Learning to live for HIS glory

If not my absolute favorite, then Easter is definitely one of my favorite days of the year.  There is just so much to celebrate!  So much joy is mine because of what happened in history over 2000 years ago.  Wow.  It's hard to fathom that long span of time.  Nevertheless, what I celebrate today has been bringing joy to thousands for all of these years. It's hard for me to put into words all that I think about on Easter.  It's a day that usually involves tears and exultant singing, quiet reflection and much rejoicing.  It's a day that stirs the jubilant longing of my heart.  For although every day is a day to remember the abundant life I have because of my Savior's sacrifice, Easter is an awesome reminder of just how much He did for me. If I could go back to anytime in history, I think I'd go back to that first "Easter" weekend.  I wonder what it would have been like.  (You can see my musings on some of that from about a year ago her...

I really dislike being the kind of sick I can't do anything about.  Laid up in bed until the virus runs it course.  I'd so much rather have  a cold . . . I can fight those. However, as I lay in bed yesterday... hoping, praying to retain liquids... this thought hit me: Sin's like this. Yesterday I had no choice but to rest and trust that God's made my body with an ability to heal.  There was nothing I could do to make myself get better.  Sure I could be wise and not eat chocolate...but even so, I was still sick. And so it is with sin--the sickness that we've all got.  There's no home remedy we can follow to heal ourselves.  No over the counter medicines.  The only thing that brings healing, that gives us an ability to live an abundant life, is grace.  Undeserved grace. "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins . . . But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our ...

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...

Seeing my imperfections, Falling on my knees, Living in guilt, no, Rejoicing in hope. Righteousness: Mine. Blameless In His eyes. Perfect: Me? All because, His body. His blood. Broken, Beaten, Spilled out, For sinners, Like me.

"If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Ps. 11:3) Gunmen, Bombings, People hacked to pieces, Images of blood, Buildings burned. "The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths." (Is. 59:8) Text messages. 3 hour phone calls. Tears. Silence. Song. "Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter." (Is. 59:14). Conversation in the chairs out back... Tears welling up. Heart weighed down, Too heavy. Wondering, God, WHY?! "They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice..." (Rom. 1:29) So much darkness, Evil at every turn. My heart weighs down To the point of breaking. I NEED Goodness, Love, Justice, Truth, Purity, So HUNGRY... I turn to One who is... GOOD. "For the Lord is righteous; He loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold His ...

Thick, black, utter darkness covers the land, threatening to choke out life itself.  The Savior of the world is hanging on a cross . . . about to breath His last breath?! How can this be?  Lord, this wasn’t the plan, was it?  Did the angels know, I wonder?  Or were they shaking their heads in sorrow?  Saying, “God, this looks REALLY bad . . .” Somehow I think the darkness that fell for the hours preceding Jesus’ death permeated more than just our physical world, but maybe it wasn’t as dark as it appeared . . . allow me to attempt to paint us a picture: Bloody, beaten, mangled…the body of God’s only Son hangs stretched upon roughhewn pieces of wood, held in place by nails that are more like iron stakes.  A crown woven out of cruel thorns sends streams of blood trickling down His face, from where the soldiers shoved it onto his skull just hours earlier.  A faithful few remain near the foot of His cross, wondering if this was all in vain; and t...

In church this morning we talked about pornography.  Heavy stuff.  However, I came out of church encouraged and thankful.  Almost in tears because of how overwhelmed I was (and still am) by the grace of God! I was reminded of this post from back in November:  Thoughts of a Recovering Addict .  I won't tell the story again (you can read it), but Pastor Keith hit the nail on the head when he said, "A woman needs to feel something, and so her porn might be in words that touch her emotionally--romance novels that portray the ideals of new love, depicting a woman being swept off her feet by a hero."    I applaud him for saying that, because ...That's my story... And I know I wouldn't be where I am today if God had not, in His marvelous grace, provided me with a wake up call like the one Pastor Keith offered this morning. Because, I can tell you right now, it's a sneaky addiction.  It doesn't look that wrong!  It's just a book (or to be ...

Tidbits from September's thoughts . . . 3~Guard me from wanting the gifts for their own sake, or loving them for their own sake, and instead ignite by Your Holy Spirit a deeper desire and love for You! Thank You for entering into covenant with me, Lord! 12~Making pleasing people my god is soo exhausting!  Thank You for saving me from having to be enslaved to that!  I pray You would give me the courage, humility, and graciousness to live for You alone . . . remind me I don’t have to make everyone happy.  In fact, if I’m living for You, I’ll probably make some people mad.  But Lord, I pray You would fill me with Your Spirit’s grace and love to such a point that my only offense would be the gospel! 14~Honestly just so many thoughts running through my head right now.  You have placed the capability to dream within me, and yet I don’t want to let a good thing become a bad thing by letting it run away with me! Lord, the burdens of family, friends, and...

I planned on leaving for a dear friend's wedding this evening.  Plans change.  Some sickness has set in at my house, and we aren't able to make the trip.  Sadness and disappointment resulted. This morning though, as I sat with the Lord, He reminded me that the most glorious of weddings is yet to come . . . and no sickness can change the fact that I will be there!  Oh . . . words fail me to describe the GLORY of that thought!  I am so thankful for my Jesus.  There was a time when I was sick--dead, actually--He brought healing and life.  Through His death, I live, and one day will be a part of the most glorious and beautiful wedding of all time. =) =) I'm beyond thankful.  Missing this wedding is sad, but missing that wedding would be devastating.  I rejoice that I can be confident I won't!  And my heart breaks for those who will realize they are sick too late.  Do you know this, friends?  Have you accepted Jesus' gift of hea...

Earlier today, I froze my nose as I walked through the snowy fields with mom.  Now I sit encased in warmth, a mug of tea at my side and candles flickering on top of my bookshelf, searching for the words to share this beauty.  The beauty of snow over empty fields, death covered in purest white, my life exchanged for His . . . Do you see it?  This beauty that makes the world go ‘round?  It tugs at my heart, and burdens me somehow, I suppose because others need to see . . . and don’t. As I walked through the snow today, I marveled at its radiant whiteness.  Just days ago, the world looked dead (there was a stark beauty even in that, but it was not quite the same).  Now, although the temperatures have dropped, this freezing white stuff has added a wonderful encasement of brightness to our dead, dead world.  It covers the barren fields with shimmers and causes the empty branches to glisten in the sunlight. The beauty of it all captures my heart, but n...

I'm a recovering addict.  And I suspect those of you reading this are either on the caught up in or trying to get out of side of an addiction.  We're all seeking meaning in life.  Joy.  Hope.  Peace. Love. Problem is, we live in a messed up, twisted, evil world.  It can't deliver on any of those desires.  Neither can anything in it. Where do you run to escape?  When life is cruel, hard, hurts . . . ?  Where do you let your mind go when you just need to "get away"--when you're craving peace?   I know my drug of choice.  It's getting caught up in the dream world of fiction.  Letting myself believe, if only for the hour it takes to devour a book, that the world can be a much more perfect place.  Getting wrapped up in the life of some imaginary person so that I don't have to face the struggles and problems in mine.   For years, I didn't recognize my addiction for what it was.  After all, wasn't it normal for...

Lately the Lord's been working on getting to the heart issues behind a lot of the struggles in my life. He's doing it by revealing to me the adulterer I am . . . "You adulteresses , do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."  ~James 4:4 That verse always gets me.  It makes me stop, and usually groan!  Because for me, the idol that probably creeps in to the place God should have in my life most frequently, is a desire for the approval, affirmation, & acceptance of other people.  Sound anything like being a friend of the world? Yeah..... Know what though?  Living life with pleasing people as my motivation is exhausting and frustrating. Sure, I get those high moments.  When someone notices I did a good job and points it out, when a friend or parent agrees that I made the right decision, or when someone who's usually annoyed gives me a g...

Today is Easter or Resurrection Day, a day on which we (as those who believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior) purpose to remember His sacrifice for us on the cross.  But not just His sacrifice, not just His pain and death, no we also remember His life.  For He IS RISEN!  When He died He didn't stay dead, but rose again to give us newness of life . . . to offer us the opportunity to choose Him, and in Him, victory over sin and death.  My heart is overflowing today--overflowing with joy!  For these are the truths that bring joy . . . and hope, and peace.  And I want to remember these truths, not just today, but every day.  For they are just as true tomorrow as today, and just as true next month as tomorrow.  These are the truths that put a smile on my face, and make me cheerful even when I am at work and it is 7 in the morning.  I desperately need to claim them as true in my life, to reckon them, daily.  For then I live as I a...