Learning to live for HIS glory

I've been reading through my journals from the past year...it's a wonderful habit that allows me to see more clearly all that the Lord has been working in my life through these last 12 months.  I wouldn't let you read my journal, but I want the Lord to receive glory for what He's been doing . . . so I invite you to catch a small glimpse of the relationship we share through the written word. "And  the Word  became flesh, and dwelt among us, and  we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of  grace and  truth." ~ John 1:14 January:    1~May this be a year in which I live with urgency, knowing that Your Kingdom is coming. I don't know how much time I have left on this earth, but Lord, I pray You would show me how to make what I do have left count! 3~I've decided I need to change my teaching tactic when it comes to boys. There's nothing I can do to make the girls stop thinking about them, and in ...

Yesterday in church, we watched and listened as one of Keystone's family members shared his story of once being a violent drug dealer, and how the Lord has worked in changing his life.  It was a hard but beautiful story to hear.  Afterwards, Pastor Keith was sharing about how God often uses stories like that in powerful ways because people think that if God can save someone like that, if He can love someone like that, then He can love and save them too.  As I sat there and listened to all this, I was once again amazed at the power of my God to take lives and turn them around, but I was wrestling with this question: "Lord, why me?"   See...I don't have a crazy story.  I grew up in a "Christian" home.  I first asked Jesus to save me at the age of three!  I can't point to my life before and after becoming a Christ-follower and say, "See the difference?!"  This is not by any means to say that I am not a sinner who needs the Righteous One'...

I came home from class last week and journaled this: "Realizing how much I need to get on my knees. Jesus!  God!  Holy One! I am SO self-focused. The world does not revolve around me. You do not revolve around me. Who am I kidding? The God of the universe. Revolve around me? No. It's ALL about You, You receiving glory. From my life and all  other lives. Be lifted high, Jesus. Burn away everything, Everything that's of myself. Teach me to shine Your glory. To revel in Your praise." As He convicts, I want to change.  This isn't about learning something and putting it on a shelf.  Life is about so much more than that.  He is SO much more than that.  The name of God is great and glorious.  He is abundant in loving-kindness, slow to anger, and yet will not leave the guilty unpunished.  His Kingdom is perfection, goodness, and light. My life . . . with open hands I release it to the Glorious ONE.  May all I am be spent f...

I walked out into the yard this evening. The sunset colored the sky with light pinks and blues . . . a few patches of blazing orange. Trees and insects raised their branches and voices to heaven. I really wanted to raise my hands to the sky and spin around. To dance. To sing. But... My neighbor was out mowing his lawn. I don't really want him to think i'm a crazy lady. (He might already?) My self consciousness got in the way of unhindered praise. I still have SO far to go. The irony of my blog title hit me today . . . I don't think I had the faintest idea what it meant when I named it. "Learning to Live for HIS Glory." Well, maybe I did. I at least realized it was a process! Do you realize, friends? Do I realize? God's GLORY! It's the only thing worth living for! At all. Nothing else will ever fulfill, Give hope, Be accomplished. His glory? We can be confident it IS being displayed. That's His purpose! We can join Him ...

Because in the middle of all this planning, I need refocusing. "Keeper of the Stars,    God of the Universe,       Doer of the Impossible,         God of the Ages,            Giver of Wisdom,               JESUS,                 My Savior,   All this belongs to You.  You are the One who gives wisdom.  All I am is Yours.  Be glorified in me~use my planning to fix my eyes on You.  Use these lessons to point kiddos eyes to You.   May Your gospel flow from my pen, my mouth, my heart.   Use this, Lord!  However You see fit.  Mostly though, just grace us with Your presence!  All is nothing if You do not show up.  Lord, let them forget me, "my lessons" . . . and remember YOU                       In Jesus name,    ...

2~Guard me from over-analyzing…and believing the lies of “Why?” that I’ve made up in my mind. 5~Precious One, woo my heart? . . . Enable me, I pray, to lay down all idols in order to make more room for You.  I don’t want You crowded out of my heart. 7~Thank You, Lord, for just how You’re showing me that You’ve put me where I am for a reason.  I pray that You would give me wisdom in knowing how to love K. right now . . . Encourage her heart Lord! 8~ Lord, oh, give me Your heart to see the lost, found!   I must die, Lord, my pride and self-righteousness, all must die…and be stripped away, that You would reign, and increase!   The reality of heaven and hell don’t sit with me on a moment-by-moment basis.   Lord, would You open my eyes to see that? 11~Today as I come and read Your Word and live in Your presence, continue to draw my heart away with Your sweet song of love! 12~My soul is thirsting to be cherished and to have a companion to walk thr...

Inspired by a dear friend of mine who writes over at  http://purejoyandpoetry.blogspot.com/ ... I've been reading through my journals from the past year and pulling out bits and pieces . . . remembering what the Lord has taught and done, the blessings and the struggles! 1~Jesus, may this be a year in which I seek You wholeheartedly.  Give me eyes open wide to see Your glory…I am such a human, Lord! Holy Spirit would You come and fill this life more and more? You who live to pray, would You fill me with Your life? . . . And as I pray, would You guide my praying and use my feeble attempts for the advancement of Your kingdom? Instead of focusing on how inadequate I am, Lord teach me to focus on You, and how perfectly adequate You are. 2~Thank You that I can call You Father and come to You as a child . . . Lord, teach me how to live this day. 3~ Holy Spirit, would You in me train my emotions to line up with truth? Lord, burn away the mediocrity, and gi...

The sky was singing glory on my way to work today.  It was a perfect transition from time spent at the feet of Jesus to entering the hustle and bustle of work.  The sky does it's job so well.  It never rebels . . . I do. So as I gazed upon the glorious sun rising for the day, I prayed the Lord would make me a glory reflecting light today. Later, the guests kept telling me about the rain falling, and I kept forgetting.  They'd tell me, and I'd respond, "Oh, really?  But the sunrise this morning was so beautiful . . ."  See I was so enraptured by that sunrise, I could hardly take in the rain.  I could see it out the windows.  Yet, my mind just kept going back to the sunrise. Does it keep going back to Jesus?  My mind?  Yours?  That's when we'll reflect His glory to a world drowning in rain.  Remembering His presence is a moment-by-moment choice.  Today, He blessed me with reminders and put a song in my heart.  Peo...

"Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties and abominable idolatries.  In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you; but they will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.  For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God. The end of all things is near; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer.  Above all, ke...

What do you do when you're trying to lead and organize something and things just keep seeming to go wrong?  There's no opportunity to back out, and somehow the struggles must be pushed through.  I've been there these past few weeks.  Struggling with knowing worry won't help, but doing it anyway, then crying out, "Lord, forgive me!"  Knowing my God is always faithful, but failing to apply that fact to my thinking.  Trying to make things work, only to have them keep falling apart.  What's a girl to do? "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."  ~Romans 8:28 Yes, we know it, but do we apply it?  Such peace is available to those of us who love Him if we will but reckon the truth of His sovereign faithfulness in our day-to-day lives!  His peace, priceless peace, peace that surpasses comprehension . . . It is exactly that kind of peace that came...

It all started back in January.  I was sitting in a church service but not paying a whole lot of attention.  Yes, for the sake of this story, I'll admit that!  My mind had drifted . . . I was thinking about orphans and Haiti--kind of random.  I don't really remember what I was thinking about those two subjects, and at that point in time I was kind of confused as to why I was thinking about them.  Then all of a sudden my attention was drawn back to what Pastor Lane was saying.  In my distracted state I had heard him say three words, and those three words rocked my world.  He was talking about how God views those who are lost, those that we look down on--that He looks at them and says "That's my Hudson."  Earlier in the week I had been researching a school of sorts in Colorado.  I'd been thinking about possibly going to Eric and Leslie Ludy's Leadership Training School for the summer.  In light of that I had been listening to a lot ...

I know it's been awhile . . . alot has been happening lately and it's been a challenge to process it all.  I didn't even want to think about trying to put it in a readable fashion that would make sense as a blog entry!  I still don't have all the answers (I'm realizing I never will.), but I think I'm at the point where I can verbalize the main lesson that God has been teaching me lately.  This:  Sometimes God has to take us where we don't want to go--in order to get us where He wants us to be.  It's been a hard truth to learn, and in all honesty I can't say I've completely accepted it yet, but I'm getting there.  It's not a comfortable reality, but that brings up the theme of this "learning to live for HIS glory."  That theme being, that life is NOT about our comfort--instead it's about His glory.  And even in the midst of uncomfortable situations we can trust Him to work all things out for good.  :) To God be the glor...

As God continues to challenge me in this area of living every moment of every day in His presence I'm learning that that's the starting point for quite a few other lessons.  In actuality, I am living in His presence every moment of every day, the question is whether I'm living in awareness of His presence. As I try to put this lesson into practice in my life, I'd like to share a few of the things I'm learning through it: When I'm living in the awareness of His presence I start to see people through His eyes.  And when I see them through His eyes, it becomes easier to love them with His heart. I'm less concerned about my comfort and more concerned about His glory.  Last night I was reading It's Not About Me by Max Lucado, in there he talks about 2 Corinthians 4:17, which says, "For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison."  He's talking about the brevity of life when compar...

So the other night, my family and I watched "Facing the Giants" again for the first time in a while.  It really challenged me again.  That movie is just soooo good!  I feel like my faith is challenged every time I watch it, and trust me, I've watched it a lot! A couple things that really stick out to me from it . . . This song, it plays while Brooke is in the doctors office, wrestling with whether or not she will still love God if He never gives her children.  That scene has always been powerful to me, and I've always loved the song, so I thought I'd see if I could find it, and when I did I loved it even more!  :) Here are the words: "The secret of life is letting go The secret of love is letting it show In all that I do, in all that I say Right here in this moment The power of prayer Is in a humble cry The power of change Is in giving my life And laying down Down at your feet Right here in this moment Take my heart, take my soul I surren...

Lately God has been challenging me with my perspective.  This is the question that He's brought to my mind . . . how many times a day do I say "I", or think "I"?  And how does that compare to how often I talk about or think about God?  Ouch.  It's a convicting question . . . and I want to let that conviction change me, rather than just forgetting about it.  Is my focus on God and His glory, or am I falling into the trap of focusing on myself?  My Discipleship Counseling class is what has been spurring my thoughts on this.  I love this quote from the author of Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands , Paul David Tripp, "We do not suffer well, because suffering interferes with our glory.  We do not find relationships easy, because others compete with us for glory.  We do not serve well, because in our quest for glory, we want to be served.  But the story of Scripture is the story of the Lord's glory.  It calls me to an agenda that is big...