carnation for their wife, present it to her and lead her by the arm to the front of the church.  We stood at the front with LOTS of other married couples, and he told us to look into each others eyes and maybe talk about what we did when we lit our unity candle on our wedding day, while someone sang.  I can’t even remember what the song was because I was crying!!!  After the song, and it was wonderful, I do remember that, Pastor Scott led us all in a marriage vow renewal!

I have had the best weekend!  For those of you that have read Jay and Laura’s  book, He said, She said…..the “conversation” was great too!!

Loneliness

God has given us so many promises that will encourage you if you are feeling lonely.  Just pick up the bible and spend some time with His word.  You are never alone.  I want to share some verses with you.

Joshua 1:9 “Don’t be afraid, because the Lord your God will be with you everywhere you go.”
Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifice God wants is a broken spirit.  God, you will not reject a heart that is broken and sorry for sin.”
John 14:18 “I will not leave you all alone like orphans; I will come back to you.”
John 15:18-19 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first.  If you belonged to the world, it would love you as it loves its own.  But I have chosen you out of the world, so you don’t belong to it.  That is why the world hates you.”
Psalm 94:14 “The Lord won’t leave his people nor give up his children.”
Psalm 9:10 “Those who know the Lord trust Him, because He will not leave those who come to Him.”
Hebrews 13:5 “God has said, ‘I will never leave you; I will never abandon you.'”
Isaiah 43:2-3 “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.  When you cross rivers, you will not drown.  When you walk through fire, you will not be burned, nor will the flames hurt you.  This is because I, the Lord, am your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. ”

God’s promises are true.  He stands at the door and knocks, waiting for us to let Him in.

“Moore” Monday

AS LONG AS THE SUN COMES
UP IN THE MORNING, GOD
WILL KEEP OFFERING TO
DELIVER HIS CHILDREN.

Lord, God, just as Your children the Israelites
were chosen out of all the peoples on the
face of the earth to be Your people, Your
treasured possession, I believe that we, the body of
Christ, have been too.
You did not set Your affection on Your
children and choose us because we were more 
numerous than other peoples.  It was because 
You loved us that You redeemed us from
slavery and from the power of the enemy.
Help me to know with certainty that You,
the Lord my God, are indeed God–the
faithful God, keeping Your covenant of love to
a thousand generations of those who love You 
and keep Your commands (Deut. 7:6-9).

Beth Moore, Praying God’s Word Day by Day 

 

How to know where Grace lives

The following excerpt is by Angela Thomas Guffey, from her book Tender Mercy for a Mother’s Soul.

  • All the neighborhood kids want to hang out at the house where grace lives.
  • There is always enough for one more where grace lives…one more for dinner…one more to sleep over…one more hug or kiss.
  • You can see people dancing where grace lives.
  • You can hear things like “please forgive me, I was wrong…  You are my treasure…”
  • The eyes of the children where grace lives shine with joy and anticipation.  They have not been wounded by impossible expectations.  They have not been distanced by rejection.  They have been embraced and accepted and loved.
  • The moms at the house where grace lives are just regular, everyday moms, but God lives inside them.  By His power, they are becoming holy and righteous and good.  They stumble but recover quickly.  They make mistakes but say, “I’m sorry.”  They get blown by the winds of heartache and adversity, but their hearts remain tender toward God.