While God has made it very clear what my next step is…see my last post 2 Timothy 1:7 Kind of People for one, He has taken me back to last year and when He called me to take my next step of quitting my job at Daisy Elementary.  

I’ve felt the call to ministry since the year I graduated from college, but God opened doors and made it very obvious that He’d called me to teach at Daisy Elementary for 4 years upon my graduation!  Then, last spring, He made it obvious that it was time to leave the comfort of my music teaching job at Daisy to pursue my calling into ministry…not knowing exactly what that looked like or where it would take me, but He let me know it was time!
He let me know through the verse John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  
This life to the full, Kelly Minter talked about in her No Other Gods study,we will only grasp and strain for if we’re not being obedient to God.  This hit me like a ton of bricks that it was time to go after what I had said for several years my heart’s desire was.

So, I was going through this Kelly Minter study in the spring and then turned around and did it again in the fall.  I will never forget sitting in my small group the night we were discussing this John 10:10 verse and commentary, and how God spoke to me so clearly that I am living the life to the full…I took that step of obedience and now I was living a full life.

Now let me back up…was my life looking like I thought it would when I took that step of obedience…ABSOLUTELY NOT!  But what God spoke to me so clearly that night was that I was right where I needed to be with Him, and that’s all that mattered.

Ephesians 4:30 says “Don’t grieve God. Don’t break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don’t take such a gift for granted.”
His Holy Spirit moving and breathing in me is the most intimate part of my life…making me fit for Himself!!  

That’s what next steps are all about, don’t you think…responding to the moving and breathing of the Holy Spirt that is making us fit for Himself (aka sanctifying us) so we are not only in right relationship with God but RICH, INTIMATE relationship with Him…living this life to the full!!!

‎”ACTIONS speak louder than intentions” -Andy Stanley Choosing to Cheat

“They claim to know God, but their ACTIONS they deny him.  They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for doing anything good.” -Titus 1:16

 “You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his ACTIONS were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,’ and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.” -James 2:20-24

 ”Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with ACTIONS and in truth.” -1 John 3:18

WOW!! my actions are pretty powerful!  I can intend to call someone to let them know I’m thinking of them all day long but unless I do it, that person has no clue.  I can intend to spend time with someone all day long but not do it, again that person has no clue.  I can intend all day long to workout, but until I get by butt up and workout, it’s going to do my body no good.  I can intend to do my quiet time, invite someone to church, tell someone about Jesus, go to church myself, make changes I know God is calling me to make  through His Word or wise people but until I put ACTION to those INTENTIONS, it means NOTHING!

And even as these scriptures point out, I can even go past the intention to talking about it but that’s just as useless.  There’s nothing stronger I’m beginning to believe than ACTIONS!  Anything can come out of my mouth in a split second but my actions grow from intentions to something I talk about to something I do.

So, has God placed an intention in your heart and mind that you might even talk about that you need to put feet to, so to speak, and ACT on it?!?! 

My creative best…what is my creative best?!?!
You know, I enjoy being creative..maybe not exactly the way the next person would but in my own way…the way God created me, right?!?!

I love kids!
I love decorating…but not just any decorating…I love like the pintrest ways of decorating!
I love creative projects like pintrest projects or photography projects…being crafty!
I love to cook!
I love intimate conversations with just one person or a few people where I can truly be myself through and through!
I love  journaling and blogging!

It’s easy to get caught up in the busyness of life or even the trying to fit in with that group or that guy or that girl that I think it’s easy to lose the creative me that God’s created me to be.  I guess I thought at 26 I’d have that all figured out…what was I thinking, right?!?!

But with this verse in mind  and words of Lynne Hybels In Nice Girls Don’t Change the World (“A good woman knows her unique life matters to God”), I want to embrace those things listed above knowing that there is no need to shun these things or put them aside because someone else doesn’t like it or appreciate it or because they seem too simplistic to really have meaning.

God created me, and He created these interests in me, and as Lynne Hybels points out when I avoid those interests and passions God’s placed in me NO ONE WINS…not me, not people around me, not God…we all lose!

So, even though it’s not always easy, I’m trying to embrace the creative me God’s created me to be!

So as I contemplate how Satan will stop at nothing to make me be insecure and feel like I’m not good enough, God in His unique way has followed that thought with the only way to combat Satan’s schemes and guard my mind is with TRUTH…His Word.

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH will set you free.”  (John 8:31-32)
And the first thing we’re told to put on in the armor of God in Ephesians 6 is the belt of TRUTH!

Satan wants so badly to hold us captive by our thoughts…by thoughts that make us feel insecure and not good enough but as God’s Word tells us…the TRUTH will set us free from this captivity!

So, if I want to live my life in this freedom, I have to fill my mind with the TRUTH…with God’s Word.  By spending time in His Word daily but even deeper than that…hiding it in my heart, memorizing scripture.  I am absolutely horrible at memorizing anything (just ask my piano teachers in high school and college LOL) but as a girl I was talking to last night said, “life happens”, and if I’m not ready with my belt of truth on at all times, I’m in a very vulnerable spot for the devil’s schemes to knock me down, hold me captive, and kill me (or at least kill my joy).  I don’t know about you but that’s a place I don’t want to be!

J. Oswald Sanders talks about the story of Moses in Exodus 32 where God tells Moses when he’s on the mountain that the Israelites have turned from Him and created golden calves to worship.  At that point God is ready to destroy them but Moses pleads to God on their behalf.

Moses had a choice at that moment…God was not angry with him.  So, he could have thought only of himself and moved on with God completely disregarding the Israelites and their walk with the Lord.  But instead he had such a passion and concern for the people he was leading that he pled to God on their behalf.

Here’s the convicting thought….do I get caught up in my own needs, desires, goals, etc that God has given me and even my own personal walk with Him or am I following the example of Moses in Exodus 32 and taking time to plead to God on behalf of those people God has placed in my life to lead, live life with, love, etc?

How does this thought hit you? I came across this yesterday in the book Spiritual Leadership  by J. Oswald Sanders which caused several different thoughts to come to mind…

1-I’ve often heard and even said so myself that there just aren’t enough hours in a day.  With this thought of Jesus in mind, when I say this am I not insulting the life of Jesus?  Twenty-four hours a day were sufficient for Jesus to COMPLETE God’s WHOLE will for His life.  So when I say 24 hours aren’t enough for me, am I saying that I have more to do or God wills for me to do more than Jesus did?

OR

2-Am I just a poor steward of my time?  God knows that we only have 24 hours in a day…that’s not new news for Him, so He knows exactly what He wants us to get done during that 24 hour timeframe.
So, am I spending time with Him each day asking and seeking how He wants me to spend each of those hours in my day?
What are my priorities?   Is there purpose in what I spend my time doing?  Or am I just simply doing things for the sake of being busy or  because I’m afraid to say no?

I think that’s why 24 hours a day were enough for Jesus to complete the will of God because He was purposeful in everything He did from healing to teaching to praying to resting.  When it was time for Him to do these things, He did them and let nothing stand in His way of doing them.

This is where I am in life right now…what  do I spend my time doing and does the purpose of what I’m doing fit in with God’s will for my life?  I have to wrestle with this and be willing to say “No” sometimes when it’s not easy or comfortable.  But am I willing to sacrifice God’s will for my life just simply because I wasn’t willing to say the word “No”.  Or to take that opportunity away from someone else because I wasn’t willing to say “No”.

At the end of my life I want to be able to say the same that was said about Jesus…that 24 hours a day was sufficient for me to complete God’s will for my life.
What about you?

This has changed my way of reading scripture, such as this one:
“God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.
So we will not fear when earthquakes come and mountains crumble into the sea.” (Psalms 46:1-2)

So, these verses tell us there are going to be earthquakes…just like the one yesterday near Washington, DC but when they come there’s no need to fear because God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.

Later in this chapter in verse 10, we are told to “Be still and know that I am God!”….God tells us to BE STILL and know that He is God!  Not go work and do and figure everything out and know that He is God…but BE STILL (even when the earthquakes hit…to be still)!

I don’t know about you but even if it’s not a physical earthquake that hits a city, life can feel like an earthquake…making a transition in life, your car won’t start, a sickness comes upon you, you lost your job…things are just going crazy it seems like…but even when they hit, God is telling us, “BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD!”

That’s my resolution today…to “BE STILL AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD!”

“Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.  For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
-Mark 14:38

I know it wasn’t an accident I read this verse and that we sang this song this past Sunday at New Spring Church…check it out–SO, SO powerful:

My God’s just SO, SO awesome like that!!

Serious: Chris Tomlin’s Faithful
Captivating in every way…lyrics, instrumentals, harmonies…Awesome song!!