Chosen for God's Purpose

Reach Out - Get Help With all the sad news circulating today about yet another celebrity taking their life after a battle with mental illness, I felt I just had to weigh in. I know…I know. There are a million people putting in their “two cents” on this topic right now. Some opinions are helpful, some are hurtful. Mine may fall silent among the crowd, but I am going to put it out there regardless, because I have been there. I believe there is strength in personal experience, so I am choosing to share mine. For as long as I can remember, I have struggled with feelings of disconnection. I remember standing on the playground as a child at school, having an existential crisis while looking at my hands or other parts of myself, thinking “is this really my hand (or foot, arm, leg, whatever)?”, and then immediately feeling shame and embarrassment for having such weird thoughts. I never talked to anyone about this. Somehow, I just knew in my mind that to tell someone the strange ...

Have you ever wondered what it would take to have a successful year? Not just the kind of year that you get through, or the kind that you feel OK about. I am talking about a truly life-altering kind of year. The kind that causes you to look back and shout "Hallelujah!!" when you see all the growth and transition God has brought forth in you. What would it take for 2018 to be that year for us? At the beginning of 2018, when everyone was knee-deep in their resolution making process, I had the privilege of listening to a series of messages by world-renowned Bible teacher, Derek Prince. If you have not experienced the pleasure and the challenge of his teaching, I would encourage you to seek him out (derekprinceministries.org) .  In this series, entitled Twelve Steps to a Good Year , Derek walks us through the book of Hebrews, and points out twelve specific verses that point us towards a life more set on God -- more set on service -- and much less s...

Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” Follower. Imitator.  After a careful review of the previous six posts that allowed us to dig into the characteristics that Christ manifested in flesh - can you now see the stark difference between these two terms? A follower is one who simply goes where another leads. An imitator is one who strives to become like the one they follow. I believe that the early church was full of disciples , those who truly desired not only to follow Christ, but to become more like Him every day. They were passionate pursuers of the truth that He lived out, and proclaimed it with boldness . They learned to lay their lives down in sacrifice and humility and faithfully serve one another as they served Jesus. And they worshiped - oh did they worship ! For the...

Are you bold enough to take a leap for Jesus? When you consider people from the Scripture, who would you find to be truly bold ? There are so many to choose from who showed strength amid great travail and adversity; Peter, Paul, Elijah, Ezekiel, Esther, David, and so many more. However, I want to look at someone who  would often be overlooked - Gideon. We see the story of Gideon unfold in chapters 6 and 7 of the book of Judges. Here is a normal, everyday man living in a city struggling against the oppressive forces of the Midianites. He does not see himself as much- in fact when the Angel of the Lord (pre-incarnate Christ) calls him “a mighty man of valor” and informs Gideon that he shall deliver Israel from this current bondage, he responds with a typical statement. He cries out “O Lord, how shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in my father’s house” (Judges 6:15) . On a sidenote, isn’t God awesome - how He alw...