What Are We Doing?

NO!

DAD!

NO! NOT MY DAD!

NOOOOOOO!

"DAD, I HAVE SO MUCH TO TELL YOU!"

DADDY!

A week ago, I sat in an ER room waiting to be seen and those were the cries I heard. With tears in my eyes, all I could do was pray.

Gut-wrenching. Sorrowful. Shock.

He was 41. He didn't make it.

I have no idea of the spiritual condition of 'Dad.' I do know this though, we Christians sit around playing games while people are dying every day without Christ.

Satan wants us playing games.

How many people have I lead to the Lord in 2009? Outside of the church walls, not a one.

How many games have I played? I'm so sorry, Lord. I've allowed myself to get sucked into the games. Too many.

What now? I can't change yesterday, but I'm standing here saying, "Lord, Here am I. Send Me. Redeem the time."

What will this look like? I have no idea. I'm not going to make emotional promises I can't keep. I will pray for opportunity. God will lead. I will follow.

Taking the words from Casting Crowns, this is my heart's cry:

"Until the whole world hears, Lord, we are calling out
Lifting up Your name for all to hear the sound
Like voices in the wilderness we’re crying out
And as the day draws near, we’ll sing until the whole world hears!"

Lord, help us.

What Are You Reading?

No, not a book review post, although I do have three (THREE?!?) coming up here in the next week or so... But, I thought I'd take a moment to see what people in blogland are reading...

My next three review books are:The Family God Uses by Tom & Kim Blackaby, A Passion for Purpose by Kimberly Sowell, Edna Ellison, Joy Brown, Tricia Scribner & Marie Alston, AND Redefining Beautiful by Jenna Lucado (with Max Lucado). I'll save my thoughts on these books for their respective blog posts :). Stay tuned.

On the FICTION front, recently finished Shades of Blue by Karen Kingsbury. As you know, I'm a fan :D! I open the 1st pages of one of Karen's books and am instantly transported as an eye-witness into the storyline. Reading "life-changing-fiction" by KK is relaxing to me, a way to breeze through a book, and yet while not a non-fiction, instructional book - always leaves me with something to think about. It's not called "life-changing-fiction" for nothing! Cannot wait for Take Three and Take Four coming out in 2010 to close out those series. If you've never read a KK book, she has stand-alones as well as series. If you're in for the long haul, start with the Redemption series. You won't be disappointed.

Also recently finished and am re-reading with the hubs, Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This book has revolutionized, is revolutionizing my life. It will change how you look at God, and cause you to examine how your life looks and how your life should look as a believer and follower of Christ. It's a major 'put your money where your mouth is' kind of book. MUST READ. I do not say that lightly.

Finally, I'm reading Mom, I Hate my Life by Sharon A. Hersh. Having an (um, two) emotional tween(s), a friend highly recommended it to me. I've just started it (as you can see I've had my nose in some other books lately), but I pray God will use this as a parenting tool in my life and that of my precious girlies!!

So, that's what I'm reading. What have you been reading lately?

Blindsided

Saw the movie “Blindside” Friday night. STRONGLY recommend it! After the movie, I twittered the fact that I loved it… and wanted to see what other people were saying about it so I did a #blindside search on Twitter.

Then I read this: @billybush (I have no idea who @billybush is, but) said “Sandra was amazing. Tim was pitch perfect. Quinto Aaron rookie of the year. #blindside will restore ur faith and keep cynicism at bay.”

Keep cynicism at bay. Bam! And like that, my eyes were opened to something that has been creeping up on my own blindside… cynicism. Where did that come from?

Well, cynicism can sneak up when:

• You’ve been lied to… makes it hard to trust
• You’ve had your heart broken… makes it hard to love again
• You pour your life into someone and they turn their back on you… makes ya’ not want to do it again
• You’ve been abused… enough said
• You’ve been promised something again and again and it’s not come through… makes it hard to believe anything
• You see people spend, spend, spend, but don’t have “enough money” to even tithe to the church or give to a need… well, that just makes ya’ mad
• You lose a friend… makes ya’ cautious to make new ones
• You get criticized… makes ya’ want to go under the radar and not rock any boats
• You see people who claim to be ‘in need’ but have all the latest gizmos/gadgets… makes ya’ not want to help
• You’re waiting on God for something… makes ya’ feel like it’s never gonna happen
• You donate money to something/someone and it doesn’t go toward what you intended… makes ya’ not want to give

So, we can leave it at that, – CYNICISM – or we can look at it for what it really is (SIN-A-CISM) and ask God to help us with it. Cynicism has its roots in judging, doubt, discouragement and even anger… If you find yourself blindsided with your own cynicism, like I have, here’s a plan to combat it and be victorious over it.

Confess your sin, ask God to forgive you and clean ya’ all up from your cynical mess (1John 1:9). Next, take a peek into what God’s Word has to say about all that you could be cynical about…

He calls us to give; cheerfully, and abundantly to those in need. If we seek the Lord and give as He leads, then what the person/people do with what has been given is between Him and them. Don’t stop giving!

He calls us to love and forgive. Again, we’re not responsible for others actions/reactions to us, but we are called to love… and to forgive. We’re called to love and not to judge.

He calls us to step out by faith in action. If that brings criticism, When that brings criticism, love ‘em anyways.

Finally, praise Him. Praise always takes the focus off of us, and onto Him. It’s by far the best cure for a cynical heart than anything I could ever think of!

Don’t ya’ love it that the Holy Spirit’s covering our blindside? I’ll take Him over the left tackle any day of the week!

Black Friday

Was anything but black :D. We were blessed to have my lil' brother home for Thanksgiving. It's a 1st of many years due to serving overseas and living far away... But, on top of that, he got his kiddos for part of Friday so we were able to get all the kiddos together for the 1st time ever. At the last minute, though, one of his boys wasn't feeling well, so he stayed back, but 8 out of 9 ain't bad!! One of these days we'll get them all together!!
What a joy it was for Mom & Dad (Grammy & Papa) to be surrounded by most of their grandkiddos (8 out of 9)! The kiddos had a blast as well!! God is good!

Relentless Love

Can we ever fully ‘get’ how deep, how wide, how great the Father’s love is for us?? At church – we recently completed a series that is still ROCKIN’ my SOCKS off, “Prodigal God”. This series has us in Luke 15, but not just the Parable of the Lost Son, but also the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin.

I loved when we took a look at how the man would “go after” his lost sheep and the woman would ”search carefully” for her lost coin. Go after. What a picture these parables portray, that Jesus would “go after” each one of us, relentlessly. I love David Crowder’s new song on the “Church Music” CD that goes, “You’re love is relentless and I’m glad for it, I’m glad for it!!’ His love IS relentless!

The antithesis of Jesus’ LOVE, though is the Pharisee’s tendency to (un)righteously judge. See, Jesus accepts sinners ~ we (Christians with Pharisaical tendencies) tend to judge or even categorize sin. Jesus restores sinners ~ we have a hard time restoring people back into the body after repentance. Ouch. Do we forget that we were lost, and He sought after us? We don’t find God – He finds us.

His love trumps our sin. His loves restores us to Himself.

So, processing all that… I’m seeing that:
Love trumps sin.
Love trumps a broken friendship.
Love trumps a strained familial relationship.
Love trumps judgment.
Love trumps annoyances.
Love trumps _________.

What if instead of cutting oneself off from someone, we love them? What if instead of condemning or criticizing someone we love them? What if when treated with unkindness, hate even, we love instead? What if instead of being appalled, irritated or offended by one’s action, we love them?

Revolutionary love. Reactionary love. Relentless love. I’m not there, not by a long-shot – but my eyes are opened - and by His grace, I yearn to grow in this area.

God’s love is relentless, shouldn’t ours be as well?

Tom-A-to & Tom-AH-to

Kevin and I have different personalities. For example, when I might freak out about something, he remains calm and level-headed. Or, if I get swept away with “to-do’s”, pressures of life etc. he encourages a break, a healthy break. He helps me focus on what’s really important which often isn’t the Math homework, the dirty floors or the perfect meal… HA! I, on the other hand, help him at times focus on his “to-do’s”, get organized and manage his schedule. Or, if he’s swimming in some discouragement, I can bring him some encouragement. It’s cool, really, how it all works. God uses our personalities to compliment and help each other.

The same is true about spiritual gifts. Kevin has unquestionable faith and he’s blessed with the gift of evangelism and leadership. His unwavering faith becomes a pillar of strength when the waves are crashing all around and his leadership is inspiring. I get to do some encouraging along the way, often see things for how they really are (discernment), and again – our gifts compliment each other. God did not make a mistake in bringing us together.

That’s just how it’s supposed to be within the body of Christ. Like stated in Romans 12, God gives us different gifts (and personalities) to bring them to the table (your local church) and put them to use for God’s glory – to build up the body and grow the Kingdom. It backfires, though, when a) we don’t bring those gifts to the table and b) we expect everyone else to do things just like we would. It’s funny. We have a relatively new volunteer in our Kids Ministry. She got things set up in her room, different than how I would do it. She has a different personality, nothing like mine. We have a ‘program’ that we use there, and honestly I was worried about how it was all going to come together. Can I tell you this? She set up her room (not like me) and it was AWESOME! She taught her class (not like me) and it was AMAZING! Her class looked nothing like mine would – and now I say, “Praise the LORD!” She may say “tom-A-to” and I may say “tom-AH-to”, but both tomatoes turned into an amazing salsa!!

God knew what He was doing when he put the warning in there in vs. 3, “not to think of himself more highly than he should think.” Just like I do things one way and the other teacher does things another way, I shouldn’t think that my way is the only way, or the best way. No. Celebrate the diversity of personalities and spiritual gifts that God brings together in the body. He does it to bring balance, to function together as “many parts in one body.”

So, bring ‘em – bring your gifts to the table and enjoy the supernaturally mixed-assortment that God has brought together!

Unfriend

So, have you heard the latest? We have a ‘word of the year’! Did you know we had such a thing in America??

I heard the news report this week on KLOVE. Yes, the New Oxford American Dictionary’s ‘word of the year’ is UNFRIEND.

Unfriend was defined as a verb that means to remove someone as a "friend" on a social networking site such as Facebook.

Unfriend.

In regards to social networking, being “unfriended” can be a bummer, but even more so is being “unfriended” in real life.

We’ve all experienced it. My girlies have come home crying because someone “unfriended” them in the neighborhood… and what am I to tell them? “Those poopy, snot-nosed, stinky-breathed girls! You don’t want to be friends with them anyways!” No. I didn’t say that. (GRIN.) What I was thinking was, “Well, get used to it… because ‘unfriending’ doesn’t stop at childhood.” Sad, eh?

Heartbreaking, though is when “unfriending” happens within the body of Christ. I have ‘unfriended’ people and have been ‘unfriended’ for STUPID things like preferences, hurt feelings, not agreeing on something, miscommunications… I’ve been unfriended for following God’s direction in ministry.

Jesus must sit up there in heaven just broken-hearted at our foolishness. Yes, there are times when we should ‘unfriend’ someone for a season, someone that is blatantly sinning and unrepentant, however the purpose even in that is to restore the brother (sister :) in love and with gentleness.

What happened to,”A friend loves at all times?” Prov. 17:17

Or, “Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God.” 1 John 4:7

“If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And we have this command from Him: the one who loves God must also love his brother.” 1 John 4:20-21

“Above all, keep your love for one another at full strength, since love covers a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8

“If possible, on your part, live at peace with everyone.” Romans 12:18

What are we showing the world when we “unfriend” each other within the body? Maybe we should put on the mind of Christ and let His love supersede our foolishness.

Just a thought.