Changed!

Bring Me everything that you are, and all that you are not; allow Me to perfect in you My spirit, and change you into My image.

God is knocking on the door of your heart, and mine, asking us to surrender our lives over to Him.  We can give Him our broken pieces and He will be sure to heal them, mend them, fix them and perfect them, into exactly what He intended for us.

God is the Master physician, the Master craftsman, so when we heed to the call, the plan, that He has placed on our lives, and finally surrender our plans over to Him, that's when He can truly begin a good work in you!

Our fears of being out of control, or losing our identities are just roadblocks we put up because we are afraid of the unknown.  We are afraid of the work that God is going to do in us and we are afraid that we won't recognize our  selves in the change.

Losing control is a very scary thing but one that we must give in to if we ever want to have what we have been promised.  The fear of staying the same should be more frightening than the fear of allowing God, your Savior, your Healer, your Creator, change you!

Open your hearts today and allow your heart to speak louder than your mind and start the walk today.  Make the change today and hand over today, right now, all that you are,  and all that you are not, allow God to begin His work in you today!!!

Pick up your cross.

I don’t play the lottery, well I do when the number gets really big, I mean life changing for everyone I know big,  and I even will go as far as making a list of who I would give what to and how much.  I believe, if only for a moment, that I have won that big jackpot, and what it would feel like to share the winnings with people and causes that mean so much to me.

I personally am not a materialistic person.  I don’t need to have name brand anything, if I like it, and I can afford it, I buy it.  I am not a big shopper, but I do go on a couple excursions every now and then.  There are truly few costly things that get me excited, but the little things, oh, the little things, they make my life.

I was not raised with money or comfort, I should say.  We lived pay check to pay check, and I was very aware of that.  I knew that I wouldn’t go hungry or without, but I also knew that we couldn’t live luxuriously or lavishly.  I believe this is part of what has helped shape me and what I take pleasure in.  

I’ve always known, somehow, that what I have wasn’t as important as who I was.  I always knew that the name brand of my sneakers, clothes or car wouldn’t speak for the quality of person I was, or was not.   I knew that these things were nice to have but they wouldn’t get me where I needed to go.

I didn’t always know where that was either. 

I knew there was something bigger, and a reason for my pain, and life problems, but I couldn’t put a finger on exactly what it was or how I was going to get there.    But I knew I would get there…somehow!

In Matthew 16:24-27 Jesus is explaining to His disciples that if you are going to follow Him, you would have to put yourself, your desires, your problems to the side and take up His cross.  Meaning, you would have to die to yourself and live the life that He is showing you.

(24) Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself (disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interest) and take up his cross and follow Me (cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also).  (25) For whoever is bent on saving his (temporal) life (his comfort and security here) shall lose it (eternal life); and whoever loses his life (his comfort and security here) for My sake shall find it (life everlasting) (26) For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life (his blessed life in the kingdom of God)?  (27)For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory (majesty, splendor) of His Father with His angels, and then He will render account and reward every man in accordance with what he had done.

Jesus is telling us that this path will not be easy, and we will have to forfeit some of our own desires, if not all of them, to be the person that He has designed for us to be.  He is saying that if we are able to do that, if we are able to pick up our cross and follow Him, the reward in heaven will be insurmountable.  There will be no limit to the reward that we will receive when we uphold the name of the Lord.

But there is another side to this calling, a side that is painful and lonely.  There is a road, a narrow road, that will bring you to the end of yourself, and the middle of loneliness, but right on the cusp of God.   There is an undisclosed amount of time where you will be in pain.  You will feel the rejection of your choices and you will feel the burden of My cross.  You might even feel the sting of My death, for following Me.  

All of these things come with the choice or decision to follow your heart’s cry.   These decisions are not made, by most, lightly.  These are decisions that are pained over, mulled over, discussed, prayed over, and I am sure many tears shed over.  These are not things that you wake up thinking ok, let’s get at it.  

This is a life changing, life altering, and life abandoning change…

For some people, such as Peter, this was an easy decision.  Jesus said follow Me and I will make you fisher of Men and Peter said, ok, let’s go.  Not so much for most of us, here living this life, without the physical body of Jesus to touch.  No, we are left to make this decision by looking around at what we already have, and how the promises of God, are so much more inviting.

We are taught for every wrong there is a right, and for every decision there is a reaction, which is completely true, when you are operating on the world’s economy but when you are operating on God’s economy, well, it doesn’t work that way.

You see Jesus will tell you to lay down your own life and pick up His, but what you don’t understand is the life that you are laying down, you truly are lying down.  You are not going to do this “Jesus” thing half way, and then navigate yourself between your life choices and His.  Nope, that’s not going to happen. 

You will be forced to make a decision, and your decision will be upon what you receive your reward or your reaction. 

When you choose to lay down your life and pick up His, you won’t see the reward immediately; actually, you will feel pain.  You will feel discomfort and you will feel alone.  You will not understand what is happening to you, but at the same time, you won’t be able to turnaround and return to who you once knew.

For all the unpleasant things you feel, the wonderful feeling you have inside of your heart and spirit will not allow you to turn around and lay down His cross for your old man.

God has a wonderful way of taking you to the brink of complete mental destruction and then filling you with His love, comfort and peace at the same time.  He has a way of pushing you to the point that you want to leap off the mountain to end the confusion, but giving you the courage to take another step, when you thought it wasn’t possible.

You see in the world we live in when you make a good decision you get rewarded, you get a star, a high five, or some response that lets you know you did well.   With Jesus you are expected to do good, and keep doing good. 

You are walking in the footsteps of Jesus; you have laid down your life for His, so to do anything other than good would be a mockery of His name. 

But as we see in Matthew 16:24-27 this is all to be expected.  We should expect all the things in our earthly life to push us to the point of no return, to make us truly make that decision, that leap and then look for God to catch us.  We should know that even though it hurts we are building up the kingdom of heaven, here on earth.  We are reinforcing the troops of God to do His battle here on the earth.

We see that it won’t profit us to hoard or store things of worldly treasures here, we can’t take them with us, but what does profit us, what we can store up and hoard, is the good works that we do in the name of Jesus, here on earth.

We can make those decisions to pick up our crosses and follow Jesus into the life that really matters, the eternal life.  We can get gold stars, check marks and high fives in heaven, we can be focused on doing what we know God would want us to do, now, here on earth, even when it hurts us, because we know, we have faith, that one day Jesus will return again, with His angels, our loving Father, and all the riches we have stored up in heaven will be given to us.

We will be rewarded according to the work that we have done here.  The souls that we have brought to God.  The lives that we have helped change, shape or mold.  The role models that we were in times of struggle, anguish and fear.  We are rewarded in ways that aren’t seen to the worldly eye, but to the spiritual person, the one also connected and carrying the cross, they will recognize you and they will continue helping you fight the fight here on earth.

Doing right doesn’t always seem or feel like the thing we want to do, but when you think about it and put it in context of why you should do right, there really is no other choice.   We must all lay down our own lives and agendas and sacrifice ourselves, the way our Savior did and pick up our crosses and follow His steps!

Now that’s a lottery I will play every day and expect to win!!!

The Blind Leading the Blind

Matthew 15:14  Let them alone and disregard them; they are blind guides and teachers.  And if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a ditch.

When you make a decision in your life to change, to become different than the person you currently are, you must make not only a mental decision but also a physical one, as well.

When I decided it was time for me to lose weight, and that I was no longer going to be passive about my weight problems, I had to not only make the decision mentally, but I had to make the decision physically as well. 

I had to make a change, well a lot of changes, but they all started by activating the change.

 I can say all the time I am going to lose weight and that doesn’t make the pounds slide off of me, no, I have to put physical work into the act of losing weight. I have to choose better foods, eat meals instead of skipping them, drink more water and work out. 

There are no hidden secrets, no lose twenty pounds quick pills, it was work, dedication, desire and lots of help from Gods.   I had to be proactive and not reactive to my decision.

How nice would it be to sit back and wish away those twenty pounds that have come back from my recent medical issues but I know that it’s not going to happen that way.  I know that once again I have to make the effort; I have to take the steps needed to have the outcome I desire.

This works the same way with God.  God needs to see us take the steps, be proactive, reach out for Him, ask for help and show that we are serious about the changes we want in our lives.   He is most likely not going to just do it for you, though He can, but how would we learn if He did?

I know you might not see the correlation between verse 14 and my weight loss story, but to me, when I was reading this verse over and over again, I kept thinking, you can’t be the same person, and not expect to fall in the same ditch.  You can’t be broken and lead someone to healing.    When my eyes are closed to my own situations, my own faults and shortcomings, how am I ever to open the eyes, or help open the eyes of someone else?

If you are an alcoholic and you desire to be sober, the last thing you should do is go to a bar, or a place where there is alcohol.  Most likely all of your “friends” and I use the term loosely, are also people who have alcohol issues, or have drank with you, so you can’t still be friends with these people when they are the temptation you are trying to resist.

We can’t claim that we want change and then do the same thing.  To me this is the blind leading the blind.  When you allow your old lifestyle and decisions to impede your decision to change you are going to fall back in that ditch, with the same people you have fallen with before.

I can never be a teacher or guide to what it’s like to battle addiction, but I can help someone make a plan to reach a weight loss goal.  Now, I am by no means the one you want to come to for these things, but I have struggled with weight issues, so I know the struggle of them.  I know the pain of this battle, so my eyes would be open to the other person who is starting their change.

We have become a society that needs immediate results, food, answers, money, employment and satisfaction, that we don’t know how to make a change and stick to it.  We think or have been trained to think, that change is to come easy, and it’s not.  If change comes easy for you, then you have not learned the lesson you needed to learn to keep you from wandering down that road again.

I think this is the main reason we don’t see miracles like they did during the times of the Old and New Testament.  I think that if miracles were still happening at the frequency that they were back then, we would never work or try for anything in life.  We would hit the button, snap our fingers, or click our heels three times, have the miracle and go about our daily lives. 

We wouldn’t glorify God, we wouldn’t give Him the honor and respect that He deserves, because it would be normal, ordinary and we would absolutely take advantage of it.

It would no longer be a miracle it would be a normal day!

I believe in my heart that God wants to perform the miracles like He used too, and I do believe He still is, but in areas that have not become independent of Him.  I believe He is still showing off and out all over this world, but not to the extent that I think He wants too.

In Matthew 15:13 it says.  He answered; Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be torn up by the roots.

We need this verse to spring off the page, grab us by the shoulders and realize this is what we need!  We need this verse to ring truth in our ears and hearts.  We need to see evidence of this in our daily lives to realize that God is indeed in control of our lives and the world around us.

We have become so incredibly desensitized to pain, suffering, hunger, starvation, homelessness, animal abuse, human abuse, sexual perversion, child trafficking and the list goes on and on, that we need Matthew 15:13 to be in bold RED across our foreheads.

Everything that God has not planted in your heart, He should remove.  Every single thing that causes Him pain, that doesn’t glorify Him and causes people to move away from God, He should remove from us and it should be painful.

We really need to wake up and see what is happening around us.  We are allowing the Blind to lead the Blind and we are doing it willingly.  We are turning a blind eye to the brutal world that we live in and closing the door to war that is raging around us.

We have become complacent and that is not what Jesus Christ died on the cross for. 

Jesus did not die for me to live in a mediocre world.  Jesus did not die for me to tuck myself safely in my home and live in a destructive world, full of hate, anger and distrust.  

Shame on us.  Shame on us as a body of Christ.  Shame.

We have allowed the blind to take over this world for long enough, we have allowed the plants that we have planted to sprout and infest the sacred ground that was given to us by God and it’s time that we make a change.

We are so fortunate that we have a Savior who loves us so much that He died for us to save our souls, and lives, so that we can have eternity with Him and other believers, but we have even become vanilla about that!

We live in a world where if one person takes the blinders off of their eyes, and changes the view for those who are following them, we can begin to affect change.  We can begin to honor our Lord for the sacrifice that He made.

It takes one person to start the movement.  It takes one person to open their eyes and allow the plants to be removed from their lives, that are not pleasing to God and begin anew.   It takes one person to say I am going to be accountable for the life that was taken for my own.  I am going to live my life in honor of the One who died for me.

You don’t have to make some big proclamation to this change, all you have to do is have a plan, connect the plan mentally and physically and then walk it out. 

You can be the change that will help open the eyes of those around them.   You can be the one who stops those around them from falling back into the same ditch they were just in, and showing them how to enter the kingdom of heaven. You can show them Jesus by just deciding right now, you will no longer allow the One who died for you, to die in vain.

We are all accountable for our lives.  We will stand in front of God on the day of reckoning and give an account for our words and deeds.  I don’t know about you but I don’t want to stand in front of God blindly!  I want to kneel in front of my King and have my eyes wide open, knowing I did my part in trying to open the eyes of those around me!

 

Do you have a dream?

Do you have a dream? 

Do you have something that you hope and wish would happen in your life, something you know is impossible but yet you hold it tight in your inner man for the day that maybe, just maybe, your wish will be granted. 

I believe to some extent everyone has these dreams, wishes, hopes.  Things that we want so desperately to have or see happen in our lives, or the lives of the ones around us.  I think that we need these hopes; we need these dreams to keep pushing us every day with the anticipation of them being fulfilled that day.

So what would happen if your dream came true, what would your life look like?  Have you suddenly ever started longing or believing for something that you never in a million years would want to do?

I do and have...

My dream, my vision, my hope and my prayer for my life, wasn’t one that I choose, it was one that was given to me, by God.   My vision for my life is much quieter and smaller than the one that God has decided to give me.  It’s a very normal, one house, and picket fence with two kids, two dogs, and two car garage kind of expectation for my life. 

God’s expectations or plans for my life are nothing like the ones I have for myself.  I have been battling with why God has decided to give me these big goals, these big plans, on a person who is very normal, very average.  And then I remember, sometimes, my God is a big God.  He is not average, He is not normal, He is not small. 

I am starting to understand the phrase we make plans and then God laughs. 

It’s as if the things that would satisfy my soul are the things that make God laugh.  And I say that not in a rude way.  They make Him laugh, because they are not big enough.  They are not grand enough, for the person He has created me to be. 

I tend to think that God has illusions of grandeur, but again, maybe not because He is the only one who can complete, fulfill and anoint the plans He has.

My plans went from one of average to ones of grandeur.  They went from a quiet simple life.  From having a personal relationship with Him and a family that loves God and surrounds our lives around Him, to that dream on steroids.  

Now, my plan, my vision and my purpose is to lead the lost to God.  I have decided to put down my plan and pick up His.  I have decided that God, the one, who created me, knows my purpose better than I do.  He knows the plans He has for me and He knows exactly how to bring them to pass.

You see when you serve God, when you humble yourself to God’s will and purpose, you will begin to see Matthew 19:26 become reality in your life.  You will live in the truth that God is Able.

Matthew 19:26 But Jesus looked at them and said, With men this is impossible, but all things are possible with God.

I want to put a thousand exclamation points on the end of that statement.  I want to highlight it in gold and make is shine and stand out, but God, all He wants us to do, is believe it!

In these verses Jesus was telling the disciples how to have eternal life and what you need to strip off of yourselves to have this life.  He used the parable of not being able to enter heaven as a rich man, that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needled than for a rich man to enter into heaven.  

But we see and we see quickly, that what is impossible with man is more than possible with God.   The changes that need to happen are up to us.  We are the ones who are stopping the progression of God’s ability.  It is our unbelief that is containing God, not God’s ability. 

God is asking us to strip ourselves of who we are, pick up who He is, and that it is possible for us to do this.  It is possible for us to change into the image of who He is, and to do exactly as He is telling us.   That there will be pain in the process and you will have to sacrifice some of your own wants and plans, but it’s worth it because you get heaven!!! You get GOD!

When God started moving quickly in my life, I was, and sometimes am still resistant to the work that He is doing, because it is costing me a lot emotionally.  It is costing me more emotionally than I would ever be able to explain but the end result, will be my ability to do as God has called me to do.

God has asked me, and I am sure He has asked you too, to sell all you have and follow Him.  He has given you directions on how to better your life; on how to have a more complete, peaceful life but we have to make changes and sacrifices to have the things that He is promising us.  We have to say ok, I am willing to give up myself, my small, normal plans for my life and pick up yours.  To follow yours and become your disciple.

I think most of the times, the reasons why we don’t or we hesitate to pick up the plans and purposes God has for our lives is because we think they are impossible.  We think there is no way ever, do I not only deserve to have what you are promising me but can I have what you are promising me. 

This is the truth, well this was the truth.  Until Jesus! 

When Jesus came, impossible went out the door.  The sides were blown off and the opportunities became limitless.   But you must first receive and believe!  You can’t look at words and not allow them to become your words.  These words are your promises, your truth, and your gift from God. 

The verse Matthew 19:26 about all things being possible with God is your truth when you believe that they are your truth.  When you begin to look at the power of your God instead of the lack of your flesh, these words become your words.

When God gives you a plan, He is giving you a plan for your life, and since He created you, the world, and your plan, we can trust that not only is it possible, but that it is the truth of your life.

We put the restraints on God, not God.  He isn’t putting the restraints on us.  Actually, He is waiting for us to take the restraints off of our eyes, hearts and minds and completely surrender to the idea, truth, phrase and Bible verse that all things are possible with God! 

That dream, hope, plan, purpose or vision you have for your life or the lives of those around you are possible. 

It is possible for the person I love deeply to stop doing drugs, and come back to God;  it is possible for your child to find God; it is possible for your family to be healed and reconnected; it is possible for your body to be healed and it is possible for God to do all of these things… Just believe He can and He will!!

Matthew 19:26 But Jesus looked at them and said, with men this is impossible, but all things are possible with God!!!!

Is God your prized possession?

I have a fear of fire.  I would say it is a rather new fear of mine, being that it is under ten years old.   The fear came very shortly after I lost my precious Grandmother, rather suddenly.  

This fear had a very strong grasp on my life, to the point I was having issues leaving my house without fear grasping me and holding me tightly.  I was afraid of my home catching on fire and not being able to rescue my dogs.  I still occasionally battle this fear and while I don’t understand fully, why it is still hanging around, I have tried my best to place it in the safety of God’s hands.

I try to not focus on the fear and possibly the loss, but on the goodness and mercy of God.  I ask for protection for my house, and for my girls every time I leave my house, and I do my best to rest in that comfort.  I do my best to find relief and comfort in the promises He has made to me.

We have been given many promises from God and we expect Him to hold up his end of the deal, but yet, when He asks us to keep our side of he promises we have made, it’s easier for us to fall away.

It’s easy for us to allow other things to become more important, more time consuming and more delightful then God.  We have found a new way to live that is very unbalanced.  One side being, God you must do all that you have promised me you are going to do, and I will “try” to do put you on my to do list.

You see God isn’t a to do list.  God isn’t something we have to do, God is something we need and want to do.  God is the relief that we are looking for amongst all the other things we make more valuable than Him.

When you decide you are going to make a change in your life or in your mind, you purpose yourself to make that change, to follow through with it and give it your all.   Why don’t we ever do that with God?  Or better yet, why don’t we ask God to help us make the change.  To show us how to make the transition easier for us or to give us help along the way. 

We have decided to make God a back seat, or maybe even a third row, participant in our lives, and if you take a moment to look around your life, you will see this hasn’t been working.

God wants to be more valuable to us then our possessions.  God wants to be more important than your iPhone, your computer, your television or even your job.  God wants to be more important to you than that chart you have to spend time reading the Bible to get a check mark, God wants you!

We all have possessions that we cherish. We all have those things that mean more than anything to us, and we will grab them in time of an emergency to save them, but do we feel the same way about God.

Would we grab God’s hand in time of an emergency?  Would we grab a hold of the Bible to cherish and protect?   When there is an emergency do you grab the phone to call someone or do you call on your heavenly Father to be there?

So many times we are putting God on a shelf and dusting Him off for appearances or when we really need Him, but we really need Him all the time!  We really need to have God become our driver, instead of our passenger in our lives.  We need to rearrange our schedules and what we find to be important and make God number one in our lives.

I have said this many, many times to one of my friends; you can’t take it with you.  You are not going to be facing the end of your life and asking about that possession, or thing that you didn’t get done on your to do list.  No, you are going to be asking about what is important to you. The things that you need to live your life, the things that enhanced your life, not about the things that you allowed to steal your life.

When you make God your possession, your vital need, you are placing your life in the hands of the one who gave it to you.  You are saying I trust you God.  I know that I need you more than I need anything else in my life, and I am going to show you that I know I need you, by placing you first in all of my ways.

God values us, we are His prized possessions, and He is just waiting for you to make Him yours!!                                                                                                       

Fake it till you make it!!

Matthew 15:8  These people draw near Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts hold off and are far away from Me.

Have you ever heard the term “fake it till you can make it”?  This is what this verse means to me.  To “fake it till you can make it” is a term used, from my understanding to do something afraid, or to fake something until it becomes second nature to you.  You fake it, pretend that it is something you are capable of and then do it until it becomes something you are capable of.

In none of my understandings, or ways I have heard this phrase being used, could I ever imagine using it in reference to Jesus.  I would never tell someone in relation to their relationship with God, to fake it till they made it. 

Never… No.

God can sense that fakeness, the disconnect between your heart and His.  God will never fall for the “fake it till you make it” relationship, but we might!

This particular verse in Matthew, was once again referring to a group of Pharisees and scribes who were harassing Jesus, and the work that He was doing.  He was healing people, well let me rephrase that, people were touching His garment and being healed.  Of course the Pharisees wouldn’t approve of this behavior and needed to call Jesus out on it.

The Scribes and Pharisees were upset because the followers of Jesus had not washed their hands before they sat down to eat.  I know, petty, but this is all they could use to come after Jesus and try to prove that He wasn’t who He really was.

Jesus then returns their polite quip with one of His own.  Jesus points out to them in Matthew verse 3-4 that and I am paraphrasing here, that if they want to start living by the rules given in the day of Moses, then maybe they should pay attention to the rules on honoring your father and your mother.  

I would love to have seen this with my own two eyes.  I am sure that they snickered to themselves, here we have Him, and He can’t get around this one for sure.  There is no way to let His disciples off the hook for not washing their hands before they sat to eat, yes, we have Him now.  HA is what I say.  HA! 

You can’t trap the one who knows all things, and since they continued to be ignorant to the fact that Jesus was indeed, the Savior, the Messiah, the son of God, they kept trying to trip Him up.

Impossible…                                                                                            

In verse eight we are seeing that Jesus is speaking to them and saying you act like you are drawing near to Me with your mouths and you honor Me with your lips, but with your hearts you are far away from me.  You don’t know Me with your heart, and that’s the most important thing for us to use in connecting to God.

Jesus is saying to them, you play the role, you “fake it till you can make it” but shame on you because I see through your rouse, I see through the game you are playing but yet, you are still to ignorant and pompous to hear the words I AM speaking directly to you!

This had to be incredibly difficult and mentally trying for Jesus.  He was constantly questioned about who He was and how He had the abilities He has, but yet when He would explain and tell you how, no one wanted to believe His words.  I would be so frustrated with that level of ignorance.

Jesus explains a little more, how important it is to have your heart clean and connected to Him. 

In Matthew 15:11 It is not what goes into the mouth of a man that makes him unclean and defiled, but what comes out of the mouth; this makes a man unclean and defiles (him).

I don’t know about you but I can definitely use this verse every day, to keep me on my toes.

You see, we can say whatever we want with our mouths, but the real truth, the real answer, is the heart.  What does your heart say?  Your truth will be exposed through your heart; it is always just a matter of time for that to happen.

I was watching a popular southern pastor on television a while ago and he said I don’t need to even talk to someone to know who they are.  He said all I need is your cell phone and your bank statement to know who you are.   How true is that!  You will see the desires of the person by the bank statement and you will see the quality of the person through their friends.

This is what Jesus is saying.  Don’t expect to fool your heart into believing what your mouth is saying.  They don’t have to be working together, because eventually the heart will expose the truth.

Jesus knows the things that are precious to us, He knows the things that we hold near and dear, he knows, because He knows our hearts.  He knows that if you are in church Sunday morning but really are wondering about what is happening with the game that’s on, He’s gonna know that.  He knows that the person, who is just singing because they want to give off a good appearance, isn’t connected to the songs they are singing, how, because He knows our hearts.

God knows the conditions of your heart, the love in your heart, the hate in your heart, the jealousy in your heart and He knows where He rates in your heart.

When we try to deceive God with our lips, our gestures, our words, we are only making a fool of ourselves, just like the Pharisees did with Jesus.   The words we speak will eventually unlock the truth of your heart and the more you try to build walls around your heart, the harder it will be for you to allow God to make the changes He needs to make.

This won’t be hard for God, please note, it will be hard for you!  Just like Jesus told the Scribes exactly what and how they were doing wrong and making a mockery of the “law” they loved so much, God will do the same thing with you when you hide the truth in your heart. 

Understand that God doesn’t appreciate a person who “fakes it till they can make it” attitude when it comes to Him and loving Him.  When it comes to God and where He is in your heart you best open your mouth and make sure that the words you are speaking are in line with the love coming out of your heart!!

Walking on Water or sinking in lack of faith.

Matthew 14:29-31 He said, Come! So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water, and he came toward Jesus. (30) But when he perceived and felt the strong wind, he was frightened, and as he began to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me (from death)!  (31) Instantly Jesus reached out His hand and caught and held him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?

Have you ever tried to walk on water?  I would imagine it would be a very frightful thing to attempt and an even more fearful and awe filled feat to fulfill.   I know that there are times in my life that I think God is just about asking me to walk on water, with the things that He has put before me. 

God has asked me to stretch my faith in directions I never would have thought to stretch my faith.  He has asked me to get out of the boat and just like He told Peter, Come!  

There are so many times that Jesus has asked me to take a step of faith, or come to Him, and I stood my ground in fear, in doubt and unbelief.  I didn’t listen to the voice of my God telling me to get out of the boat and walk on the water, for whatever plan He had for me.

Let’s face it, technically, we don't have to walk on water, because most of the things that God asks us to do is just like Peter walking on water, to us.   God doesn’t ask us to do small things that are easy for us to do, no He pushes, He pulls, He stretches and then He stretches some more.

He’s like the trainer you always wanted to have, but then when you got him, you wished you wouldn’t have asked for it.   God will give you the work out of your life, if you only heed His commands.

Peter was diligent and listened to Jesus when He told him to Come! Again, as we see the exclamation point, that is telling us that Jesus spoke frankly, intensely and with force.  Jesus was not giving Peter a suggestion; He was giving Peter a command. 

We see that when Peter listened to the command that Jesus gave him, that he was able to do exactly what he had requested from Jesus in the first place.  We see that Peter was actually the one who asked Jesus to command him to come to Him.  Peter was in a way testing Jesus.  In verse 28 And Peter answered Him, Lord, if it is you; command me to come to You on the water.

Peter was testing Jesus to see if the image they saw, and were afraid of, was indeed Jesus, and if it was to prove Himself by commanding Peter to come to Him.  The only way Peter would be able to get to Jesus, was by walking to Him, and walking to Him on water.

This is a great metaphor for our own lives.  We pray, beg, plead and ask a million times for God to give us something, bless us with something and then when we have it, we are lost in what to do with it, or how to handle what we have received.   A lot of times we end up feeling burdened by the thing, we have been praying for.

Peter was like this.  Peter was so enamored with Jesus and so connected and zoned into Jesus that he forgot about his own abilities.  Peter forgot that he wasn’t supposed to be walking on water.  He wasn’t capable of walking on water… in his own strength. 

You see Peter wasn’t walking on water in his own ability; he was walking on water, in the ability bestowed upon him from Jesus.  Jesus had transferred His super natural abilities to Peter in that moment, because Peter was so connected to Jesus, and he was able to complete his command…

until. 

We are so very much like Peter in our lives.  We command to have something, be able to be blessed with something and then it comes.  Now, what do we do?  We are able to live in the blessing for a moment, and think how Great our God is for giving us what we have been wanting but that moment fades, that moment, just like the shiny penny, goes away. 

We now have to hold on to that faith, that feeling of being blessed and walking in the glory of God, and the ability of Jesus to handle the blessing properly.   And soon, just like Peter, we sink.

Soon we take our eyes of Jesus and put them on ourselves and we have broken that connection that gave us the ability in the first place.  As soon as we begin to take the glory, the accomplishment, the blessing and put the focus on us instead of on God, where it is meant to be, we will surely sink, just like Peter.

(30) But when he perceived and felt the strong wind, he was frightened, and as he began to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me (from death).

I can’t even begin to count how many times I have done the same thing.  I am sure the number is in the thousands, if not more.  The moments that I thought I had everything together, just like Peter, and then the moment where the storm comes, the wave comes, or the fear creeps in, and BAM I am sinking.

Well what happens when you sink?  You either die or you find something or someone, to save you.   In this situation Peter called out to the only one he knew would save him from death, and that was Jesus.  I’ve called out to Jesus many times, and some times, many times a day!

I have taken the gift that I was given from God and allowed it to trample me or overwhelm me to the point that the blessing has now become a curse in my eyes, and I needed my Savior to come and save me once again.

I have cried out Jesus Help me, so many times and each time He has!!!

Just like Jesus extended His arm to reach in the water and save Peter from his death, Jesus will save you from whatever is trying to kill you.

I love in verse 31 it says instantly.  Instantly!

Instantly Jesus reached out His hand and caught and held him, saying to him, O you of little faith, why did you doubt?        

There are many layers of meaning in this sentence and I could probably go on and on about this one sentence, but the obvious one, is Jesus saved him, without questions, without thought, instantly!  

He will do the same thing for you!  

Jesus will instantly reach to grasp you from the storm that has caught you up in its midst, and free you from yourself.  He will take the storm and cause it to cease by speaking one word.  Jesus will never allow you to drown in the storms of life, He will always be there to protect and save you, when you have gone too far.

The second really important thing to see about verse 31, is why Peter began to sink.  Yes, we know that Peter took his eyes off of Jesus, and put them on his situation, but do you see that when we take our eyes off of Jesus, we are also removing our faith in Jesus.

Faith is what is pleasing to God.  We know that without faith we can’t please God, which means we can’t please Jesus either.  We can’t expect to walk in the power of someone we don’t have faith in. 

Let me say that again, more for me than you… We can’t expect to walk in the power of someone we don’t have faith in.

Faith is the key, it’s the gas that starts the car, it’s the key that unlocks the front door, and it’s the golden ticket.  Faith is what activates God.  It’s what allows God to say, Yes!!!  Come!   Faith!

When we have our eyes on Jesus and not our surroundings, the things we think we should have, but don’t, our health issues, our loneliness, our lack of money or lack of anything, we are stopping God’s ability to work.  Why?  Because we are stopping our faith! 

If faith is what allowed Peter to walk on water, and when he looked around at his circumstances that stopped the faith from working and he began to sink, wouldn’t you think that faith is the activator!

You put your faith in Jesus, in God and never in yourself, as Peter did.  You put your faith in the one who gave you faith, and not in your circumstances, and you will not only be able to walk on water but you will probably be able to run on water.

There are so many lessons in these four verses but to me, I think the main lesson is, Faith.  We must MUST have it to operate in the abilities of Jesus.    We must have faith if we want to achieve the plans that God has for us.  We must have faith to make it through the little things, so we will learn to rely on it in the big things.

Jesus’s hand will always be there to pull us from the pit when we have a lapse in faith, but if you don’t have faith in the hand itself, how can the hand ever save you?   You must first believe, to be able to ask and then be able to receive!

Without faith it is impossible to please God, and without faith it is impossible to unlock the gifts and blessings that God has waiting for you.  You will never be able to walk on water or even down the street, without placing your faith in the one who gave it to you… Jesus! 

Put your faith in the only hand that can save you from the storm and cause it to cease!!!

Jesus.

Silence...

I work in the communications field, which means I have to talk to people all day and give them new ideas about their business.   I have to be kind, listen and validate thoughts and ideas, and be honest, some days I just don’t want to be any of those things.  Some days my patience wears thin and my ability to repeat myself one more time, on the same topic has my hair standing on end. 

So by now you get the picture.  I enjoy my job and am very blessed to have it, but some days when I get in my car I just want silence.  I want the peace of hearing nothing and having to think about nothing. 

The ability to open my window, let the air, and sun hit my skin while driving home can help place me in the right frame of mind.  

There have been many times when I feel like I am going to lose my mind, and speak poorly to someone who doesn’t deserve it, or maybe they do just a little bit, and I will sneak into the bathroom to just take a minute to be quiet.  Just that moment to have clarity and ask God for help can make a huge difference.

I never liked to be in the quiet before.  I always needed to have some kind of sound, whether it is the TV, Radio, or on the phone, I needed some kind of distraction.  I needed to not be able to hear what was running on a loop in my head.

I have found over the years that if I don’t like to be with myself, than whom can I expect to like to be with me.  You sincerely can’t give away something you don’t have, so if I don’t like me, how can I allow anyone else to like me.

Silence has begun to change that for me.  Sitting still and trying to quiet my mind, and enter into the grace and love of Jesus has helped me slowly, begin to accept myself.  I can slowly see the transformation of my mind, and then also seeing that in the faces of the people around me.

I am not sure how many times in the Bible that it says Jesus went away by Himself, or that He wanted to be alone, that He withdrew privately to have solitude.   Jesus needed to break away from all the people, energy and His surroundings to connect to God, so why do we think we shouldn’t do the same thing.

In Matthew 14:13 it says When Jesus heartd it, he withdrew from there privately in a boat to a solitary place.  But when the crowds heard of it, they followed Him (by land) on foot from the towns.

This particular reference was to Jesus hearing of the news about John the Baptist being beheaded.  Jesus was sad and needed to grieve the loss of His cousin and His friend.  

He needed to find silence.  He needed to connect to His God, to His comforter, to His source.

Do you know what a change you would have in your life, if you would take ten or fifteen minutes out of your day and just sit in the silence with God?  I am sure, actually confident, that all the people who say that God doesn’t talk to them, will start to Hear His voice clearly.  They will start to feel a stirring in their soul and their hearts will become more receptive to the leadings of God.

Spending time with God, in His presence, amidst the silence, gives us a time to connect to Him, and recharge our batteries.   When you get very little sleep for an extended period of time, you start to feel sluggish, your mind begins to get foggy, you’re eating patterns worsen ,and your attitude and behavior is not a clear representation of you. 

All these things begin to happen and then worsen the longer your lack of sleep persists.  These are the same things that happen when you don’t spend time with God.  When you don’t take time to acknowledge your need for God, for a Savior, you are starting your day off in the defensive position.  You are starting your day off in weakness.

You are coming from a place of depletion instead of a place of being full, and recharged.  When this happens over and over again, you can see your spirit, your emotions, your thoughts, everything, begin to dwindle and become raw.

Why do you think this happens?  Why do you think that when you haven’t tapped in to God, you aren’t living up to your best?  Do you think it’s because we were created to commune with Him.  We were created to spend time in His presence and to soak in His knowledge and love, like a sponge.

I challenge you, to every day for thirty days, to set aside ten minutes to spend time alone and quiet with God.   I will do this with you, as I myself, am not as disciplined as I should be in this aspect.

Watch how when you spend time with God you will begin to see your life unfolding.  You will begin to see you have patience for things you never had patience for before.  When you spill the milk, or get behind that one car driving ten miles per hour under the speed limit, you will be at ease.  There will be a calm place inside of you that will absorb all of the frustration.

That calm place by the way, is the Holy Spirit.

When you slow down, relax, or try to, and shut out the world with all of its noise for ten minutes every day you will wonder how you ever made it any other way.

If Jesus, the son of God, needed to break away, leave the group and be silent, then we should make this a necessary thing to do every day, so we can be our best self for the world. 

Jesus needed time with God, to sit in His presence and feel His love and acceptance.  Jesus needed for God to speak a word of wisdom to Him, and give Him direction on His life, so we need it too!

Now, don’t try to tell me that you are not Jesus, and you can’t do this because you are not Jesus, and Holy blah blah blah.  Keep in mind when you accepted Jesus as your Savior you inherited all that He is, and all that He has.

That means you have the ability just like Jesus to sit in front of God and ask for help, ask for understand, ask for comfort ,or ask to be loved.  You have that right, you have that blood bought right, and you should use it.

Silence… It’s not a bad thing; it’s not a thing to feel like you are being tortured to do.  It’s a God thing.  It’s a Jesus thing.  It’s a Bible thing.  And it should be a You thing!!

Now sit… be silent… be still… and listen!

Shake the dust off of your past and Change!

Change… 

There are so many definitions of the word change, that to put them all down here would take up a full page.   Change can be a noun, a verb, and it has so many synonyms that again, an entire page could be filled.

Ever wonder why change can be so incredibly difficult?  Why when you set your mind to change something about yourself, your life or your surroundings that you are met with an almost immediate resistance.

Change is the thing we dread but also one of the things we can be sure of.  Not all change is positive, and those changes seem to come to us easily, but when change needs to take place to improve something, then it seems to be easier to walk on water than it is to change.

We all desire to change, in one extent or another, and we all fight with the change that we are not asking for, but are still receiving.  

There are times in our lives where the desire to change is so strong in our spirits but hasn’t burst forth into our visible lives, that we are actually in pain.  We are stuck in the in-between phase, which can be extremely painful and a long process.

We all want change to happen quickly, and to be painless, but the chances of us receiving either of those things is slim to none.  God will often use our circumstances to change us, which means we are going to be moving at His pace, not ours. 

We will have to come to an understanding, within ourselves, that we can’t make what is happening change or go away, but what we can do is allow God to make the changes in us, that has caused the circumstances to be so painful. 

We can allow and accept that though change is imminent it doesn’t have to destroy you. 

In Matthew 13:55-56, we see how Jesus was not allowed to change, and be who He was created to be.  We see that because of His family ties and upbringing people kept Him chained to where He is from; instead of Whose He is.

Is not this the carpenter’s Son?  Is not His mother called Mary? And are not His brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? (56) And do not all His sisters live here among us?  Where then did this Man get all this?

When Jesus traveled back to His own country, of Nazareth, people were in awe and confused about how a simple Man, a carpenter’s Son, could have the knowledge that He did.  This change in Him had caused a ruckus and amazement among the people of His hometown.

Jesus wasn’t able to be who He was created to be in His hometown, because they already had established who He was destined to be, by His family.  He wasn’t allowed to change or evolve into whom He was called and created to be. 

We face this everyday, but in a smaller way than Jesus did, as we try to accept or bring forth change in our own lives.  Most times when we are on the brink of change we must leave behind what, and who we knew, to catapult us into the new life waiting for us.  The life that will come after the change has occurred.

We must make the decision to change and then walk the steps out of the change, no matter how painful or confusing they may be.

I don’t know anyone who has made a significant change in their lives, and were able to do so while remaining in the same space they had been in.   You can’t straddle a fence for too long, before a side must be made.

As we see here Jesus, was trying to pick a side, which was the side of God, and His people were not allowing it to happen.  They had kept Him fenced in on their side of the understanding.  They tried to keep Him from making the transition.

I have found from my own experiences, and from watching those around me, that taking the first step of change is sometimes harder than the actual change.  We have to abandon the life that we had lived in, whether this life was good for us or not, it is what we know. 

We have to turn our head towards a road that is painful, long, and sometimes lonely, but the walk must be made.  

Many times the people, just like in Jesus’ life, will hold us back and not allow us to change.  I find that this is due to their own insecurities in being left behind.  They are happy and comfortable living in the space of another person’s faults and misdoings, and it satisfies them to know that they are not alone.

This is like the alcoholic who desperately wants to be clean and sober but all of his friends, associates and social gatherings are tied into alcohol.   His friends will continue to pull him into this lifestyle.  They do this, because if they don’t hold him back and release him to change, then what are they?

They are left to then wonder and consider their own lifestyle, and again, this is not a comfortable place to be in.

Jesus saw first-hand how He was not going to be allowed to change from the image and identity that they had of Him, to the one, that He actually was, so what did Jesus do? 

He changed… anyway!

Jesus didn’t allow the people around Him, the people confused, concerned and maybe shamed, to hold Him back from who He was called to be, and neither should we!

Change is painful, and not everyone is going to be giving you high fives along your journey, but the one thing we do know, is that the harder you resist the change the more painful and difficult it will be for you.  This also gives you more of an opportunity to stay in the same form that you are currently in.

We are all called to change and evolve.  Our bodies change, our brains change and our relationships change.    As hard as you may try to stay still, life will constantly be flashing around you, so you have to either move willingly with it or be life will force you to move.   

Jesus used to tell the disciples when they leaving a into a town that was not welcoming, or that was full of evil, to exit the town and while doing so to shake the dust off of their feet. 

There is a reason why they were instructed to do something so small to us, and something we have created to be a catch phrase, more so then an lifestyle.  Jesus commanded them to shake the dust and dirt off their feet, so that they would not carry the problems from the past, or that town, into their future. 

They were not weighed down by the negativity from that area, and were free to start a new.  We have the same option!  If we don’t like our lives or something in our lives, we too can shake the dust and dirt off of our feet, and take a fresh step.

Jesus experienced change every day, as will we, and it is up to us to continue to carry the dust, problems, friends and feelings from the person we are into the new life, and the new person we want to be!

We too can shake the dust and dirt off of our lives, and step into a new, fresh, clean, changed life!

 

He did it anyway!!!

Matthew 18:11  For the Son of man came to save (from the penalty of eternal death) that which was lost.

AMEN!!  

I could not say another word, because everything we need to know is right there in that one sentence.  Everything that is and will be is in that sentence. Your past and your future are in this sentence.  The character of God is in that sentence.  The love of God is in that sentence.

God is that sentence.

How wonderful is the idea of this sentence?  How complete and whole does this make you feel?

Jesus came to save the lost and not just to save them for the moment, but to save them from evil, from death and living eternity in Hell.

It truly is hard to wrap my brain around the magnificence that is this one sentence.  It’s almost as if the Bible could have been these words only, and it would have given us a clear sense to who Jesus was and is.  Who we could learn to be like, and it would give us someone who we could emulate our lives after.   It gave us all the instructions that we would need, in that one sentence.

Have you ever heard someone speak just one sentence and know that it was a moment in your life that would change you forever?  This is one of those moments for me.

This is a big, grand, overwhelming sentence because it speaks of me.  It says to me, I came for you.  I came to gather you, to find you and to save you from not only the enemy but from yourself.

It’s hard to have words big enough to speak of the love that sentence speaks of.

Jesus came to save you! 

Jesus came to sacrifice His life so that you could have yours.   He came to be the living sacrifice that would wash away all of your sins, your mistakes, your bad judgments, the lies you have told and the secrets that you hold inside your heart.  He came to free you from all of those things, and oh, so much more.

Jesus… The man who lived this life, to connect, educate and ultimately die, for you and me, is the sacrifice that makes our lives possible.  He is the one true thing that says I will do for you what you will not do for yourself, and that is love you, completely!

Jesus saw the value in you, before you saw the value in you.  Jesus knew the beauty of your life, even before your life was created, and He then died for that value and beauty.

He did all of this, even before He knew you would love Him back!!  Think about that.  He gave His life before you even had the chance to accept His gift, because of how incredibly special you are, we are! 

I hate to use the word brave here, but truly there are not many other words that come into my mind that fits.  I have a problem being brave enough to show my emotions to the people who not only deserve them, but want them.  I have a hard time opening up my heart and being vulnerable to friends, family and loved ones, so to think that Jesus, took on my sins and all the ugliness that I would have in my life, so that I can be saved and have eternity with Him in heaven… WOW!  

Brave!!

I have not met one person in my life that would be brave enough to endure pain, on that level, and know that rejection is very possible.  I know that I don’t think I could do it… Could you?

Could you die for someone that you never knew?  Could you die for someone that would never appreciate your sacrifice?  Could you die for someone who would never love you back?

Let that sink in for a moment… That’s what Jesus did! 

Jesus died for people that have chosen not to follow Him, believe in Him, honor Him or give their lives to Him… but He did it anyway!  There are probably four people in this world that I would sacrifice myself for.   There are four people that I would stand up and say, no, take me first, but these four people already love me, and I know that.

Jesus did it without knowing if you would love Him, accept Him or even appreciate what He did for you.  He did it just to give you the chance to accept His sacrifice. 

There is not much more that I can say about this sentence, but at the same time I feel like there are a million words that I could say about this sentence.   I think the main thing is we need to understand, digest, marinate, soak in and process this sentence. 

We need to understand the complete magnitude that each word holds, and then the one who holds them.  We need to make this sentence one of the most important things we have ever read or heard.  We need to see the weight and power this sentence holds.

We don’t deserve the sacrifice that Jesus gave us that day.  We never will deserve it… but He did it anyway!   We don’t deserve for God to watch His son die on a cross for our lives… but He did it anyway!

We withhold love and affection from people we know, people we share an elevator with, every single day, but remember for a moment, that person too received the same sacrifice from Jesus that you did, so what makes us any different?  What makes us any better?  What makes us worthy and not someone else?

The truth is we do.  We esteem ourselves higher than we ought to, or ever even attempt too, but when you look at it from the perspective of, we all needed to receive the same gift from Jesus, than how can one be better than the other?

We were all lost.  We were all without forgiveness.  We were all without a Savior and we were all destined for Hell, if it wasn’t for Jesus. 

We are all the same.  We are all human beings that needed to be saved from ourselves and the lives that lay before us.  We are all the one sheep that the shepherd went to look for and rejoiced when He found them.

That is us!

God rejoiced on the day that you found Him, and His son.  The heavenly choir sang out a new song of wonder, and joy, the day you decided to receive the gift that Jesus gave to us so freely, and it is our job to help others who are lost to be found.

It is our duty to the one who sacrificed for us, to share Him with all of those around us.  To never consider someone less than ourselves, or assume that they don’t need to know Jesus, because remember He died for them too.

Matthew 18:11 For the Son of man came to save (from the penalty of eternal death) that which was lost. 

We are the lost and broken things that Jesus came to save, and once we are found, it us up to us to give what we can back to Jesus by trying to save the other lost and broken things of this world! 

You see once you are found, you can never truly be lost again.  You can wander away, but your heart will always bring you back to the One who found you!