Wrecked heart=open heart

Saturday nights, my church offers a time to come together and intimately worship The Lord, fellowship with great people from several churches and to be challenged. God wrecked my heart tonight. During worship, I quickly had to grab my iPad because God was laying some thoughts on me...

We sit around and complain and shout that this world is a wreck because God has been removed from the classroom. But I guarantee that students all over our country talk with God while they are at school. He doesn't have to be taught from behind a Teacher's desk! No! The issue is that His people have grown complacent and unwilling to fight the battles! Unwilling to stand in the face adversity. Too quick to pass blame. Too quick to make excuses!  I am sick of the pitiful excuse of "no prayer in school'! A relationship with God is as much caught as it is taught! We have got to live it out! We have got to stop giving only lip service! He deserves more. Your family deserves more. Your church deserves more. GOD DESERVES MORE! This world is so lost and unfortunately we are seeing the same attitude in the church! No more excuses. No more blame unless we are looking in the mirror first. I can do nothing about the heart of the person next me unless I first take care of my own. When will we take some responsibility ourselves? When will we stop and realize that the church no longer has the same influence because it has allowed others to influence it? 

Paul says it best.

But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. (Acts 20:24 NLT)

Yet preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News! (1 Corinthians 9:16 NLT)

Lazy Friday

This has been my view today.

 

Bassets are such lazy dogs. Exept when they are running out of the back door with your undergarments to spread around the back yard. Then it's game on.

 

 

Anyway........I found this cute and easy idea on Pinterest the other day that I thought would be a super cute and easy way to raise money for Speed the Light.

Source: scraphacker.com via Stacey on Pinterest

cute, huh? So here are what mine look like.

I googled "flags of the world" and what came up was the information on the Olympic rings. They represent the colors of the flags of the world. So, running with that, I am making my bracelets in the same colors. STL supports missionaries all over the world to reach the people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The intent is that every time you look at the bracelet, you will be reminded to pray for the missionaries and the people they are trying to reach. The bracelets are $2 each. $1.50 of each bracelet will go towards the STL goal of Project365 Student Ministries. To order, comment here or contact me via the P365 Facebook Page.

Hello New Year!

I decided that this year I would blog at least once a week. I have high aspirations of blogging more than that and owuld love to get to a point where I blog every day, but let's face it, that is probably not going to happen.
I am supposed to blog weekly or bi weekly for our church's page and I am hit and miss on that one, too. I am such a slacker.

As I have thought about what I wanted to blog about this week, I was stumped. And then, I came across a video that I just have to share.

Anyone else a fan of a little show on A&E called Duck Dynasty? When I first heard about this show, I refused to watch it. I mean, how much more red neck can you get? But when I actually sat down and watched, I LOVED it! I mean, this family is hilarious! Every family has an Uncle Si. Every family has a Jep. Every wife can identify with Kori and Missy at some point!
My favorite thing about this family is their love for God.

This video is found on Godtube and Willie shares how every believer needs to think and be ready at a moments notice for sharing their faith.

Reality TV Star Speaks Out About His Beliefs from sharethemessage on GodTube.

30 Days

Every day during November I am wearing one shirt.

Why? Because there are kids in Haiti who are starving and when I purchased the shirt, I fed a child for an entire month.

All across the state of Illinois there are students and youth leaders wearing the same t-shirt to raise awareness and to gain sponsors for each day we wear them.

You can sponsor me! It's not too late!

My thoughts today...in form of Haikus

Fall
The colors of fall
The smells of the air are crisp
A favorite time

Yum
A love for Gus's
Doughy goodness I will eat
Pretzels, brats, mustard

Jesus
Paid the highest price
He is all I need and more
He is soon-coming

What a day that will be!

"My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly trust in Jesus' name."

I love this song. And I love Hillsong's update to it.

I was sitting at my desk listening to this song as I am studying for my ISOM class this weekend. As it plays, I read "The divine love that never lets us go in our earthly life will certainly be just as strong through the eternal ages...His names and titles indicate that He will be both human and divine...In the Old Testament, Messiah is called "the son of man" (Daniel 7:13) and a "servant" (Isaiah 42:1-6). But He is also a person of divine authority. He is our judge, our lawgiver and our king (Isaiah 33:22). He is "the Anointed One, the ruler" (Daniel 9:25). He is the "Prince of princes" (Daniel 8:25). He is "the Redeemer" (Isaiah 59:20), "the sun of righteousness" (Malachi 4:2), and the "Sovereign Lord" (Isaiah 40:10)." (p.147, Eschatology: A Study of Things to Come by Zenas Bicket)

All I could think of is how much I love Jesus. How much I adore my Heavenly Father for who He is and all He has done for me.

So many of us read the Word and come across the passages that tell us we are more than conquerors and overcomers. But I didn't really get that before. It wasn't until after Donny's accident and we made it through the toughest 2 years of our married lives (well, probably our entire lives!) that I got what it means to be more than a conqueror! Through the hand of God and the comfort of His peace and the provision of Jehovah Jireh, my family made it!

And then I read, "Christ himself stated the criteria for those who will reign with Him in the Millennium. "To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne" (Revelation 3:21). Positions of authority under Christ will be assigned as a reward for faithfulness in whatever Christ may have called believers to do in this life...Christ knows our faithfulness even now, and He never forgets to reward appropriately, if not in this life, then certainly in the Millennium and beyond." (page150-151)

This creates in me an ever increasing desire to be in His presence, both now and forever, giving Him all praise and honor because of what He's done for me, in me and with me.

"Christ alone, cornerstone. Weak made strong in the Savior's love. Through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all!"

"Lord of endless light. Let Your glory shine forever! All the earth, all the earth sing Your Praise! Hope of every heart, let your fame be lifted higher! All our hearts, all our hearts will sing Your praise!"

One day, it will be too late to tell this world of the greatness of God. So until then, Paul says it best.

1 Corinthians 9:16

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁶ For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach.^(A) Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

Who Am I?

The summer is gone and although I know I did many, many things, I sit here and wonder how it went from April to almost September so fast?!?

My summer was filled with wonderful church activities and ministry and youth camp and family time and now school is back in full swing and my brain hasn't had a chance to slow down...does it ever stop?

I mean, one minute you celebrating the beginning of summer and it seems like I blinked and we were packing lunches and doing homework.

I am so grateful for the consistency of God in my life. When this life takes over and spins us in a whirlwind of trials, hardships, victories, burdens, worries or concerns, His love and grace and mercies are new every morning and never failing.

And in the midst of those crazy days, kids are still kids and tell you things that make you pause....and say, "huh?"

Like yesterday, Noah told Donny after football practice, "Dad, when I grow up I am going to work 2 jobs." Donny said he asked him what 2 jobs he is going to have and Noah promptly responded, very matter of fact, "I am going to be a fire fighter and work at Wendy's."

Noah, we are glad for the high hopes, buddy.

Or, realizing one day that my baby is using full sentences to tell us things! When did that happen?

And at the same time, they say things that cause you not only to pause but then to do a reality check and a quick inventory. Things like "Mom, you work too much."

ouch...

God,
Help me to always put my family first. Help me to keep my husband and my boys above the things of this world and even my ministry. God You come first, and help me to keep my family second and before anything else.

Of course, the ministry (it's not a job...it's my calling!) is full of it's own rewards...for example, this past Sunday was host to close to 40 kids and youth in our worship service. How awesome is that? But the best part was watching them enter into worship and not only enter but to lead!
As I lead the song "Your Love Is Deep" to a close, those kids and youth continued to sing it, hands raised and voices strong. It broke me.

I ramble on only to say this, may we never become too busy for our kids or even other kids and miss the opportunities before us to pour into them and love on them and show them who God is and all He has in store for them.