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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.

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 

 

Thanksgiving letters Part 3

One of Zach’s best buddies wrote him a letter, and this is what it says. 

Dear Zach,

I’m glad I met you.  You’re my best friend.  I can also trust you.  Thanks for coming over.  You are really fun caus you like what I like.  You are very smart.  You also do what I want to do.  We like the same things.  And really funny.  And like to crash things.  Thank you.

Sincerely,

L

(Isn’t that the sweetest thing?  I need to call his mom and let her know how sweet he is!  I hope he wrote one for her too…)

My Monday

Brooke was sick and the doctor confirmed it was strep.  We went to Meijer because the antibiotic is free there, which I didn’t know.  It’s great that it’s free, but I’m pretty sure they put everyone else in front of you, because we were there for an hour.  It was crazy!  Smart on their part, because they more than made up for it with what I ended up spending to kill the time. 

Monday night was the 3rd of our Obedience classes for our dog Logan.  I have to go back and tell you about last week before I can share this week though.  Brian decided that I was the one who couldn’t control the dog, so I went to classes alone last week.  Everything was going well, and I handled the Yogi fascination, was even told I had made a good correction.  Things got hairy when the trainer said we were going to walk the dogs around the inside of the building.  Now it’s a small building, and there are lots of dogs going to be in our space, so this made me a little nervous.  Maybe Logan picked up on that, because he was nervous and agitated too.  He was paying attention to all the other dogs and not me, and then he went after Yogo, and then Maddy too.  The trainer took him from me and she started walking him, but he didn’t like that either.  In the end it all worked out well, and the other trainer had him sitting on the floor in front of Yogi with no problems, but I was totally stressed out when I got home.  To make matters worse, Brian said it never would have happened if he had been there.  So I was upset again.

Logan and I did our homework and were felling pretty confident when it came time to go to class this Monday.  Brian and the boys were making fun of us, trying to get me nervous.  I just kept saying that we were gonna rock the class.  On the way to class I said a little prayer for a positive bonding experience.  After that I felt better, and walked into class full of confidence.  We walked right by Yogi without a hitch.  I’ll admit when the trainer began talking about us doing a lot of walking, my heart rate jumped up.  Just when I calmed myself down, the trainer came over and said she was going to walk Logan for a few laps to see how he was going to do.  After a couple of laps, she gave him back to me and said he was doing fine.  We walked and walked until she said halt, then we would stop and he would sit and get a treat.  Then we started walking again.  God helped us through that class.  With every step I took, I was singing.  Yes Lord, Yes Lord, Yes Yes Lord, Yes Lord, Yes Lord,Yes Yes Lord Amen!  He even learned the Down command.  We rocked the class.  It felt really good to know I could do that, and to come home and be happy instead of frazzled like I was last week. 

Moral of the story, ask God to help you in anything and everything.  In my prayer I even said something like this, in the midst of everything going on in our country right now, and the election tomorrow, here I am praying for a dog, but I believe in You and Your power.

“Moore” Monday

THE PURE-HEARTED, FAITH-FILLED

PETITIONER IS GOING TO BEHOLD A

MIRACLE, WHETHER TEMPORAL OR

ETERNAL.  WONDERS NEVER CEASE.

I give thanks to You, Lord, for You are good.
Your love endures forever.

I give thanks to You, the God of gods.  I
give thanks to You, the Lord of lords, to You
who alone does great wonders, who by Your
understanding made the heavens, who spread
out the earth upon the waters, who made the
great lights and the sun to govern the day.

Your love endures forever.

I give thanks to You, Lord, the One who remembered
me in my low estate and freed me from
my enemies.

I give thanks to the God of heaven, for
Your love endures forever.  Indeed, Your love
endures forever!  (Ps. 136:1-8,23-26).

Beth Moore, Praying God’s Word Day by Day

“I hate that!”

Have you seen the commercial of the mom pushing the daughter in the grocery cart?  The mom says, “we need chicken.”  “i don’t liiike chicken!”, says the little girl. 

That happens in my house every day.  I’m cooking supper and Matthew walks up.  Whatcha cookin’ mom?  Barbecue ribs and broccoli casserole, I say with a smile on my face.  I hate that, he replies.  Then he walks away.  Can you feel the love?

“Moore” Monday

OBEDIENCE TO GOD IN A DIFFICULT

SITUATION WILL ULTIMATELY BEAR

FRUIT; EVEN THOUGH IT MIGHT

IMMEDIATELY CAUSE HARDSHIP.

Lord God, according to Your word, if I wholeheartedly commit whatever I do to You, my plans will succeed (Prov. 16:3).  I acknowledge that the heart of committing any plan to You is seeking Your plan.

Show me the right path, Father!

Please help me not to merely listen to the Word, and so deceive myself.  Help me to do what it says (James 1:22).  Your Word works, but if I am to experience it personally, I must be obedient.  I need Your help, Lord. 

When Your words come to me, help me to eat them.  Make them my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear Your name, Lord God Almighty (Jer. 15:16).  Increase my appetite for Your Word, my sufficiency!

Beth Moore, Praying God’s Word Day by Day

 

 

Works for Me Wednesday

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It’s repeat week over at Rocks In My Dryer, and since I don’t have many to choose from, I thought I’d share a new one.  My daughter swells up terribly when she gets a mosquito bite.  If it bites her on the cheek, you can pretty much bet that her eyes are gonna swell shut.  I’m always looking for something safe to spray or rub on, but with all the concern about DEET in the past few years, I’ve been worried about the choices.  We’ve got a lot of standing water around here, so the little buggers will surely be swarming.  A friend of mine told me to put some Listerine in a spray bottle and spray it around the area of the yard we plan to be in.  I mentioned it to another friend, and she said she’s done it and it actually killed the little guys!  So, Listerine is a frugal mosquito spray.  Who woulda thought that? 

New Do’

I guess you could call me a hip and happenin’ mom.  I took Brooke to the salon today and she got highlites.  She has beautiful blonde hair, but she wanted red highlights.  Strawberry blonde as she called them.  The stylist was like, Oh, are you sure, because your hair is blonde and pretty.  I said if it were up to me, we’d lighten it up a bit, but do what Brooke wants.  I was in the back of the salon and couldn’t really see what was going on, and then she came back and chatted with me while our hair was in foil, and she was so, so excited.  When she came back, she was beautiful of course.  Jackie, the stylist, said the red will tone down after a few shampoos.  She also tried to accomodate both of us and put in some blonde streaks too.  It’s cute, and bright, and funky, and bright, and pink in spots, and bright red.  Trying to put a photo up for you to check it out. img_0470.jpg

Ok, this only took me more than an hour to put up.  I learned that I needed to optimize the photo to make it fit.  HAH!!!  I feel good now.  So with all that work, please comment for me?!