Hating Your Mom and Dad

Luke 14:25-27 – Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

I have to hate my family? How can God tell us to love and respect and obey our parents while at the same time tell us to hate them? So what is Jesus telling us to do?

The answer, though clear, is not easy. Jesus warns these people, and therein He warns us, that if we follow Jesus around like fans following their favorite sports team, actor or musician, but we fail to choose Christ, then we haven’t really made a decision for Him after all. You must first make a conscience decision to choose Christ above all.

Jesus calls us to hate our families, but not in the way we use the word today. Not even close. Love is the message of the cross and of the Bible. So that means that this passage about “hating” our family isn’t about our family at all. What Jesus is calling us to is a higher form of following. He longs to have our hearts and our lives. And He longs to have us seek Him with all that we are. This passage, though confusing at first perhaps, is all about choosing Christ over everything. We are to love God more than anything else we could ever imagine loving. We must follow so hard after Christ that even if our families choose to disown us for our beliefs, we will remain on our path to Love God and Love People. We don’t hate them in the way that we are mean to them or disrespectful to them. We “hate” them in the essence that God comes first. Period. End of story.

So the question is: are you willing to lose everything you have ever loved, including your family, for the sake of knowing Christ and making Him known? Does Christ come first in your life above all else?

From the Inside Out

I remember getting ready to graduate from high school. It was a crazy time. It was a hectic time. I was scared. I was nervous. I was excited. And if I had only known what God had in store for me, I would have been even more scared, nervous and excited than I already was!

On Wednesday evenings we have been discussing what it means to live a life transformed. Romans 12:1-2 says:

Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

College is a place to be different. A place to start over or a place to re-establish. It is a place to try new things and gain new hobbies and interests. It is a place to meet new people who will help you to grow into the person you have always wanted to be, or the person you never wanted to be. My caution and my encouragement to you is this: don’t become so well-adjusted to the culture around you that you fit into it without even thinking. Regardless of what culture that may be.

God gave you a brain, and it is an incredible muscle, and the great thing about muscles is that they can either get bigger and stronger or they can get weak and atrophy. So regardless of what group of friends you find, never just assume they are making all the right decisions. Paul says that we need to test and approve God’s perfect will. We need to dig deep and see what God has in store for us. And I can tell you from personal experience that what God has in store is always, always, always more rewarding and amazing than anything we could’ve planned for ourselves.

Remember that you are called to be a living sacrifice for God. You are called to be an ambassador for His cause. And He has an incredible plan for you as you move forward into this next phase of your life. And remember, that He loves you and wants to be a part of your ordinary everyday life…your sleeping, eating, walking around, going to work life. And if you do, you will be changed from the inside out.

Lingering Jesus

"The refusal to be disillusioned is the cause of much of the suffering in human life. It works in this way--if we love a human being and do not love God, we demand of him every perfection and every rectitude, and when we do not get it we become cruel and vindictive; we are demanding of a human being that which he or she cannot give. There is only one Being Who can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ." 

       -- Oswald Chambers

In the moments when we feel like Jesus is waiting to answer...

In the moments when we feel like Jesus is refusing to answer...

In the moments when we feel like Jesus is not even wanting to answer...

In the moments when we feel like Jesus is lingering across the Jordan while we are dying in Bethany...

In those moments, it is entirely too "easy" to allow doubt to creep in and to allow ourselves to rely on those around us whom we can see and hear and touch instead of the One who said He would be with us always.

In those moments, we lose faith. Maybe not totally. But we lose faith.

In those moments, we place pressure on our loved ones to pull us up and help keep us above the torrential downpour of water that never seems to cease.

In those moments, we make choices and those choices don't just affect us and our faith-walk, but they affect the faith-walk of the people in whom we misplace our trust. We become "cruel and vindictive."

In those moments, we expect perfection from an imperfect being

In those moments, we expect imperfection from a Perfect Being.

In those moments, we forget that God is Sovereign, and that He will actually truly make a way where there seems to be no way.

In those moments, Jesus might linger, but we must not falter. Jesus might linger, but we must not falter!


In those moments, we must remember: "There is only one Being Who can satisfy the last aching abyss of the human heart, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ."

In those moments, we need to break free from our disillusions.

In those moments, we must never forget that, "It is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it."

Therefore.....

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

            --Hebrews 12:l

I took a class in college about the book of Hebrews taught by an amazing man of God named Brother Snell. We started out talking about how the prophets foretold of the coming High Priest that was above all priests. And we moved into discussing the differences between the Old Law and the New Law and how Jesus was the One to make it all happen. Then we came to chapter 11. Oh, good ol’ chapter 11. The Faith Chapter. You know the one, right? Where the writer goes through and recounts all of these amazing people of faith that have gone before. People who have been flogged and scourged. People who have built arks. People who have called down plagues on kingdoms. People who have packed up and left the only home they’ve ever known to go to a place they’ve never even heard of. People of faith.

And then comes Hebrews 12:1 and that wonderful word that you grow to love when you go to a bible college, “therefore…” Ahhh, therefore…what a great transitional word. It means that whatever comes after is in direct response to whatever has come before. “Therefore…since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses…” My amazing professor taught me that this verse meant that we are surrounded by all of these amazing people that the author of Hebrews describes. Those people are surrounding me. Cheering me on. Encouraging me in the faith. Helping me to throw off the things that hinder and to get rid of the sin that so easily entangles.

I have always absolutely loved that idea. What an amazing sight to imagine. Going through life in your “stadium” with all of the people of the faith in the stands, cheering you on. People like Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Rehab, Dorcas, Lydia, Mary, Martha, and so many more. All of them cheering me on, clapping, whooping and hollering when I do what God is calling me to do or when I make the hard choice. People with whom I can relate. People who have gone through some of the same crazy things that I have. People who have handled it way better than I have. People who have handled it poorly, but whom I have learned so much from because of that. My great cloud of witnesses.

The older I get, the more I realize that it is not just the people of the bible who are my great cloud of witnesses. In fact, it isn’t even just people who have passed on to the greater realms of Heaven that are in my cloud of witnesses. Some of the people that fill the greatest section of the stands are people who are still very much alive. People like my amazing and godly parents who support me and tell me how proud they are of me and what I have chosen to do as a career. People like my aunts or uncles who are concerned about my well-being. People like my grandparents who send me emails when I accomplish something. People like my Sunday School teachers from when I was just a small child hiding behind my mom’s legs who still find time to pull me aside and ask me how I am “really doing.” People like the men and women whom I have really just met in the church I am ministering with who take the time to stop and give me a hug and tell me how glad they are that I have come to minister to their children or grandchildren. People like my friend from college that still asks me the “hard questions” even though we hardly ever find time to talk to one another. People like my best friend who never seems to tire of showing me grace and reminding me that God does indeed have a plan for me, even when I am having a hard time seeing it. I couldn’t even begin to count how many times these people have helped me with the sin that so easily entangles. A stern word here; a grace-filled word there.

Why is this important? Why take the time to blog about this topic? Well, because as I learn and grow, I am beginning to understand just how important it is to surround myself with these people. We must not neglect the power of the “extended family,” as Mark DeVries calls them in his book Family-Based Youth Ministry. It really, truly does take a village to raise a child. And what better village then the Family of God!

So who is in your great cloud of witnesses? Who is cheering you on toward love and good deeds? Who is helping you take off the sin that so easily entangles and everything that hinders? And if you are a parent, who is in the cloud for your children? Who is helping you raise your child and train him/her up in the way they should go?

Everything I Wish I Could Be...

Did you ever know that you're my hero?

You're everything I wish I could be

I can fly higher than an eagle

Cause you are the wind beneath my wings

Do you remember that song? With the orchestra "rockin' out" behind the classical voice of....wow....I'm not even sure who the classical singing voice was. But I remember it was loud....and it had some vibrato to it! :)

This song makes me chuckle. Yet at the same time...it can make me think. I will jokingly sing these lyrics to students or co-workers when they have done something that makes my day easier or when they have done something that I couldn't do. And the first line is always really easy and funny "Did you ever know that you're my hero?" But even in the joking around moments, I have a hard time singing the second line to most people: "You're everything I wish I could be..."

Tim has been doing a sermon series for the past two weeks on Jesus as our Hero. I had always considered the definition of "hero" to be something like: a man distinguished by exceptional courage, nobility, fortitude; a man who is idealized for possessing superior qualities in any field. But as I was listening to Tim's sermon yesterday on John the Baptist and then as I was running that song through my head this morning, I realized something. When it comes to the Christian faith, God expects us all to be Heroes.

We are supposed to become more like Him in ever increasing glory. We are supposed to follow after Him as hard as we can. We are supposed to take off the clothes of this world and be clothed in Christ. In other words, if we see Jesus as our Hero, and we are supposed to look more and more like Him every day that we live for Him, then that means that I also am intended to be a hero! I am supposed to be a woman of courage, nobility, and fortitude. I am supposed to have some superior qualities that I use for the good of the people.

If Jesus is my hero, then I need to look and think and act more and more like Him every day. And thankfully, I don't have to do that all on my own. Because as cheesy and cliche as it sounds, He is the wind that keeps me up in the air. He is the strength I need. He is my Rock. He is my Shelter. He is my Hero. I know that I will never be just like Jesus. But my prayer for me, and my prayer for you, is that as we worship our Hero and notice the things about Him that are heroic, that we would try to emulate those qualities.

And those thoughts make the words to the song I quoted all the more real. "Jesus, did You ever know that You're my hero? You're everything I wish I could be. I can fly higher than an eagle, because You are the wind beneath my wings."

"Falling." "Fall on!"

There are days in my life when I feel like I actually understand what God is doing........and then......I wake up.

Hebrews 11 says that "faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Oh man...those words....grrrrr to those stinkin' words (fist waving in the air)! Anyone else in this world want to actually KNOW what is going on their lives and why it is happening instead of just trying to have "faith" that things are gonna work out? If there was ever a time in my life when this was true, it is now. I have listened to people all my life tell me that I just have to trust God and that all will be great. In fact, there is even a song that says that trusting will bring me happiness in Jesus. Trust. Ugh. What a word, right?"

Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey."

I love rules. Rules make the world go 'round. The people that drive me the most nuts are the people that think that rules don't apply to them and that they can do whatever they want regardless of what the rules say. I have always thought that I was really good at following rules. What frustrates me sometimes about my walk with Christ is that I don't know the plan. And I most definitely want to know the plan. I want to know what is happening now and why. I want to know what will happen tomorrow and why. I want to know what will happen in fifty years...and why. I want the plan because with the plan comes rules and with rules...comes happiness. Right? That's what the song says, right? Oh. Crud. No, it doesn't.

Trust.

Obey.

Sigh...

When I was in college, I was a part of a team that traveled around mainly to youth groups and did team building activities. At some point during most of our weekends, we would begin the "trust" initiatives. We had been trained to use certain commands to keep everyone in the know and to make sure that no one got hurt. The commands went as follows:

Faller: "(Catcher's name) are you ready?"

Catcher: "Yes (faller's name), I'm ready."

Faller: "Falling."

Catcher: "Fall on."

Most kids took this stuff seriously enough, but every once in awhile there were a few students that thought it would be funny to joke around during this portion of the initiative. This was always frustrating for me as a leader. The commands were meant to keep the kids safe while showing them the power of trust and the exhilarating reward that comes with obeying. If the kids goofed off, someone was bound to get hurt because they hadn't heard all of the rules that went along with the commands. That meant that things could get confusing. It meant that the student had to ask what was going on, and if the other students took it upon themselves to share the commands instead of asking us, then it was just a bunch of voices trying to relay things they had heard instead of simply listening to the voice that had said it originally. When the student chose to go to the original source (us), the confusion was cleared up.

It is the same with us. God's commands are intended to keep us safe while showing us the power of trust and the reward of obeying. When we only listen to the people around us who merely think they know what the Original Source said, we can get confused. But when those voices say what think followed up by pointing us to the Real Deal, the confusion is cleared up. Trusting and Obeying is not about blindly going through life. It is about following the commands that have been set up for us so that we can see the power of Trusting and the reward of Obeying.

What I am realizing more and more as I grow older...ish..., is that it is not just about the blind trust. It is not just about the falling and "hoping" that someone will be there to catch me. It's about obeying. God says over and over again that He is faithful. He says that He will make good on His promises. He says that all things will work out for the good. He may not tell me how every finite detail is going to pan out, or what the consequence will be for each choice I make. However, He has given me an entire book full of words that are meant to teach and to train me. Words that I am meant to obey. God has given me the commands to use so that I can know that it is safe to fall. He is letting me know that He is back there ready to catch me. He isn't messing around. He isn't joking. He knows that this is serious stuff. He wants me to trust Him, and He expects me to obey the commands.

"God are You ready?"

"Yes, Jess, I'm ready."

"Falling."

"Fall on."

Chazown: Part Two

The answer to the second question is tricky…as many things seem to be when it comes to figuring out what God has in store. However, this time, I believe I am actually approaching my decision from the right angle. See, all of my life, I have made decisions based on specific situations or short-term goals that I saw in my very near future. I would look at a situation, and I would say, “I could either do this, or I could do that.” It was always a decision based on the “thing” or option that was placed in front of me. Could I perform those tasks? Would that make me enough money to live on? Would I like doing most or all of the “things” that would be required of me?

For those of you who read my previous blog, you know that I had the privilege of taking a mini retreat where I was able to spend some much needed time with Jesus and do some soul searching with the help of a book titled Chazown. As I read, I was struck by the idea that there are many tasks, jobs, careers, etc that I could and would do, but that there is one overall vision of purpose for my life. In other words, it is not simply about the tasks, specific situations or short-term goals; it is about how those things fit into the bigger, broader, more long-term vision for my life. Now, understand, this is not my first time at the rodeo. I have heard this kind of thing said who knows how many times, but for some reason, it just really clicked with me during this particular retreat. What I have discovered, or more accurately, rediscovered, is that I have a huge passion for family & friends (aka relationships), worship (as a lifestyle not just music), and teens. Those were the three things that really stuck out to me. And those are the three things that shaped my decision as to where I need to be. Because of my connections to Iowa, I will be making the move at the end of January to live in the Cedar Falls area for a short time while I figure out how best to accomplish God’s long-term vision for my life.

I am not sure exactly what God has in store for me, but I believe that He has a plan and that that plan will be good. I know that I want to work with teens again. And I know that I want to be near my family again. I want to be influencing minds and lives, young and old alike, to live lives of worship that are holy and pleasing to God. Like I said, I am not sure exactly what this will look like, but I believe that it will include more writing of songs, more time with family & friends, and more time with teens.

So here I am again, packing, loading, squishing, shoving and finagling my belongings into a trailer (this time we planned for two trips!) to take on another adventure that I hope to never forget.

Chazown: Part One

One year ago, I packed, loaded, squished, shoved, and finagled, all of my belongings into the back of a trailer (ok, ok, ok, so it didn’t all fit the first go-round and my amazing father had to make TWO trips to Olathe for me…), and began an adventure I will never forget. I was given the amazing privilege of moving to Olathe, KS to participate in a church plant with two of the best friends I’ve ever had. And while I was incredibly sad to leave my family and a church I had come to love, I found myself blogging these words:

I know that God has something huge planned for me. I know that this move will prove to be one of the best and most amazing decisions and adventures that I have ever been on. I trust in the promise of God that says that all things will work out for the good for those who love the Lord. I believe with all my heart that God has great plans for 33 Church, and I, for one, cannot wait to see what happens with all of this.

As I look back over the past year, I am delighted to see that God has kept His promise and that my move to Olathe was definitely one of the best and most amazing decisions I have ever made. I have been in the process of learning what it means to trust God and follow after Him. Those lessons, as I’m sure most of you know, are not easy lessons to learn. You don’t just wake up one day and magically have the ability to blindly trust or the desire to follow someone (even God) through anything. I have spent the majority of my time in Olathe learning these two lessons. And I wouldn’t trade that for anything because I know that I am a better, stronger, more solid follower of Christ because of this past year.

A few months ago, I began to take a good, hard look at what I was doing and what I was going to be doing. I began to try to figure out what these lessons were all about. I was struggling—struggling to be happy, struggling to be joyful, struggling to worship, struggling to lead others in worship, struggling to reach out, and struggling to believe that I was in the right place. I was working three jobs—each of them demanding (and rightfully expecting) my full effort every time I walked through their doors. I was so overwhelmed with life that I didn’t know how to continue. So I decided to take a mini one-day retreat to the mountains of Grandview, MO to do some hiking and reading and talking with Jesus. That was the best decision I had made in a long time. The second best decision was to stop by the Christian bookstore and pick up the book Chazown by Craig Groeschel. I started off my hike with a desperate cry for help, “God, please, please, please, please….speak to me. I can’t hear you these days. Please speak to me!” Once again God answered my prayer and kept His promise to never leave me and kept His promise that if I sought Him, He would be found by me.

I won’t go into the very depths of the book or the conversation that I had with Jesus as I walked along those paths, but what I am writing to share with you today is this: My Jesus loves me, and He spoke me into being for a purpose, and it is my job to trust in that purpose and follow Him as He leads me in accomplishing that purpose. As I read that book and talked to Jesus, I came to the understanding that what I was doing here to help this amazing church that is being planted in Olathe was not really what I was created to do. I know that to some of you that might sound trite, or like a cop-out answer, but I promise you, I do not believe that it is either trite or a cop-out. My time here in Olathe has been hard, but up to that day, I had been determined to stick it out and try to make it work.

I decided that I needed to break this all down into two questions: Do I feel that I can accomplish God’s purpose for me to the fullest in my current context, aka this church plant? If so, then how do I make it work? And if not, then what do I need to be doing and where? (I know it looks like three questions, but it’s not; I promise!)

(For the sake of your time and blogging etiquette, I will address the first question in this blog and tackle the second question in my next blog.)

The answer to the first question was a sad and painful, no. This church that I have been privileged to be a part of for the past year is amazing. The vision is astounding and the passion behind it is awe-inspiring. I have never wanted to make something work and have never wanted to be a part of something like I have with this church. Not to mention the fact that the people who are leading this church are two of my very best friends. I have loved getting to know this church, which after only two months of meeting on a weekly basis has already become like a family. I know that if I were to stay, I would fall even more in love with the people of this church.

This church is going to do amazing things in the Olathe area. This church is going to do amazing things in the state of Kansas. This church is going to do amazing things in the world. I believe this church will change the world. I believe those things because I personally know the man whose passion and vision started it all. And that man will lead this church in an all out pursuit of Jesus and an all out blitz to share the story of that pursuit with anyone with whom they come in contact.

However, I feel that my gifts and passions and abilities are not beneficial to this church and to continue in my current position with this church will only lead to more frustration for me and for the vision of the church. I want this church to have every advantage it can in its pursuit of Jesus and the telling of that amazing pursuit, and I believe that there is someone out there who will be a huge asset to this church and to its vision. Someone who will wake up every morning with a passion to do all the things that need to be done to make this church everything it can be and should be. And while I wish that person was me, I have come to the realization that I do not have what is needed to make all of that happen.

As I bring this first blog to a close, I would ask my readers (surely there are at least two of you by now, right?) to join me as I pray for blessing on this church and as I pray for the next person that will join the church team in a leadership role. I know that God has big plans for this church plant, and I cannot wait to see all that He will do.

To be continued.....

Pete and Repeat.....

You remember the joke from your childhood, right?

Person 1: Pete and Repeat were sitting in a boat. Pete fell out; who was left?
Person 2: Repeat.
Person 1: Pete and Repeat were sitting in a boat. Pete fell out; who was left?
Person 2: Uh....not Pete?
Person 1: What was his name?
Person 2: (sigh) Repeat....
Person 1: Pete and Repeat......

And so it continues. Person 1 cracking up at every repeat and Person 2 doing everything in their creative power not to say "Repeat" again.

I've been reading through the Psalms this summer and have noticed something very interesting. See, over and over the writers of these psalms use the words gracious, compassionate, righteous, faithful, stronghold, and other amazing words to describe God. It's like God is Person 1. He is sharing His feelings, His love, His compassion, His character with me, laughing out of pure giddiness and excitement. And I read these words and I feel like Person 2, trying everything I can to use any response to the statement other than what He wants. I sigh and think, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ok. Whatever. I know you love me...okie dokie, God."

One thing that is different between the joke of my childhood and God is that eventually Person 1 gets tired and Person 2 gets tired and the joke runs out of steam. But God never does. He never runs out of steam. He just keeps telling me. He keeps repeating the same lines over and over again, hoping for that response.

John 8:31-32 says, "...Jesus said, 'If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

It's amazing to me how true that statement is. I have found that the more I hold to His teachings and the more I try to look like Jesus, the more real His unfailing love becomes, the more real His compassion becomes, the more real His grace becomes. And the more I accept His love, His compassion, His grace and all the other things He repeats to me every day, the more free I become.

So, Pete and Repeat were sitting in a boat. Pete fell out; who was left?

What if the Church? Part 2

Ok, so I am not exactly sure how many people helped out with this campaign in the end, but what I do know is that God showed up, people were blessed, and Light was shone in this city. It was really amazing to see people from different churches working together to be the Church.

We were at True Light Resource Center. We worked on a house that they are fixing up for the purpose of helping women get back on their feet. I am not exactly sure what all that means in details, but I do know that God is going to do some amazing things through them! That Miss Alice was something else!

There were upwards of 30 people doing various jobs from scraping paint, ripping out grass to make flower beds, building a deck, stocking a pantry, and other things that I am sure I had no idea were happening!

Sara and I spend most of the morning stocking the pantry. We were given this tub full of canned goods and asked to put them in the pantry. Well, we walked in, and since we are who we are....we totally gutted the thing and started from scratch and reorganized. Not sure if that is what they wanted....but......we couldn't help ourselves! It's just who we are!

Ryan and the kiddos carried boards for the new deck, ripped out grass for the pretty new flowers and scraped paint on the porch to get it ready for the people who were painting it to make it pretty!

Thank you, Jesus, for everyone that helped out last weekend. I pray that God's name was preached through our actions and our speech. I pray that people were blessed and that they saw Jesus.

What if the Church?

33 Church has an amazing opportunity to be a part of something on May 1st called "What if the Church?" This is the purpose of the event: Why What If? We deeply believe that when Jesus sees His Church in Kansas City, He does not see a thousand different churches, but He sees one Church with a thousand different styles, sizes, colors, and shapes all striving for the common purpose of making Him famous in this city through love.

So, what if the Church actually acted like the Church? We would serve. I love it.

33 Church is joining forces with over 4000 other Christians in the KC area, and we are going to serve. We are going to do what James tells us to do and serve widows and orphans. We are going to feed people. We are going to fix their businesses. We are going to paint. We are going to landscape. We are going to fix ball fields so kids have a place to play. We are going to sort clothes so that families have an organized place to come find clothes to clothe their children. We are going to stock shelves so that soup kitchens have food to serve. We are going to serve. Which means, that we are going to love, and we are going to be the Bride of Christ.

33 Church is going to be helping at a place called Pure Light Resource Center. We will be scraping and painting, doing some landscaping, some minor construction and even some electrical work. I am excited. I love to serve for Jesus. I love to get my hands dirty and do something that will so that I love mercy, act justly and that I strive to walk humbly with my God (Micah).

I pray that the people we serve will see Jesus in us, and I pray that we will love with the love of Jesus. So come on, KC! What if the church? Well, let's find out together on May 1st!

Grateful....

I am grateful! I am grateful for the things that God has given me. This week, I am grateful for the people that he has placed in my life that challenge me and love me and smack me upside the head while giving me a hug. You just can't beat friends that will look you dead in the face and say, "Seriously....what is your problem? Get over it." And in the next moment give you a hug and tell you they love you.

I do love that kind of love. It is fantastic. :)

Thank you, Jesus, for friends who are patient and kind. Thank you for friends that don't envy or boast. Friends that are not proud or rude. Thank you for friends that don't do things just for themselves but instead think of others first. Thank you SOOOO much for friends who are more than capable of keeping their cool even when I am exploding. Thank you for friends that forgive when they have no real reason to....other than love. Jesus, thank you for friends that despise evil and do everything they can to help me get rid of it in my life and allow me the honor to help them get rid of it in their lives. Thank you that these friends of mine keep your Truth first and foremost in their lives so that I have amazing examples to follow. God, I am so thankful that you have surrounded me with people who protect me and stand by me forever. I am thankful that they have Your Truth in them so that I know they deserve my trust. I am thankful that because we are friends in You, we have a hope that stands the test of time. I am thankful that my friendships will persevere through anything.

Thank you, God, for friends like these!

Amen

Change of Heart

It is amazing to me how quickly we change our minds. And it is interesting to me what causes us to change our minds. I mean, we could be totally sold out on a fact or a plan or whatever, and in what seems like a skip of a heartbeat, we are making new plans and heading in a new direction and believing new things.

Take the book of Acts for instance. Just a few "pages" before this wonderful book that records the Acts of the new Church, the disciples are hiding in homes and running away from gardens and denying the man they had been following. Then they get some visits, they get some words of encouragement, they receive a gift, and all of a sudden, they are the most devout, strong, loving, forgiving, miracle showing people you've ever heard of!

And what changed? Yes, their circumstances changed. Yes, their location changed. Yes, their rabbi changed. But what changed? Their hearts. Is that too simple? Can it be that easy? Can it just be so simple as to have a change of heart? It appears to me that that is just what happened. They lived, they saw, they believed, they changed. But what I love about that change is that it did not just change their hearts; it changed their whole lives. It changed their actions.

I heard a sermon this weekend about balancing your actions with the grace you've received. Balancing your life with your calling. What does that look like? What does it look like to have a life that is in balance with the calling you have received? What does it mean to have a change of heart?

Today, this blog is not a blog of answers. It is a blog of questions. I would love to hear what you have to say about this. What does it look like? Share a time when your life was in balance. What does it mean?

Good times were had by all....

I was able to go back to Iowa this past weekend to celebrate Easter with my family. That was delightful! I love being around my family. My parents keep me chuckling almost all weekend with their random stories and crazy antics. I was able to sing with my mom, which rocked my socks off! i was able to eat some GOOOOOOD chocolate with my padre. I got to shoot things on the Wii with my brother and his wonderful girlfriend. My mom's folks came up so we got to have dinner with them on Sunday night. It was, all in all, a great weekend with my family!

Then I got to spend Monday with a fabulouso friend. We just got to hang out and talk and cry and laugh and eat food and some more yummy chocolate. It was a great Monday. A sad one, because I could only stay for part of the day, but a great Monday nonetheless.

As I was reading Acts over the weekend and thinking about how stinkin' awesome the first church was, I was struck by just how grateful I am for the things that God has given me. I know that generally we spend time in November being thankful for things, but I found myself just reciting to God all the ways that He has continually blessed me over the years. I know that I am still struggling with seeing His plan for me right now, as I still have been unsuccessful in landing a job, but I know that in the midst of all of that, He has granted me with people that are willing to sign checks over to me and throw money in my car as I am driving away. I know that things are not always going to look like what I want them to look like or what I think they are going to look like, but through it all....man, through it all, God is faithful!

"Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be."

Thank you, Jesus.

Knowin' Your Stuff

So, I have been reading through John just for fun and have really been struck with just how stinkin' awesome God is! I mean, I have read this book many times before, but John is really quite the author. What I love is that each of the gospel accounts are in our Bible for different reasons. I love that John doesn't leave anything for the imagination; he wants us to know exactly why he wrote this book: But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

And I have to tell you, after having read it again....I believe once again (even more?) that Jesus really is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Man, oh, man. Does he do some amazing things in this book! Raisin' people from the dead! Walkin' on water! Feedin' thousands of people with practically nothing! Amazing!

But you know what I think is awesome? I mean, don't get me wrong, Jesus rocks my face off! But you know what I think is awesome? These disciples who ran away in the garden, denied him during the "court" process, hid themselves in a room are the ones, not three pages later (in my bible, maybe yours is bigger....teehee) that are speaking in tongues and sharing the Word of God (Jesus!) with anyone who can understand them...which is, like, EVERYONE within hearing distance! These guys see Jesus head up to heaven in a cloud (if you believe the flannel-graph I grew up seeing!) and then head back to Jerusalem to being to share the most important message of their lives.

The title of this blog is "Knowin' Your Stuff" and here is why. These men did not waste any time in telling the Jews just who Jesus was and how he had been foretold from the time of Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and all the prophets. They have spent the majority of their lives learning the scrolls and hearing them spoken in the temples, and they spent the past three years watching all of those scriptures come alive in the life of Jesus. If you check out the first six chapters of Acts, you will be wowed as you see these men recall scripture left and right for the purpose of saving lives! Amazing. I want that. I want to know my stuff so well that when people ask me for a recount of Jesus or what I believe or whatever they might need, I can in short order tell them what I believe using scripture in the way it was intended to be used....to save lives.