Memorizing scripture – Live the Crazy Life

Bible, Jesus, love, Memorizing scripture, Prayer, Steadfast love, Uncategorized

Determined

February 22, 2021 No Comments

Only once before have I come across a word in the Bible that sends me on a wild chase through scripture to understand the word at its core. The first time was steadfast love – hessed. The Lord has given me a new word to study, meditate, search the truest meaning, and then apply to my every day life. Just as understanding hessed at depths I can’t explain I now carry that word along side a new word, sterizo.

I first encountered the word in a Bible study I am doing called Determined – Living like Jesus in Every Moment by Heather M Dixon. It is an in-depth study of the book of Luke, and an amazing one at that. One of the days in the study she leads you to study Luke 9:51 “Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.” (NKJV)

Tucked in this verse we find the word that now has grabbed ahold of my heart and has become a tether from my heart to God. It really is the whole phrase “set His face” that means sterizo. It simply means to firmly fix; direct myself towards; give support to secure; to set ones face as flint; a Hebrew expression.

So me being me, I began to study this little Hebrew expression to fully understand. Along the way I unearthed some amazing facts about this expression and learned new things about flint rock. To put all that information in a nutshell, it means to have unwavering determination to accomplish a purpose or a task.

Using Jesus as our Biblical example it meant everything He did from the fall in the garden of Eden to His resurrection from the grave was about getting to the Cross of Calvary. It was always about becoming the sacrificial Lamb of God for you and for me. When He was here on earth He lived with that purpose in mind.

MacLaren’s Exposition’s found on Biblehub.com (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/luke/9-51.htm) explains it this way:

“As we look up at that Cross we know not whether is more wonderfully set forth the pitying love of Christ’s most tender heart, or the majestic energy of Christ’s resolved will. The blended rays pour out, dear brethren, and reach to each of us. Do not look to that great sacrifice with idle wonder. Bend upon it no eye of mere curiosity. Beware of theorising merely about what it reveals and what it does. Turn not away from it carelessly as a twice-told tale. But look, believing that all that divine and human love pours out its treasure upon you, that all that firmness of resolved consecration and willing surrender to the death of the Cross was for you. Look, believing that you had then, and have now, a place in His heart, and in His sacrifice. Look, remembering that it was because He would save you, that Himself He could not save.
And as, from afar, we look on that great sight, let His love melt our hearts to an answering fervour, and His fixed will give us, too, strength to delight in obedience, to set our faces like a flint.”

Charles Spurgeon even wrote a message about this topic that he preached on Nov. 28th, 1880 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in Newington. His whole message points to lingering with the idea that the Lord loves us so much that He spent decades of time determined to save us from our sins. It’s a long message but well worth the time to read it and ponder his questions in your own heart before the Lord.(https://answersingenesis.org/education/spurgeon-sermons/2738-the-redeemers-face-set-like-a-flint/)

For me, I want to learn to live with my face set as flint towards God every day. Determined to accomplish His purpose each day. Determined to spend time with Him daily. To linger in His presence. To have a heaven-minded agenda for my life lived out each day.

This word sterizo means seeking God daily. Being on purpose in my quiet time to learn His heart, His plan, His love for me all over again. It’s having a resolve to say no to things that are lesser than God’s best for me. It’s having courage to not participate in things that pull me off course from pursuing His heart.

I know it won’t be easy, but I know that with the aid of Holy Spirit and studying Jesus’s determination, I can do it. I can look to others in scripture like David, Daniel, and the apostle Paul who lived this life of a face set like flint on following the Lord.

It will at points be tirelessly hard, but oh so worth it. I wonder who else has a resolve in their heart, and has set their face like flint to follow after the Lord?

For additional scriptures on sterizo read:

Daniel 1:8

Gen 31:21

Deut. 11:18

Daniel 6:14

2 Kings 12:17

Isaiah 50:7

Luke 16:26

Luke 22:32

Romans 1:11

Romans 16:25

1Thessalonians 3:2

1Thessalonians 3:13

2Thessalonians 2:17

2Thessalonians 3:3

James 5:8

1Peter 5:10

2Peter 1:12

Revelation 3:2

Bible, COVID 19, Memorizing scripture, Prayer, Trust, Trustworthy, Uncategorized, wisdom

Trust God

March 21, 2020 No Comments

Trust God. Simple words to tell a friend or someone you know who is going through something hard in life. Simple to say, especially if things are going well for you at the time.

It seems like right now the whole world is going through a hard time. We are all facing struggles, uncertainty, fear, and probably a host of other emotions depending on how COVID-19 has effected you personally. Even with all of that, my advice to myself, friends, family and my church ladies is to still trust God.

I am preparing to lead a study at my church on Psalm 40. In preparing for it I felt impressed to memorize the whole psalm – all 17 verses. I found myself today stuck on verse 4. Not because I was having trouble memorizing it, but because God was saying “Slow down. Repeat that again. Did you catch what it really said?” Truth was I hadn’t. I had not really let that verse sink into my heart. Verse 4 reads “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not look to the proud or those who turn to false gods.”

That one little verse says a ton. First, it’s a choice to trust God. You must make yourself trust God. That means that you have to decide if God is always good. Does He always Love me? Is He faithful? Based on those answers, you can decide either “Yes, He is. So I will make myself trust Him,” or “No, I am not so sure.” I believe the answers to those questions is a resounding YES. So I have decided to trust God when things are good and remind myself I trust God when things are not so good. I teach the ladies in my Bible studies that they have to pre-decide in their hearts that God is trustworthy when things are good so that when the rough time hits, you have a firm answer in your heart. Trust God.

The second part of the verse says not to look to the proud. That means not looking to those who put their trust in their own abilities – those who think they can handle anything. And then, not turning to people who put their trust in false gods. People who trust in money, their status, their minds and so on.

You see right now life doesn’t make senses. Things are weird, it seems no one really knows exactly the best things to be doing. So if we look to family, friends, jobs, government, or even doctors we are putting our trust in the wrong thing. The only one who is ever really in charge, the only one who really knows how things will end and what to do, is God. So why wouldn’t we trust Him?

It is simple to say we trust God but mind-bogglingly hard at times. However, it’s the best choice and full of blessings, absolutely.

So as we walk this COVID-19 thing out, decide right now that God is good and ALWAYS trustworthy. Then when you feel uncertain or that sense of panic rising, remind yourself, “I am one who trusts God. I can remain calm, and pray. He is good. He is with me. He will lead me. I trust God.”

Bible, family activities, Holiday, Memorizing scripture, Uncategorized

A moment to reflect and pause

October 2, 2018 No Comments

I am not Jewish, but I do believe that the Jewish festivals and activities can teach us a lot about our own relationship with God. Now that that is out of the way, I want to share with you a Jewish celebration or maybe tradition that I started doing this year. It is called Tashlikh. Tashlikh means to cast away. The celebration of Tashlikh is done during the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Which I realize as you read this is already past; however, I am wanting to get at the heart of this celebration not focus on its actual time frame

Since I am not Jewish I am not going to attempt to tell you how they celebrated this, but I will share how I choose to celebrate Tashlikh. I asked the ladies from my Bible study to meet me at a pond near our church. A few weeks before we met at the pond, my co-leader and I gathered some rocks for this day. We left some blank and painted on a few of them. We painted words like “faith”, “worthy”, and “loved”.

The day we met at the park I explained to them that Tashlikh is a time when we reflect on what sin or habit or item in our lives the Lord would have us give up or, to use the Tashlikh wording, cast away. I read to the ladies Micah 7:19 which says “You will again have compassion on us. You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depth of the sea.” I told the ladies to grab a blank rock and a marker, go find a place near the pond and ask God what they needed to cast off in their lives. After they were done discussing that with the Lord, I instructed them to write it on the rock and then throw the rock into the pond. So we all took our rocks, found our place to be quiet and pray, and then write on and release our rocks.

While I was sitting talking to God about the word on my rock, He said once we release the rock into the pond we can’t get it back. It would be next to impossible to find it in the pond. And even if we could find it by the time we did the words would be faded if not completely wiped away by the water and other items in the pond like sand and dirt and other rocks. Then God said, “This is how I forgive. I get rid of it – never to be able to get it back or find it again. So why can’t you let things go?” I sat there thinking about that. Why are we so hard on ourselves? Why do we hold onto things we should just let go of? And once they are gone, why do we live as though we are still holding on to them?

One of the points of Tashlikh is using your body to represent what is happening in the spiritual realm. On my rock, I wrote self-doubt and pride. I struggle with believing I am good enough – that I have something valuable to give to those around me. Or I think I am so great everyone should align their thinking with mine all the time. I never seem to find that balance of humility and obedience. I have spent hours in prayer on this. And then it became clear. It isn’t pride to share what God tells me, and it isn’t up to me to make people accept it. That part is on God. I am called to love others and point them to Jesus with my life. The end result is up to God. Whether I am accepted or not is not the issue. It becomes an issue of obedience to Christ and trusting Him with the outcome. When we write our issue or sin or word on the rock, we are acknowledging our wrong thinking or wrong actions. When we release them, we are giving them to God and asking him to wash over them. We are living out Micah 7:19 and Psalm 103:12. God really does remove our sins, and He says He will remember them no more according to Isaiah 43:25. It’s amazing how a physical action can help us understand something we know to be true but had a hard time fully understanding.

When the ladies were done with their rocks and had thrown them into the pond we all came back together. There is a second part to Tashlikh that is just as important as the first. Once we gave God our struggle we turn and look for the positive. I told the ladies to think of something God has done for them this year. Or think of something God has helped you to overcome. Basically, now that we got rid of one word, let’s focus on a new word. For me it was “worthy”. I have worth and value because God created me and gave His son to take my place so I can have a thriving eternal relationship with Him. That screams of value and worth. I also have worth because God has created me with a purpose according to Jeremiah 29:11.

Our words were not all the same and they were not supposed to be. We are all vastly different with different struggles and different strengths. We got rid of something that was bad, but we are to keep doing something that was good. We are not supposed to live focused on our sin, but rather live giving glory to God for the good.

So I challenge you to think of something you have been holding onto or a sin you have struggled with for too long. Write it on a rock then throw it into water (somewhere) and let it go. Give to God 100%. Then think of something good you are doing or an area of weakness you are overcoming – something amazing God has done in you or through you. Write that on a rock and put it somewhere you will see it often. Remind yourself, God is faithful. He will forgive our mistakes, and He is using us to make a difference for His glory. Go and celebrate Tashlikh.

Click Here for October’s memory verse

Bible, Memorizing scripture

Obedience is best

September 20, 2018 No Comments

For anyone tracking, I am about 2 1/2 weeks behind in this post. I normally have been posting at least once a month with a monthly memory verse. Well, this month I was out of town at the beginning of September and I literally haven’t been home this month but for 5 days. While it is the middle or near end of the month, I have a great verse to share and lots that God has taught me about this verse.

For the most of the month, I was in Israel with my church and family. First off if you haven’t gone you NEED to go. It’s not scary or dangerous, but life-giving and amazing. With that out of the way, there were many things that touched my heart while in Israel, but I want to share a continual theme that kept coming up throughout the trip. God wants our hearts, and with our hearts comes our allegiance, and with our allegiance comes obedience. You see God wants to be in a relationship with you, where you surrender your ways to His and live in obedience to what He tells you to do. That may sound scary and sometimes it might be, but the outcome will be worth the risk.

One of our first stops along the way was to the town of Joppa. Joppa is the city port where Jonah tried to run away from God and got on a boat headed for Tarshish. God had asked Jonah to go to Nineveh and call out against them for their evil has caught God’s attention. (Jonah 1:1-3) But Jonah knew God and knew God would have compassion on the Ninevehites and not send wrath upon them. This was a big deal to Jonah because the Ninevehites had invaded Jonah’s land earlier in his life and quite possibly were responsible for the death of his parents. They were wicked and mean people. And Jonah didn’t want them to have any of God’s mercy. So He ran away from God. And we all know how the story goes. Jonah gets thrown overboard, swallowed by a big fish, repents in the fish’s stomach and gets thrown onto dry land. He finally goes to Nineveh and tells them God will send His wrath if they don’t repent, and the city will be overthrown. According to Jonah 3:5 the people of Nineveh repent, fast and cry out to God. Verse 10 of chapter 3 tells us that when God saw what they did, how they turned from their wicked ways, and He relented of the disaster He had for them.

Jonah still wrestled with God’s mercy over his judgement which we all do from time to time, but the point is that Jonah, after going through a lot of trouble (and a fish), decided obedience to God is best. The end result, the city was saved, even though they didn’t deserve it. Our God still saves people who don’t deserve it, and for that, we should be grateful.

The city is also home to another person in the Bible – Simon the Tanner. Peter the disciple is staying in Joppa with Simon the Tanner when Peter has the vision of food coming down from heaven. Acts 10:1-35. This story is the beginning of Peter’s ministry to the Gentiles. This place is where Peter encountered God in a vision – where God told Him that God makes all things, including all men, clean. You may be wondering why that is important. What God was telling Peter is God wants ALL MEN (and women and children) to be saved, not just those who are of Jewish heritage. Peter’s obedience to God is why I am a child of God today. God again wanted to show Himself merciful to all men, and He needed a person to do that.

Through both of these stories, God was glorified and people were saved. I don’t think that Jonah or Peter knew the impact of their obedience. I don’t think they could ever imagine the ripple effect that act would have for years to come.

Joppa is a town that reminds us that God wants to partner with us to make His name famous in all the world. We can either surrender and obey, or we can fear and try to run and hide; but God will still accomplish His will. When we try to avoid obeying God, we don’t stop His plans but rather bring ourselves, pain, frustration, and fear.

God doesn’t want what we can offer Him. He wants our hearts. Because when He has our hearts, obedience follows naturally, and God’s goodness is spread through the land.

Ok. I realize this is long, but stick with me. We are no different than Jonah or Peter. God has called everyone who believes in Him to share that faith with others. And sometimes we respond with, “But they don’t deserve it.” And sometimes we respond with, “God they could never turn their hearts over to you. They are evil or, to put it in Peter’s terms, unclean.” But God is full of mercy and His ways are higher than ours. The bible says in 2 Peter 3:9 that God wants all people to be saved and none to perish. So what is holding you back from obeying God and sharing His love with those around you? You have a choice. You can be like Jonah and go through some pretty gross things before you obey God, or you can be like Peter and wrestle it out in prayer and obey God. Which way will you choose?

Click here for September’s memory verse.

Bible, Memorizing scripture, Uncategorized

A heart that dreams

August 4, 2018 No Comments

Summer is nearly over. And for anyone tracking, I am late in posting the August memory verse. But that is how this month is going to go for me. School starts, bible study starts, sprinkle in some family bonding, and a missions opportunity, add some changes with our church, and you have the recipe for CRAZY!! Although, I could say almost every month for me is crazy. Hence live the crazy life. I am just a magnet for crazy! Take on new tasks and add more to the old – sure why not — CRAZY!. But it is fun. I laugh more than anyone, which is due in large part to my husband and kids. They just make life fun. The other thing that makes this chaos keep spinning is the fact that I am chasing after my dream. Since I was a kid I can remember asking God to make me different. I got a little more than I thought I would with that prayer, but I wouldn’t give it back now even if I could.

I wanted to bring peace to everyone everywhere. I wanted everyone I knew to feel loved and valued. I still do. I just go about it differently now than at age 5. Ok, all that long-windedness (is that a word?) to bring me to the main point of this month’s blog. Finding your purpose and living it.

Some call it their dream, their calling, their purpose. All of which means the same thing. God has us each here for a reason, and life is best when we know that reason and strive to fulfill it. But just how to find it and accomplish it seems elusive at best, and sometimes impossible.

Then I read these verses from Psalm 16. Verse 7 reads ” I bless the Lord who gives me counsel, in the night also my heart instructs me.” When I first read it all I could think of were the verses that talk about the heart being full of evil like Jer. 17:9. But this verse seemed to be saying my heart instructs me at night. Why at night I wondered? I am not a fan of the night. Sleepless, bad dreams, loneliness all seem to thrive in the night. Anyway, I did a little research and the word heart there is actually kidney. Odd – my kidney instructs me at night… all mine instructs me to do is use the bathroom at 2:00AM. That isn’t what it means. It does mean kidney, but there is more to it than that. It also means the seat of emotions or your innermost heartfelt desires. The secret things you long for that you don’t tell just anyone. An amazing woman of God and friend of mine told me that the kidney is one of our innermost organs, and damage to a kidney can be life threating. It all began to connect and lead me to this amazing conclusion. God gives us counsel or direction but allows our dreams or our God-given purpose to instruct us. Why do I say dreams, because at night you dream, and if we pay attention to those weird dreams they might just be clues to our purpose. You see God gives us certain desires, or likes if you will, to specific things. For me, I love the word of God, art, and talking. Mix it all together and you have Bible study leader who makes art to decorate the table for the study. Or a leader who is always making stuff for the women in the study that have Bible verses on them so they can take them with them or hang them up at work or home to remind them what God says. I even put Bible verses on the little tags that connect to a bag of tea. Make something portable, pretty and full of the word of God and I am in every time!

But that’s me. So what is you? Do you like to write? Start a blog or write a Bible study, or even just write a friend a note to encourage them. Do you sing? Join the worship team, make a youtube channel of your songs, or sing to random people to cheer them up. I would so do that if I could sing well. Do you cook? Join the ministry at church that makes meals for people who are going through a crisis or hard time. Do you like one on one conversation? Have people over for coffee or meet at your local Starbucks and just listen. God can use anything we offer. And it works best when we allow Him to use what fuels us.

It’s simple to figure out. Daydream for a minute what you would do if you had time on your hands. Write down what that is. Now pray over that paper and ask God to show how He wants to use that to bless you and influence those around you. Then, here is the part that trips us up every time, do what God shows/tells you to do with what is written on that paper. Then keep doing it. And bam you are living out your dream or your purpose. God has counselled you, and your heart has instructed you. And if you are really brave, tell us all about it in the comment section of this blog.

Click here for the August memory verse

love, Memorizing scripture, Uncategorized

Weighed Down in Love

July 5, 2018 1 Comment

I have been wrestling with what to write for this month. I felt like I should be patriotic and write about praying for your nation. Then I had a different issue on my heart but finally felt the Lord lead to this while I was reading my devotional book this morning. The devotion is by Beni Johnson from Spiritual Java. The title was “Calling Forth His Desires”. In it, she writes, “Often people ask me to pray for them, they come with an agenda or an idea of what they want to ask God to do.” She goes on to say, “We need to learn to listen to the heartbeat of God and not always present our ideas to Him as if they are demands. It’s not about whether agendas are right or wrong, but it’s about spending time with God and resting in His presence. The amazing thing to me is that God is waiting for us to enter into Him.”

Bam, it hit me. I have been meditating on a verse that I would like to make this month’s memory verse. Isaiah 30:18. “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is the God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him.”

This verse speaks of an intimate encounter with Jesus. It portrays God standing, waiting with open arms to pour out His love and mercy. It’s as if He is standing there with so much love, mercy, and compassion that He is bending under the weight of it and simply cannot wait to lavish it upon us. He only needs us to turn our attention towards Him and ask, “What do you have for me in this situation?”

I’m not sure about you, but that isn’t the picture I have in my mind when I pray. I often feel like I have to say the right thing, ask in the right way, and then wait for what seems like forever before I get an answer. And I know God has timing, and it often involves us waiting, but I never think of God waiting on me. Waiting to pour out His love on me. Waiting to show His justice in my situation.

That is an amazing thought to me; that God is waiting to pour out mercy and love, compassion and justice. What an amazing God. So the next time you pray, before you say a word, close your eyes and see if you can picture God standing there waiting with His arms so full of love that it literally is weighing him down. He is there waiting to pour that love over you, to send justice in your situations, to hold you in compassion when you are hurting. He is waiting for you.

Click Here for July’s Memory Verse

Memorizing scripture, patience, Steadfast love, Uncategorized

The Necessary Unnecessary path

June 4, 2018 No Comments

God never ceases to amaze me. This month’s memory verse is one of those that you have to ponder on. If you allow the depth of truth hidden in this verse to be revealed, it will surely amaze you! Do you ever feel like sometimes God is saying two opposing things at the same time? This is one of those. Are you ready to be amazed?

2 Thessalonians 3:5 reads, “May the Lord direct your heart to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” A heart-warming good-to-pray verse. Who doesn’t want their heart directed to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ? This is one of those verses you could write in a birthday or graduation card. One that makes everyone feel good. And this is indeed a good thing to pray for yourself and others. But there is a great understanding that might change how you pray this verse.

To start, the words “direct your heart”. That “direct” word is kateuthunó, and it means “go straight down by the most direct, efficient route; to go in a direct course – avoiding all unnecessary delays, without any undue loss of time or achievement”. Ok, that makes perfect sense. I have to point out that I just love the “avoiding all unnecessary delays” part. But here comes the weird part of this verse. The word steadfastness isn’t the steadfast love concept I have been writing about this year. It has a different meaning. The word steadfastness is hupomoné and it means “remaining under, endurance; steadfastness, especially as God enables the believer to “remain (endure) under” the challenges He allots in life”. And there you have it. This verse is asking for our hearts to be directed to God’s love in the straightest path possible without unnecessary delays, and then ends the verse that on our way to God’s love we would go through the endurance to remain in hard places that God allows through Christ’s steadfastness. Those seem like opposites to me. A direct path with no delays to a place of remaining under trials? What?

I am reading this devotional book called Amazed and Confused by Heather Zempel. She does a great job explaining this concept. “Sometimes the best thing to propel us towards Jesus is the desperate determination: that potent combination of certain dispairs in your circumstances and humble confidence in Christ that draws His heart to you.” (page 41) Or I would say draws your heart towards His.

Think about it. God wants every man, woman, and child’s heart to turn toward Him – to seek Him, to want Him and Him only. Sometimes the only way to do that is to allow “trials” in our lives that bring us to a place where the only way to get through them is with the steadfastness of Christ. Maybe just maybe those hard, sometimes impossible to overcome on our own bumps in the road, are the straightest path for us to find Christ to help leads to the father’s heart.

It’s amazing, isn’t it? That God loves us so much that He would direct our hearts to places that are necessary to find Jesus even if we think they were completely unnecessary. It’s a love that leads only to what we need and stirs us – if we let it – away from things that are unnecessary in the process. The key is an open heart and a willing obedience to go where He leads and trust Him to give us the endurance to make it through the rough places to find Him.

The next time you are going through one of those hard places, ask God to open your eyes to the steadfastness of Jesus so you can know His love deeper in the end. Ask Him to lead you, and pray He will show you what you once saw as completely unnecessary you would see as necessary to know His love.

Click Here for June’s Memory Verse.

Bible, Memorizing scripture, wisdom

Living in light of wisdom

May 4, 2018 No Comments

It’s May!! Wow, this year is flying by, and what a year it has been. It has had some amazing moments and quite possibly some of my very lowest moments, too! This year, which started with my theme word for the year of steadfast love, slowly morphed into a year where two words – steadfast love and wisdom – (thus far) are making the framework for how I view everything. I still am learning to see everything in life through the steadfast love of God; which by the way is a great viewpoint to live from. Then, slowly, wisdom crept into my line of sight. There has been so much that I don’t know how to respond to, or I simply respond in my own ways -which usually lack wisdom and end up making a mess of the situation. So I found myself creating the monthly memory verse this month and hoping I could return to steadfast love but found wisdom swirling in my heart and mind. So here it is.

James 3:17 “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, and good fruits, impartial and sincere.”

I want to live with God’s wisdom in all situations – never my own. I fail at this a lot, but I promise it is a goal. So I am learning to distinguish my wisdom from God’s. That, my friend, involves prayer. Before I go any further in what I believe this verse to mean, I must disclose that prayer is the key to the whole thing. You can’t have wisdom from God if you are not talking to God about whatever the situation may be. Ok, now that that is established, let’s look at the verse a little deeper.

Being true to me I looked at what all the different words that describe wisdom mean. Some mean exactly what they say, and others had deeper meanings. Let me show you. Wisdom means intellect. Uh, could have guessed that. But pure means in a condition prepared for worship. So when I am seeking wisdom from God it will come in the form of intellect that puts my heart in a place of worship. That is not all that pure means. It also means not mixed with guilt. Meaning whatever I feel the Lord saying to do will not make me feel guilty for doing it in the end.

Peaceable means God’s gift of wholeness – knowing the Lord’s will and obeying it. God will make clear the best way to respond to the situation, and your job is to obey it. Then it is gentle. I just loved what I found this to mean. You would expect it to mean easy or soft in some way; but not so much here. It means truly fair by relaxing overly strict standards in order to keep the spirit of the law. God won’t hold us to some impossible standard. He will never change what is right and what is wrong, but how He leads through wisdom is usually a curvy path rather than a straight line.

Then comes open to reason, not meaning that you are open to being swayed by what you feel the Lord has said in a given situation, but rather that it is easy to obey. When you spend time seeking God in prayer, you place yourself in a position to obey. He moves your heart to that place of obedience. Mercy means what you would expect mercy to mean. But good fruit means something amazing here in this verse. It means everything done in true partnership with Christ resulting from two life streams – the Lord moving through our lives to yield what is eternal. Lastly, impartial means being certain, and sincere means free from hidden agendas.

Ok, that was a lot. Let me put all of this together for you. Life bombards us with decisions. Some have no impact on our life beyond that moment. Others have an impact that lasts years, and some for eternity. When those big decisions need to be made, God will give you wisdom. James 1:5 tells us God will give us wisdom when we ask. When He does, it brings peace and makes us stand in awe and worship God. It isn’t a strict and heavy burden to carry. You won’t have doubt. You will approach the whole thing full of mercy. It will yield eternal impact, and you won’t have hidden agendas in your heart.

This year has led me to make HUGE decisions I never imagined having to think about, let alone decide the right thing to do in the situation. They have been heart-wrenching hard choices, but I have been able to make those decisions in peace because I leaned into God and sought wisdom from above.

Click Here for the May memory verse

Bible, Memorizing scripture, Parenting, Prayer, Raising Teens

Bright Shiny Stars

April 8, 2018 No Comments

It’s April which means it’s time for a new memory verse for the month. And, yes, I know once again I am a few days late in getting this post done. I somehow feel as if someone has sped up time in my life, and I just never seem to have enough.

Ok, on to this month’s memory verse. I had stated in January that my word for the year was steadfast. Steadfast love to be exact, and it still is. But recently God has added another word to be a theme for my year. Wisdom. The word is used about 235 times in roughly 222 verses. That’s not counting words associated with wisdom like “wise”. It isn’t the most used word in the Bible, but it is in there a lot.

Allow me to explain how wisdom became a word for me. I have 3 teenagers. Who are awesome kids. But they are kids, and they do, on occasion, do things that are not wise. They have been known to act without using wisdom. So I began to pray that they would gain wisdom. Not just wisdom like in school (I do pray that, too) but Godly wisdom. That they would make wise choices; that when they talk with their peers, their words would be filled with wisdom from the Lord. I began to ask the Lord to help me have wisdom in how I parent these 3 teens. Through these prayers, it was like the word wisdom seemed to become highlighted in my Bible reading. Then one day, I came across an interesting, somewhat odd, and very cool verse about wisdom.

Daniel 12:3 says, “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above, and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” Bam, it hit me! That is what I want for my kids, for me, for my husband, for all of us. I want my kids to shine in their high school with the light of Jesus. I want them to be filled with so much Godly wisdom that when a friend is in trouble or in need of help, they have the wisdom of the Lord in what to do or say. I want me & my kids to help turn other kids towards righteousness. I want that for myself, don’t you?

If I and my family could become this verse in the lives we live, it would change so many things. It would have such an impact in our spheres of influence.

So for April, and maybe longer, I am praying this over us. That we would have wisdom from God that would shine in a world full of darkness like a beacon of hope for those lost at sea. That God through our words would turn us towards righteousness and also those around us. That the dark scary parts of our world would be filled with shining stars of heavenly wisdom, and twinkly with righteousness, too.

Will you join me this month in memorizing this verse and praying it over yourself? Would you become a bright shining star for Jesus in your world? Will you bring light to the darkness and righteousness to those who need it?

I can’t wait to hear how God uses wisdom in your life to brighten lives around you.

Click here for April’s memory verse.

Bible, love, Memorizing scripture, Steadfast love

A Precious Love

March 6, 2018 No Comments

The steadfast love of God, how great it is. To live in the knowledge of a Savior who loves us unconditionally, with an unmoving, never-ending love is overwhelming and amazing.

You have heard of people having a word to define their season, or maybe they have a word for the year. I am not sure which mine is or both, but the word to define my life is STEADFAST LOVE. I guess it really is two words, but who’s counting. Steadfast love is a word I hear in my heart and mind daily. It seems to jump off the pages of the Bible when I see it. It recalibrates me when I get lost in the pain of life or the routine of the mundane.

So for the memory verse for the month of March, here is another one on steadfast love. Maybe it will be a year of steadfast love. Time will tell, but for now, it remains my anchor of hope in a stormy sea.

Psalm 36:7-8 says “How precious is your steadfast love O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.” Just take that first line, how precious is your steadfast love O God! The Bible ends that sentence with an exclamation mark, but it could just as easily end with a question mark. I ask God to show me how precious His steadfast love is. He reminds me of Easter. Of a steadfast love that gave His life for mine. Of how steadfast love clung to the cross, to the hope, to the redemption of my soul.

God’s love is not like man’s love. It loves when it is inconvenient – when the one being loved does not deserve it. It is always there through sleepless nights and sorrow-filled days. God’s love surrounds us if we take the time to see it.

God’s steadfast love is an abundance feast in His house. What a thought. God’s love creates a place for us where we are the honored guest. It quenches our dry throats with water from the river of His delight. It refreshes and restores our broken hearts. It reminds us that we are not alone. There are others God graciously gathers with us to join the feast, to help us celebrate who He is in our midst.

What a love. It knows no bounds, no limits, no hesitations. It gives freely to all who will partake of it. So I ask you, have you thought how precious God’s love is lately? Have you silenced your mind and your heart long enough to really appreciate the steadfast love God offers? If you haven’t you should. Take a moment and think about what God’s love is to you. Maybe you have never thought about the fact that God, the creator of the universe, is passionately in love with you. He is. He loves you with a steadfast love that will never fade. He loves you where you are right now in the midst of whatever your life is. He loves you because He created you. No one knows you better, and still He will always choose to love you. That, my friends, is a love worth daydreaming about. It is worthy of gratitude and thankfulness.

Take time to tell God how precious His love is to you and how thankful you are for it. It will change your day. It will make a bad attitude better. It will remind you there is good out there and in you. It will pull you out of a funk and hold your hand if you need to cry. It is precious and profound, and it is yours.

How precious is your steadfast love O God!(?)

Click here for the March 2018 memory verse

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