Chosen for God's Purpose

How well do you wait? Psalm 130:5 "I wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, and in His word I do hope." We wait for the unseen to become seen Waiting is hard. It can seem like an unending tunnel of darkness. Depending on what you are waiting for, it can be very easy to lose heart and despair. Waiting on a job…while you sit wondering how you are going to make the rent or put food on the table. Waiting on confirmation…when you need an answer from God about which direction to take, while feeling as though time is just ticking away and your life is passing you by. Waiting on a mate…watching everyone around you (or at least you think) live out their lives happily with a spouse or significant other in their life while you eat yet another meal alone. Even waiting in line, at a restaurant, on hold…the list goes on and on and it is never easy. But waiting is a part of life, and it is not going anywhere! Remember this truth though…even in the waiting, Go...

Directional Changes- Are you willing to bend? We want big directional signs from God, God just wants us to pay attention- Lysa TerKeurst Proverbs 4:20-27 "My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; keep them in the mindset of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established.  Do not turn to the right or to the left; remove your foot from evil." Yesterday as I was dropping my daughter for volleyball practice, I ended up behind a truck that was turning into the YMCA parking lot. I was waiting for the driver to turn, when I noticed that their right blinker was on. Thi...

God is the most reliable person you will ever know- and we should strive to emulate Him! Constant as the sun, reliable as the moon Lamentations 3:22-24 "The Lord's unfailing love and mercy still continue, fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise.The Lord is all I have, and so in Him I put my hope." Who is the most reliable person you know?  By definition, being reliable is equated to being someone people can depend on and trust to stay true to what they say. Without a doubt, Jesus was the most reliable person to ever walk the earth, and He calls us to become more like Him every day. But how do we go about that? The process of growing closer to the Lord, and becoming more "Christ-like" is evolving, and always changing. We are changed, as Scripture stated in 2 Corinthians 3:18 "and we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." From glo...

America's Hope- God's Answer What can save a country? Hate or Love?  2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways and pray and seek my face, then I will hear from heaven and I will heal their land." We need God's healing. Not just in America, but across the globe. How many would attest to that? How many would stand up and say AMEN- yes we need God's help and provision in these dark times? Now- how many are willing to do what it takes to stoke the fires of heaven to bring revival to our land? Take notice of the fact that the process of healing starts with God's people- and it is an "If-Then" scripture. This is a promise from God- but it requires action on our part. Looking through an old journal from Sept 2011, I found a break down of this scripture that God really opened up to me. It is more relevant today than it was even then. I pray that you would ...

Will you trust Jesus to hold you up, even in the deepest waters? Jesus is the guard of my life How hard is it to trust the Lord? Some moments it seems so easy…but other times it is so difficult. Why is that? He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So if He is not changing, why should our trust in Him change? It really all boils down to perspective. Where our focus is at that moment. If we are keeping our eyes fixed on the Lord in the midst of a difficult situation, it seems smaller, and we are less apt to stress out. But if we remove our eyes from His face and focus on the situation at hand, it often appears insurmountable and we begin to feel overwhelmed and despair. It makes me think of Peter, when he stepped out of the boat and began to walk on the water towards Jesus in Matthew 14:27-31. There is more to this passage of Scripture that we could look at in terms of being in the midst of a storm, but for the intent of this post, I want to focus on Peter and what...

Life can be found anywhere...even in the desert Even in the desert, life blooms Hosea 13:5 "I cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of drought." Man life gets hard sometimes. Just when you think things are rolling along…BAM!  Out of the blue comes another “unexpected” that knocks you back. Someone lets you down. You get some bad news. That budget you tried so hard to stick to is out of the water because of an unexpected expense. This is my life right now. Every time I turn around it is something. I tell you the truth…it is wearisome. As though life was not complicated enough with school, work, home, kids, money etc, I throw in the expectations I have of myself, and well…I am pretty much just done in. It is a good thing that God doesn’t see me the same way I see myself. In the midst of the chaos, I am thankful. I will practice what I “preach” and count the things in my life that are praiseworthy…they are too many to list. But the pain is sitting r...

What can your faith do to spur you on? By Faith . We do what? Faith is, according to Scripture, the substance of things hoped for...the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1) . What is substance? It is the essence of something. It it what something is made of...it is tangible. What is evidence? Is the support of something believed. It is what you search for when you are looking for an answer. So if FAITH is the tangible essence of the support for what we believe about the answers we are looking for as we seek after God, we must realize that it is an essential part of our walk with Him. In fact, He tells us in Hebrews 11:6 that "it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists, and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him." But how much faith is enough ? This is a question that I have struggled with my whole Christian life, and to be honest, one that I wrestle with on a daily...

What we believe is much more important that what we see! Look beyond the outer to see the beauty that lies beneath 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come" What is perspective? Webster’s defines this as “a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something.” A point of view. A point of view . What is the viewpoint from where you sit right now? The view may be very good. Things may be lining up nicely in your career and finances, your children may be flourishing, your marriage may be fruitful, or you may have just embraced the life of singleness with its inherent freedoms. Maybe you have embarked recently on a new journey and are experiencing the success of attempts at things like new hobbies or regained health and vigor. These are the “mountain top” days…the days when praise comes easy and flows like honey from your tongue. These are the times when a smile seem...

We are clothed in His glory, covered in His righteousness! We are His workmanship 2 Corinthians 5:21 "He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." When you hear the word “Righteous” what comes to mind? Is it some pious, uppity church go-er with a holier-than-thou attitude? Perhaps it is a slang term that you have heard someone use to describe something great or outstanding? There are many different ideas that come to mind, but one stands out among them all. I believe that God views righteousness much differently than we do. Let me fill you in on a secret- there is no one righteous. No.Not.One! You can find this truth reading a passage in Romans 3:9-31 . Here, Paul is discussing the fact that Jews are no better than Gentiles. Believers are no better than unbelievers. We are all gross, ugly, terrible, hateful beings; apart from this  one thing . That is the righteousness that is provided ...

What does it really look like to follow Jesus? Do you really know what it means to be a "Jesus follower"? John 8:32 "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." What makes an authentic Christian? This is a question that has been plaguing me for quite some time now, and it is time for me to address it with the information that I believe God has shown me. I will be sharing this in a series of posts, as one post would be overwhelmingly long. I really want you to focus on the validity of each “marker”. See how you can compare your life as it is to each “marker” and be honest. Are there things that you would need to alter? Are you really walking through this life as a true follower of Christ, or are you a fake? You owe it to yourself, and especially to God, to find out the answer. Can you spot a fake? For instance…if you were presented with two purses, one being a genuine Coach bag and another a knock off, would you be able to tell the...