This passage was an encouragement to me as I looked at the coming week...  The coming week filled with kids at home on March break, filled with a major event at the end of the week, and planning leading up to it.

The same power that rose Jesus from the grave... lives in us. Will give LIFE to your MORTAL bodies...

If you are a mom, if you work from home, if you are feeling dragged down and out and tired, ASK.

Father, please help me to keep my cool this week as I work and have beautiful interrupted working time with my children.  Give me a focused sound mind, as your word tells us you have, and with the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead, sustain my being to reflect back to you the beauty you are in us.  In the way we act and interact help us to maintain peace, and hear your voice as clearly as when I am alone with you.  Show me a better way - to walk with you surrounded by a cloud of witnesses to delight in you and glorify your name. Know you will do it!  Amen.

You don't have to try...

Email Comments 158

This video pulled such strong emotions from me I had to share...

I was someone that struggled horribly with self-esteem and needing approval growing up.  It seemed I could never get enough attention from others and to my detriment I lost who I was.  

The world will tell you who you are, who you should be... who you want to be.  Lie, brainwash, make you compromise, make you wish you were everyone else but yourself.  You wont recognize who you are by the standards of the world, because the world has no clue who you really are.  

Where do we go to know who we are? 

Perhaps to our family?  Perhaps to what you do? Your status in society?  What you are good at?

No.

It must come from the inside out. From the core of our soul.  Raw, unhindered transparency from the inside.

What would you say if you could have eternal significance.  Who you are to carry on past your time on earth? Who you are past what you're good at, who you're with, our family, past present of future?  What if I told you that your worth isn't based on anything you can do or not do?  What if I told you...  that your "try" doesn't give you value?

Hard to swallow...  Nothing you have control over gives you true, lasting eternal value.

You have value simply because you are loved.  Made in the image of the creator, weather or not you believe in Him.  Why would the creator make you?  To be loved back.  How are you doing with that?

Who you are begins and ends at the Creator.  God.  In his never stopping never ending, boundless, immeasurable love he gave of himself to have you know Him more.  Jesus.  The stories you have heard are true.  He is who he said he was.  Son of God, died and rose... why?

To let you know his daddy better.

He experienced being fully rejected by his daddy so that you don't have to experience it.

Your try will never be enough to completely and totally love yourself into eternity.  He is outside of space and time.  He made you in his own image.  He invites you to put your try in Him.  And in doing so His love will cover what your try cannot earn.

Fighter for the weak, lost...

The sadness of modern social media is that a death notice can come over Facebook.  And so this happened to me this week.  Short and sweet, then a lengthy one I wished the sender had saved for email , a phone call, or the good old fashioned way... in person.

"It is with deep sadness and regret that I must inform you that our Executive Director ---- ------, passed away on 

Saturday February 6th, 2016. ---- dedicated her life to the goal of helping people with intellectual disabilities to have 

equal opportunity, full participation, respect and value as individuals in their communities. She was an advocate to all 

individuals and pushed for the removal of barriers to the good life with her quiet, kind and persistent voice. She was a 

friend to many and will be sorely missed not only by her family, friends and colleagues but by the disability movement as a 

whole..."

Although sadness comes, I wonder more about where others will pick up... and less about where she left off.  In our conversation I know where we left off.  A beautiful vibrant, passionate woman she was, and still is in her eternal home.  I stood corrected many times as many have been I her presence. Corrected thought, pushing the bar one, two, three levels higher, a 2-10 degree shift in thinking for everyone in the room.  When wrong, humble enough to have grace for herself, apologize, learn and move on.

She saw something I could not see.  Pursued a friendship, I wondered why.  In her questioning, the hunger of a knowing heart desired to know more.  Where forgiveness had been found, taken and given...  hope lingering in the smell of pavement after a spring rain... and the clear conversation with an immeasurable being understood deeply in words not known by human touch.  She knew her time would soon be up, and prepared herself accordingly.  Like fact.  Like knowing she would go no further.  

So when I hurt, it is for those that stand now in the gap.  In ---- I saw something that brothers and sisters rarely carry with them.  A different way, a different world... A fight for those who don't know there is a fight.  Why are we here if not to fight for the ones who don't know there is a fight? Who will fill that gap?  Who will surrender ones life for the call?  Even as I ask this question the echo of a hollow generation peers empty into the void she has left.  And yet He knows.  He knows, and will provide.  

If there is any verse in the Word that my friend carried with her it was this one...

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven..."

I am happy...

From school to a coffee shop, toasted beagle with chocolate milk, just as before.  Just as a child. Small talk swirled in a sort of blurred need for something much deeper.  Time, give her time.  (dear Jesus, why do you always make me wait?) Let her warm up, she ordered chocolate milk, not hot chocolate.

An ease of seated position, an honest sigh positioning us in a place of "could have been awkward" silence.  I wait until no wait is left then drop some teenage bomb questions... not parent to child questions, but honest, do you write out loud kind of questions.  Or ever converse with Jesus questions. Happy vs. Joy, temporal vs. eternal, expectations and letdown type questions. She fades, I stop, waiting for a re-surface.  She's back and panicking takes another dive to avoid transparency.

Her insides bubbling to make me understand... voice hits lungs and noise breaks into words exhaling the chance of rejection, but firm in her resolve...

"I am happy, right now I am happy, that's all I care about."

She takes another dive, deeper this time. I back off, knowing she needs to recover.  Lead the conversation to the surface as she follows. She's up... Friends, family then the core. She sees it, struggling at the surface to hear the truth, she hears it.  She cannot go anywhere.

Then time.  Always time. Time that keeps us prison here in this place.  Prisoner to righteousness in this place.  All that can be done is handing it back.  As wisdom is spoken, whom receives is not up to me.  I simply spoke.  I let her go, tell her she is loved, as she diapers back into the world, back to school.  Lunch hours are too short... as I write, I stand corrected... they are just the right amount of time for what He plans.

A walk outside the bubble...

Against my better judgement I didn't park the car in the middle of the intersection and pull two older teenage boys apart.  Six punches to the side of the head as I felt a skull made with the creators loving hands smash the pavement an equal amount of times.  Parking the car, looking both ways, crossing over. The one whom had given into hate walking away, the mark of a poisoned mind still ringing in the air, reflecting off the buildings, scoffing my, Our presence there.

The intention had been to go to hear of the hope we could offer and form as a community.  Hope.

There was no hope in the teens eyes that had not only had his body assaulted, but his mind, his developing man pride bleeding from the mouth.  I asked facts, so not to damage an already lowly situation.  He cursed, spat, smoked, telling more with his eyes then his mouth. A lower lip quiver, the beginnings of a permanent worry dent on his forehead. I wanted to encase him in a robe that would somehow help him see his value and place in a fallen world.  To show Him the angels that await his ask, and a savior to stand in this place of pain. Before, behind, beside.  The power of a risen Lord.

The meeting of Hope sat behind a smokescreen, and as I identified with parts of truth, the root was empty; or worse maybe, glorifying the one who poisons minds.  I was stunned to hear humans speaking about things they had just discovered that the Family has known for years.  I inwardly smiled, the timeless wisdom carried by those who believe... Given from the one that created the concept of wisdom.  I asked, they answered as lines paralleled the need of every human heart, but the root had been pulled away. In the light such simple truth, In the dark, so many questions.  Choosing not to guide, not to lead, but allow the one who leads best to do so, We left.

Conviction inhaled like a shot of cold air to the mind.  Had I left the world and not known how dark it had become? Had I lived in this bubble, and forgotten to take walks outside?  Knowing the truth in the midst of discussion, then backing away also knowing it is not time to be received takes so much restraint.  Not in this time, not in this place.  How can people not see, when absolutely everything points back to the core of His being, who He is, His nature?  A Christian concept taken secular with the refusal to journey back to the Giver.  It is only the Giver that can then again give.

What a dilemma, being in the world but not of it.  Being light in dark places.  Speaking truth with no returns.  Seeing truth. Tasting and knowing an entirely different world, being placed in this space.  My eyes have been opened, and yet I wonder if they are better off closed.  Set aside for a purpose, apart for His glory. Eyes ever focused on You, needing more walks outside the bubble.

foreign friends

Do you have close friends you wouldn't normally be friends with if you both were not followers of Jesus?  How does this happen?

When I look at the diversity in the people I have bonded with in the last 5 years, I smile.  From people in their 80's to children that are 4.  From East Indian to German. From Catholic to Pentecostal. From complete introverts to people that need to have 5 conversations at once.  Our diversity has made us more like the fullness of our Savior. Our Unity makes us one body under his leadership.

“For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.  He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. ”Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death." -Paul in the letter to the Ephesians

One of my favorite relationships was made at the beach one summer.  She gave little eye contact, and spoke even less.  I knew we were meant to be friends, the Father had been very specific.  He had actually taken my hand and drawn me to her. His pull between us was too strong to ignore.  As our children played and other people came in between and around, spirit danced with spirit, and with very few words I came to know her in silence.  Awkwardness became peace, and in an ever so gentle way the introvert was melded with the extrovert, and friendship was made.  I have no history of this "God" friend, I have very few commonalities with her.  Jesus introduced us for the pure purpose of His glory.  The beauty being, we both recognize this, and in a once woman of God lone dance, there is now two.  Thank you, Lord.

"How many of your friends would you not be friends with if you weren't a Christian?"  This was asked of me in my 20's with a negative connotation to prove that believers end up picking up all of the "loosers."  What a sad place to be as a believer. Looking at follow brothers and sisters in Christ with barriers up, lost opportunity lost fellowship with the Father, in His grace and love. I'm sure the Father weeps over such comments, and the searching through His precious faces to label some in the world’s eyes as loosers.

Can you sit at a table with different color, theological backgrounds, human capability, and trust that God has his hands over the others around you?  There is unity in the cross.  There is peace in the cross.  God delights in peace, in unity.  And remember: it is all about God.

 "And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.

"For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you." -Paul letter to the Galatians

Attack vs. Sumission

"Not all struggles we have are a direct result of being "attacked" by satan.  Sometimes it is our "failure" to submit to God and put Christ first..." was a text a friend sent to me last night.  Gotta love receiving a text like this when you are in the middle of a frustration temper tantrum with God.  So enlightening, so knowing and telling is a text back...

"Very true."  What is one to say when a tantrum is slowly turned into a melting heart, and the dripping, oosing melding metal is warmed again... burning away accusations from an all too familiar place clung to in times of desperate wisdom needed.

The rightly place pointed finger of blame... as the log is tweezed from my eye, and the Truth is placed back in authority, Jesus whispers... "I know, rest, ask, and it will be given, to overflowing, ask."

5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. 6 But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 7 Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do. (James 1:5-8)

Submission to only God.  Ask expect.  No running around to others asking, seeking.  He waits in anticipation, the Lord looks to strengthen those whose hearts are turned to Him... Why would he not give wisdom? Show the way?  Has my heart been turned to Him?  I had been foolish, and just as the writer of 2 Chronicles states, "at war."

 "The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. What a fool you have been! From now on you will be at war.” (2 Chron. 6:9)

The difficulty with being strong in personality and presentation is one owns strength.  Leaning, rather standing on, no, being carried by and submissive to Jesus, for his yoke is easy to bear.  Being yoked to, as He offers timeless wisdom from all knowledge beyond mans understanding, and I settle for what others... or worse, what I might think or want.  So pathetic, humbled, refocused... then honored.

"29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” ( Matt. 11:29-30)

"For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” 

Rest for my soul, had it been that long?  A post Christmas refocusing had been needed... a calling from my Lord, not a self-forced New Years resolution call.  A new call to complete surrender, free falling and rest in His arms.

Father, I am nothing in this place and time.  All that matters in your will be done, and your glory revealed.  I am so sorry for seeing myself as more than I am.  For trusting my eternal eyes when I have access to yours.  Forgive me.  Help me to always know my place in the span of eternity. Open the eyes of my heart.  Help me to know wisdom beyond my understanding, teach me your ways, give me a never ending hunger for your deepest desires. Include your people in them, do not pass us by.  Awaken your bride from this deep slumber.  In Jesus name, and for His sake, and the sake of your kingdom come, amen.