Posted in Source Groups
Our source group is working together to raise money to build a deep bore well for a village in Northern Uganda. Please join us in helping to provide clean drinking water to hundreds, maybe thousands, of people currently without! To donate, or for more information, please visit our page on the Awaytohelp.org website (click on the above banner). You can also e-mail journeywellproject@gmail.com.
We’re just regular people trying to make a big difference!
07 Thursday Apr 2011
Posted in Christian Living, Leadership
Tags
calling, christianity, dreams, God's will, gospel, idolatry, purpose, worship
Psalm 37:3-5 Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness. Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act.
Do you know what God is calling you to do?
How much time do we spend trying to figure out what God’s will is for our lives and what our purpose is?
My guess is, a lot. TOO much.
I’ve heard it said many times that God places your dreams in your heart for a reason. I used to operate in the all-out wholehearted belief of that. I had the attitude and mindset that I would be obedient to whatever God was telling me to do. Nothing else mattered. God would work the rest out, right? My attitude was “I’m serving God. I’m being obedient to Him and His Will for my life. What can go wrong?”
Boy, was I ever naïve and on a path to a serious wake-up call. And I sure got it.
Having lived a bit of life, I already had the experience behind me to know that we can plan our lives all we want, our lives are not ours and our plans should be written in pencil. God can, and will, interrupt our plans as He sees fit.
Ever heard of a man named Saul and a place called the Damascus Road?
But what happens when the plans we feel were God’s plans don’t work out either? It can be heartbreaking, it can be confusing, it can be discouraging.
Truth? I don’t have that answer.
What I do know is that we can get things wrong. We can turn them upside down and begin to worship our calling rather than the caller. We can get so caught up in moving puzzle pieces around and trying to make things happen, that we forget who is ultimately in control and who we should be focused on. If I’ve learned nothing else (and I hope I have), I’ve learned that God will not bless anything that we put in front of Him!
What am I called to do? Worship God. Serve God. Period.
And I’m fine with that. And if there ever comes a time that I’m not (and believe me, it happens), I let God put me in check. My type A, driven, make-things-happen, high energy, go-go-go personality and fiery passion for the Kingdom has to be put in check and reminded that my passion, my love, my focus, and my drive should be in learning, loving, and serving God with everything I have.
I can work, I can plan, I can strategize, I can hope, and I can dream…but instead I chose to focus on God, take each day as it comes, and be faithful wherever He puts me. I preach the Gospel to myself and get on my knees every single day and THANK Him for saving me from what I truly deserve, which is an eternity in Hell for my wicked and rebellious soul.
Anything else is a blessing. And if it doesn’t come, that’s okay. I get to worship God, and I get to spend eternity with Him.
And if that’s ever not enough, I’m thankful that He loves me enough not to give me the desires of my heart.
Proverbs 21:2
Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the heart
27 Sunday Mar 2011
Posted in Christian Living, Leadership, Trials
10 Sunday Oct 2010
Posted in Christian Living, Gifts, Leadership
Tags
Heard my pastor say today that what breaks your heart, what makes you angry….that is your assignment. That is what God is calling you to do.
I’ll be honest, so many things break mine, I don’t know where to start. Leaders thirsting for guidance, people (especially women) searching for who they are & what God is calling them to do, hurting & broken people outside of community & relationship, broken families, men that don’t know how to be men….I could go on and on.
There’s a difference between the things you’re passionate about (mine are strategizing about and building the local church, and communication) and the things that break your heart. I’m on an eternal journey to figuring out my place in it all as I know I’m not called to fix it all. Still though, it’s good to know yourself. Know your heart.
Never thought about it before? No better time than the present. Search yourself.
What breaks your heart? What are you angry about? What do you see that needs to be changed or fixed?
04 Monday Oct 2010
Posted in Source Groups, Trials
Taking a break from my “What I’ve Learned” posts, I really wanted to share my heart about something that God has given me a deep burden for.
Lost & hurting people and the need for community. Plugging in to true, authentic community.
It’s easy to say we don’t need people. Especially if we’ve ever been hurt by someone at some point in our lives (I’d be willing to bet that is every single one of us). It’s easy to judge, it’s easy to resist, it’s easy to shy away from community, but God did not intend for us to live life alone.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12: Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
I’ve heard people, I know people, who have made it through tremendous tragedies, serious problems, and intense warfare who credit it to 2 things in their lives: God, and the people around them.
I can say that there has been times in my own life that I have needed and felt the support and prayers of the community around me. My church family, my small group, and my inner circle of close confidants. I don’t think I would have gotten through some of the things I have without them. There is just something powerful, comforting, and freeing when someone that knows you and loves you prays over you…
And you can’t get that alone.
Yes, it requires you reaching out, opening up, trusting, and accepting. Which, let’s face it, flies in the face of everything society tells us to be. Independent. Strong. Self-sufficient.
Through community we also learn to love, extend grace, and accept people where they are, just as we want to be loved and accepted where we are. Accepted in spite of our weaknesses. Loved in spite of our faults.
Whether it be a small group, the church body, or a few friendly believers that you happen to know, don’t shy away from community. Don’t resist community. It might be just what you need to make it through. We are not meant to go it alone. Authentic community is not perfect people, it is imperfect people, leaning on each other, growing together, relying on a perfect God.
What has being a part of community gotten you through? I’d love to hear your story. Share it here!
23 Thursday Sep 2010
Posted in Christian Living, Leadership, Life, Trials
I’ve learned so many things during the trials I have gone through over the past year or so. I look at my relationship with God now compared to my relationship with Him then, and I can honestly say that it is a million times better. Sure I prayed, read my bible, and loved Him undeniably, but there was just something, a disconnect between what He wanted from me and what I wanted to give Him. A disconnect between how He saw me and how I saw myself. A disconnect between what He called and purposed me to do and what I felt capable and worthy of doing. I denied to myself how weak my relationship with Him was in certain areas. It suffered because of my stubbornness, because of my need for “control”, because of my refusal to trust Him, because I didn’t truly understand Him.
No matter what, don’t we always expect God to treat us the way man has? To retaliate, love conditionally, and hold things over our head, just like people in our past may have done?
But guess what, He doesn’t do that.
I just can’t wrap my brain around that. Around his awesomeness, around His goodness. It amazes me how much He loves me, how patient He is with me and has always been with me, and how undeserving I am of it all! The things He has brought me out of, the things He continues to give me grace for on a daily basis, the restoration He has given my spirit, the Love and healing He has given my soul….just makes me absolutely love to worship Him and honored that I get to praise Him!
I don’t know that I was or wasn’t a worshiper before, but there’s just something about knowing and feeling in every fiber of your being what He is to you and what you are to Him that just makes you get absolutely lost in His presence. My daily praise and worship time is what I look forward to every day. I get lost in how much I love Him.
Not because of what He’s given me, but because of what He’s done in my life.
If you are going through a hard time in your life, I know that you’re probably trying hard to fix it, make it better, or “figure something out”. Believe me, I understand all those thoughts, but from experience I can tell you that there is nothing you can do to change anything or make it better. You will exhaust yourself trying. For some of us, exhaustion, coming to the end of ourselves, is what it takes. That’s what it took for me.
You’re here for a reason, and God wants to show you what that reason is. Come closer to Him. They’re not just words. I know they may sound like just words if you’re not “at that place’ yet, and if that’s you, I pray that you are there soon, because when you finally do get there and you start to focus solely on Him, and you fall back and let Him catch you, you’ll wonder why you didn’t run there first.
