I Miss You!

Come near to God and he will come near to you. James 4:8

Like me, I'm sure you've missed someone with whom you have a relationship. Your heart longs for conversations and activities together. But lives get busy, schedules change and our children enter busy seasons of athletics and activities leaving less time for relationships. It takes an intentional change to get these relationships back on track.

And such is our relationship with God. If God feels far away, the change was on our end. God is constant. He never moves. He doesn't change. God doesn't just want our 'want and need list'. He wants real relationship. He wants depth and commitment.

Relationships take intentional work. They involve talking and sharing our hearts, dreams, and hurts. Relationships require time and sacrifice. Relationships must be a priority if they are to thrive.

Today I'm missing several people in my life. I miss our talks, laughs and tears. I miss depth of conversation. It's time to become intentional and draw near to those I love, starting with my God!

How about you?

Sing-along Saturday

Today's song is Soul On Fire by Third Day. It reminds us to pray that God will set our hearts ablaze with desire for Him. That he will keep working within us to help us know him intimately And we will share his love.

Click here to listen to Soul on Fire by Third Day

Take This Time To Pray

Then you will call to me.  You will come and pray to me, and I will answer you.  You will seek me, and you will find me because you will seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:12-13 GNT

I am drawn to asking you to pray today.  I don't really have more than that.  There are a lot of people on my heart who are calling out for help and healing and so I just want to take this time to remind you to pray.  Pray for the lost, the sick, the hurting, the leaders of our nations, the orphans and the sinners.  Get down on your knees for the people on your heart and carry their burdens to God.  Seek God's answers for them and for the things you desire, as well.  He promises you will find Him and He will have answers in His perfect timing.  Who are we that God should take the time to listen to our requests?  We are His beautiful children.  He wants our prayers, our discussions and our deepest secrets.  Enjoy your time with Him today :)

Rules Set Us Apart

Leviticus is a very long drawn out book of the Bible that explains many rules over what to eat, how to eat it, how to handle skin diseases, who to touch, and the list goes on.  It can get very repetitive and so detailed that I have no idea how they kept up with it all.  I was fascinated by the detail that God provided His people and how serious he was about them obeying.  It got me thinking about today and the rules we have in place.  They aren't nearly as detailed, mostly because we have watered them down and sugar coated them and made our own compromises.  But, thanks to Jesus, we don't have that fear of getting struck down after making one bad choice.

God was very serious about His rules, for example, certain animals were unclean and people weren't supposed to eat those animals but it was just as important that they didn't even touch a dead carcass of those unclean animals.  There was more to this than just following rules.  God was laying a foundation.  He wanted His people to be set apart as holy.  They had to look different and act different than anyone ever before.  But saying they couldn't touch a dead animal can teach us something very important about sin and temptation.  We shouldn't go near it even if, like the animal, we think it's dead and not going to do a thing or cause us to trip.  God wanted His people to separate themselves from the impurities of the world and He still asks that of us today.  He didn't want any of His children going near that which was unclean because He knew that the temptation was strong and so He set up strict laws and punishments for people to follow.  It was very important that people understood the seriousness of breaking the law, that it could lead to further sin and destruction.

This all applies to us today.  No, we don't have to offer up sacrifices and we have doctors and medicine to take care of our skin illness, but we do still have to obey God and when He says don't do something we must take Him seriously and obey His command.  We shouldn't even go near that which tempts us to sin.  Just as God called the Israelites to be holy, He calls us to be holy.  We are to look different from the world and remain spiritually separate from the sins happening around us.

For I, the Lord, am the one who brought you up from the Land of Egypt, that I might be your God.  Therefore, you must be holy because I am holy.

Leviticus 11:45 NLT     

Get Out of the Pit

I waited patiently and expectantly for the Lord; and he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me out of a horrible pit.... and set my feet upon a rock. Psalm 40:1-2

When I imagine "A horrible pit" I can almost feel the dark and dank around me. I shudder at the lonely and frightening sensation of the pit. I can feel the cold of the deep and the hopelessness of a soon to be rescue. If you've experienced depression, you know what this pit feels like. Perhaps someone or something threw you into a pit. Perhaps your own choices caused you to fall into this dark place. Or maybe your chemical balance is off leaving you confused and sorrowful. Whatever the cause, God did not create you to live in this pit. He created you to thrive and enjoy the life you have been given in Him. 

Pits are designed by the enemy of our souls. Depression keeps our minds focused on the past and the painful memories. Depression steals our hope. When you battle depression satan wants to keep you hopeless and downcast. 

In this Psalm, David cries out to the Lord for rescue from his pit. God hears and pulls him from the pit of sadness and sorrow. So, if you find yourself in 'a horrible pit' cry out to the One who can and will rescue you! Then, wait with expectation as He delivers you. Deliverance may not come in an instant, but know that God will deliver you! See a doctor and counselor as you wait on the Lord to do his part. He is faithful! He will deliver you!

In Case You Were Wondering

He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

Revelation 3:5 NASB

God knows us!  Plain and simple......God knows us.  He knew us before we were born.  He knows our thoughts before we think them, our words before we say them and our hearts better than we can understand ourselves.  His omnisience makes it possible for Him to rule over all creation, make all things fall into place for the good of His people, and fill the book of life with the names of all those who will join Him in heaven for eternity.  We can try and do a lot of things to get our name placed there, but all it really takes is a genuine heart after God and belief that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.  It's our desire to love and serve God that will carry on and act out our belief in faith, but those good things we do........they don't matter if our heart isn't real and they won't keep our names in that book.  God knows us and if we are sincere then our names are there and secure.  Written in permanent ink that can never be washed away.  When He wrote our names down He knew our future and everything about us.  He knew what was coming, the good we would perform, and the sins we would fall into but most importantly He knew our hearts.  God decided whose names would be written and He doesn't change His mind.  You cannot lose your spot in heaven!  You cannot ever fall too far away, unless that is, you were never truly His to begin with.  And how do you truly know?  If Jesus is your savior and if you believe He died and arose to take away your sin then you accept His sacrifice and believe you are saved.  Some will fall away, but true followers will always return.  We won't be perfect in our walk but our faith will never fail us.  As long as we have faith we are free and we are His for eternity!

I celebrate the day I will hear my name confessed to God.  Thank you for saving me Jesus!  Thank you for suffering for my freedom and eternity in heaven!  My name is secure, permanently fixed in the book of life, and for that I will share the Good News with everyone who needs to hear!  

Amen and Amen            

Sunday Scripture

“Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry—but don’t use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry. Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life.”

‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭4:26-27‬ ‭MSG‬‬