Tact

I'll admit it...I'm not always the most tactful person.  My dad has told me many, many, many times that I lack tact.  Perhaps it's because there have been far too many times when he's been on the receiving end of my flippant comments that tend to point out various "flaws" that I happen to see.  I mean, the Bible says an honest answer is like a kiss on the lips, right?  ;-)  Unfortunately, my dad was NEVER asking for my opinion at the times that I've offered it, so I'm not sure that technically applies.  hahaha

I do, indeed, have a filtering system between my brain and my mouth.  Apparently I just tend to forget about using it around people who can't disown me or hate me forever.  :-)
 
Of course, no matter how tactless you are, and no matter who you are around, there are just some things that cross a line.  I don't care if your brain is on vacation.  I don't care if it's flat out true.  I don't care if you have a bad habit of speaking before you think.  I don't care if you adhere to the "it's ok to be mean as long as it's funny" mantra.  Some things should just NEVER be said!! 

If you must speak the truth, do so in love and be tactful in your delivery.  Use your filtering system!!  And whatever you do, do NOT follow Tripp's example...

On the other hand, perhaps the real key is to not ask questions for which you aren't prepared to hear an honest answer.  :-)

Standards

It's hard to believe how many people have suggested that maybe I need to lower my standards. 

Fact:  I am single.
Fact:  I'm not getting any younger.

These two factors seem to act as a magnet for all kinds of unsolicited "advice". Which leads me back to my opening statement. People actually suggest that I lower my standards.  It's probably one of the comments I've heard most often, and it's the one that makes me bristle the most. While said with good intentions, it's often said without truly understanding my heart.  I think they assume that I'm "picky".  And while that's true on some level, it's not over the same qualities that they are typically referring to.  

There was a time in my life when I didn't think very highly of myself.  I didn't believe that I was good enough.  I didn't realize how crushed I had become as I allowed my spirit to be steamrolled and trampled.  I didn't believe I was worth enough to deserve anything better, and I was willing to settle just to be in a relationship of some sort.

Thankfully, I've come a long way since then.  It took time.  It took the blessing of experiencing the way I should be treated...being truly cherished, built up both emotionally and spiritually, and respected.  And it took A LOT of Jesus to get me to the point I'm at today.  Now I actually like me.  I actually know who I am as a person.  And I actually know who I am in Christ.  I now know from the depths of my being that I am loved by the Most High God, and as His daughter, my heart is worth way too much to toss around recklessly or to give away on a whim.

So yes, I have standards. I want my future husband to love Jesus.  I want him to be actively pursuing a relationship with Jesus.  And out of the overflow of his love for Jesus, I want him to treat me with love and respect as well.  Those are standards I'm not willing to compromise. Sure, I'd also like someone with a personality; someone who makes me laugh; someone who can hold a conversation; someone who is self-motivated.  And it doesn't hurt if he's cute.  haha.  But all of that is pointless if the underlying foundational standards are not met. It's just not wise, and I'm not wasting my time pursuing something that I know ultimately can't go anywhere. What's the point?

I have seen far too many marriages suffer through painful divorce.  I've seen precious friends endure the hurt, the damage, the destruction, the resulting baggage, the scars.  I've seen far too many people end up with regrets.  And while some of them are now making the most of their situation, remaining faithfully committed, and seeing God bless their determined efforts, they've had to let go of the "if onlys" in order to move forward.  I've seen far too many people settle for less than God's best.

My heart breaks for marriages that are suffering. My heart breaks when I hear how marriages are dissolving right and left. My heart breaks when I see relationships that are visibly unhealthy. My heart breaks over the selfish, demeaning, and uncaring way that I've seen spouses treat the one they supposedly love.

I know that no one is perfect.  I certainly am not.  I know that we're all a work in progress, that relationships take a ton of work, and that sometimes even when you "do everything right" it can still end tragically. Trust me, I'm not naive. I do not have some romantic, storybook, "happily ever after" set of expectations. But I do believe that God created marriage to be a blessing.  Way back at the beginning of Genesis, God declared that it was not good for man to be alone, and He made Eve to be with the man as a lover, helper, and friend.  I believe that God created marriage for our good.  He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the LORD.  And I just want to make every effort to enter into that kind of lifetime commitment with the right foundation from the outset...with Christ as the center. 

It's amazing how quickly people retract their "advice" once they get all the facts.  It's amazing how quickly they do a 180 and begin encouraging me to continue holding fast to the standards that I've set.  And while I don't know when or if God will bring "the one" into my life, I really believe that God blesses our obedience...not always in the way that we expect, and not merely through future "answers to prayer", but also in so many incredible ways along the journey.  So I'll keep holding to my standards, walking in obedience, and trusting that God's plans and timing are always best.

God: My Amazing Daddy

Church history is full of debate over the doctrine of predestination vs. free will, and Mark Driscoll spends a chapter disecting this very topic in Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions.  He addresses the question of why an all-loving, all-knowing, and all-sovereign God wills into creation people he foreknows will suffer eternal condemnation.  Maybe you're not into theological debates and trying to figure it all out, but I just love how he concludes this chapter with a story from his own life in an effort to take all of the complicated theology and make it more concretely practical.

My personal journey with God regarding the doctrine of predestination has been incredibly insightful to my understanding of God as Father and has deepened my worship of him in response to his predestinating me. So, in an effort to show how the doctrine of predestination is inextricably connected to the fatherhood of God, I want to share with you how I see and savor the doctrine of predestination.

We have been blessed with three boys and two girls.  Our oldest child is Ashley Marisa.  I adore her with all my heart and love seeing her blossom into a beautiful, smart, creative, and godly young woman.  I shudder to remember the day she nearly died when she was roughly two years old.

At that time we lived off a busy street next to the football stadium of the University of Washington. Beyond our front porch there were perhaps twenty feet of property followed by a sidewalk and then four lanes of nearly constant heavy traffic. One day, when we opened the front door to walk to our parked car, Ashley started running toward the street, so we chased her, grabbed her, and carefully explained to her that she was never to run away from us again toward the traffic. She did not fully understand what we were saying; she just thought it was fun that we would chase her. To her, the whole thing was basically a playtime game. For some weeks she stayed near us as we went to put her in the car...until one nearly fateful day.

As we were loading her newborn brother into the car, she turned from my side and ran as fast as she could toward the busy street.  She was exercising her free will and made her own decision for her life.  In panic, I cried out to her, essentially preaching repentance to her, pleading with her to turn around and return to her daddy.  She foolishly did not respond, and I will never forget the smile on her face and the look in her eye as she ran toward the street, thinking we were playing a game and not seeing the death that awaited her.

Ashley ran in front of a vehicle parked on the side of the road. As I sprinted toward her, I looked to my left at the oncoming traffic and saw a large delivery truck rumbling down the road, right in the lane where Ashley was about to step. To make matters even worse, she was so short that the turck driver would never see her if she came out from behind the parked car, and I was certain that my daughter was going to die in front of my eyes. I closed in on her just as she stepped into the lane of the oncoming delivery truck. She was a few steps into the street when I grabbed her by the back of her vest and literally pulled her out of the way of the truck. Everything happened so fast that the truck driver did not have time to hit the horn or the brakes. My daughter's life was spared by just inches.

With one arm, I reached out and overrode the free-will decision of my daughter and saved her. I did this because my love for her is more important than her free will.

Tragically, I have heard a well-known Christian radio show host explain the Reformed view of predestination as God being a rapist rather than a lover because God overrides the free will of some people.  My heart breaks every time I hear that kind of statement, because rapists are not the only people who impose their will on others; sometimes so do loving daddies who want their kids to live. They reach out their hand to ensure they are saved from death.

Being a daddy myself, the predestinating hand of God the Father reaching down to me through Jesus makes me worship him for being such an amazing Dad.

A Little at a Time

There's something about patience that I wish I could change. 
There's something about contentment that I wish I could change. 
There's something about trusting that I wish I could change. 

Straight up:  I wish they came easy.

God promised the Lord's presence to the Israelites in Exodus 23.  He promised that He would lead them to a land that He had prepared especially for them.  He promised to send an angel before them.   He promised His protection along the way. He promised to lead them safely.  He promised that He would destroy all the people who stood in their way.

And yet, in the midst of all those promises, He doesn't promise that it would happen quickly.  He actually flat out tells them that it's going to take a while.

But I will not drive them out in a single year, because the land would become desolate and the wild animals would multiply and threaten you. I will drive them out a little at a time until your population has increased enough to take possession of the land.

It was going to take a while.  It was going to take patience.  They were going to have to trust that God was going to follow through on the things that He promised them, and also trust that His plan was for their ultimate good.  Sure, God could have stepped in and wiped out all of the people who inhabited the promised land, but they would have ended up being in danger.  God could have taken them there right away, but the Israelites wouldn't have been able to handle it at that point.

God made some incredible promises, but His plan would be carried out a little at a time for the good of His people.

There are things in life that I just don't understand.  I don't know why things are playing out the way they are.  There are things that I'm trying to trust God with.  There are things that I feel like I have to daily surrender to Him.  There are days when I'm feeling completely at peace and totally content one minute, and the next minute I'm reeling in confusion and feeling defeated.  And it's in those moments when I need to be reminded of God's promises.  I need to be reminded that His plan is so much better than my own, and that He works all things together for my good.

I know that God could step in and hurry up the process, but I'm pretty sure there's a very good reason He doesn't.  Maybe He's protecting me from danger...from more hurt.  Maybe there are more things that He wants me to do that I wouldn't have time for in other circumstances.  Maybe He has more to teach me.  Maybe I'm just not ready yet.  Maybe I just need to be patient and content right where He has me.  Maybe I need to stop fighting Him and just trust Him.  And maybe, like the Israelites, I need to just let Him carry out His plan a little at at a time.

Congratulations!

This is my little brother. He is getting married tomorrow. 

Wow. This is my LITTLE BROTHER, and he is GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW!!

The good thing is that he's always going to be my little brother.  ;-)  AND I am gaining another "sister", too!!  It's going to be a GREAT day!!! 

Congratulations, Jeff and Kendra!!!

Details, Details...

I love this quote I read recently in Steven Furtick's blog:

God is more interested in your full obedience than your full understanding. Don’t worry. God has every detail in your life covered. He just doesn’t need you to know them first to follow Him faithfully.

It's just so true.  You can see it clearly over and over throughout the Bible... 

• God told Noah to build an ark in the desert while people mocked him. 
• David was annointed king as a boy while the current king decided to hunt him down and try to kill him.
• Joseph was betrayed by his family, falsely accused, and imprisoned, but the Lord was with him orchestrating his life for a much greater purpose. 
• Mary, a virgin, was told she was going to have a baby who would be the Savior of the world. 
• Moses was sent to lead thousands of Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land, and he butted heads with a hard hearted Pharaoh who didn't want to let those people go.

And I love the seemingly impossible promise that God makes to childless Abraham at the ripe old age of 99 in Genesis 15:

...the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”
But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.”
Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!”
And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith.

Each and every time, God's plan and promises sounded almost a little absurd in the moment.  Each and every time, these people obediently followed God's leading, albeit somewhat hesitantly at times.  And each and every time, God was faithful.  I love it!

I don't know the details.  I have no clue what's going on most of the time.  I get stuck within the parts of life that don't make sense to me.  I throw myself a little pity party and offer up Abraham-like sentiments of what good are your blessings, God, when I don't have _______? 

But the same God who provided in the past, still provides today.  The same promises of God from the past, still hold true today.  The same God who carried His children through uncertainty, pain, trials, heartache, disappointment, and fear, still wraps His arms around us, picks us up, loves on us, and walks through the same things today.

Trust Him.  Cling to His promises.  Keep faithfully obeying Him.  And God will take care of the details!

Packing

I'm heading up to my parents' place this weekend for an overnight trip.  That mean that I have to pack!!  It's inevitable that I'm going to end up forgetting something.  It always happens.  Sure, it's only for two days (actually, not even that!), but still.  It always happens that I'm about halfway to my destination, and the lightbulb goes on.  SHOOT!!  I forgot _________!

I guarantee you that I will WAY overpack on clothing for the trip, too.  You never know what mood I might be in or if the ocassion might call for a change of outfit.  And yes, even though I will bring too much, I will still forget something.  It never fails.

I wish I had Mrs. Potato Head to pack for me.  While she also seems to have a problem with overpacking, she certainly does think of EVERYTHING!  From an extra pair of shoes...all the way down to monkey chow for the monkeys, of course!!  Always be prepared, right?? haha

Community

I believe God designed us for community.  Jesus surrounded Himself with community in the form of His disciples.  His life revolved around being with people and loving on them.  As Platt puts it:  It is a glorious privilege to be a part of the universal body of Christ, united across the world and across history in a heavenly community.  But it is also the New Testament pattern for us to be a part of a local body of Christ, a gathering of brothers and sisters in a particular location where our Christianity comes to life in commitment to one another.  By the design of God, the local church affects every facet of our Christian lives.

We gather together every Sunday for that kind of community within the church setting. It's prime time to experience growth in knowledge, have the opportunity to serve others, and gather support and encouragement from fellow believers. It's the launching pad for our week in our day to day "normal life". I believe it's an incredible gift from God, and it is necessary.

This past Sunday at our Victory Church Theater Campus, we not only had an amazing time of worship, but we also had an incredible time of baptism and fellowship afterwards.  I loved watching the baptisms and hearing their testimonies...some of them would tell you that you wouldn't want to have known them a year ago. They are lives that God has changed, and there was a TON of rejoicing going on! I love seeing God work in people's lives!!

I also loved the fact that we were able to combine those baptisms with a time of fellowship this past Sunday.  Saying you believe in Christ is one thing, but opening yourself up to other people, getting involved, and putting action behind your faith is a whole other ballgame.  I know it's been such a huge blessing and encouragement in my life to get involved and get to really start knowing this group of people that God's brought together.

Platt goes on to explain:  Being a part of a community of faith involves being exposed to the life of Christ in others.  Just as we are identified with Christ and his church in baptism, we now share life in Christ with one another.  This is foundational in making disciples, and we will multiply the gospel only when we allow others to get close enough to us to see the life of Christ in action.

All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it. 

I am excited to see how this community of believers will grow together in Christ.  I am excited to see how this community of believers will deepen their relationships with each other.  And most of all, I am excited to see how God will used this community of believers to move outside our Sunday morning walls and reach others for Him!

U2

I've been waiting over a year for this concert! Bono injured his back last year and had to have surgery, and the rest of the tour had to be canceled.  We were bummed.  And then several weeks later (actually, it may have been months later?!), I received the following email from my friend:

Hi!!! I just heard the news that U2 has rescheduled their tour. The Philly concert is now on for Thursday, July 14, 2011. How does that date work for you? :)

My response:

HAHAHAHAHA!!!! Ok, seriously?! How the heck am I supposed to know what I'm doing in JULY 2011?!?!?! Well...actually, I guess I DO know what I'm doing...I'm going to see U2!!

Well, at least we had something to look forward to, right??  It's so crazy how fast time flies.  I can't believe it's now July 15, 2011, and the concert has come and gone.  But it was well worth the wait.  What a phenomenal show!  It was one of those "once in a lifetime" kind of events.  I'm thinking that's the best concert I've ever seen when it comes down to lighting, stage, sound, and flat out performance.  No one quite compares to Bono...

Oh, and how cool is it that Bono gave a shout out to Clair Bros. and Tait Towers?!  Our very own Lititz hometown sound and stage companies.  Let's just say that they deserved the props!

Well, unfortunately I was not quite this close, but here's just a little taste of the evening from someone who was there.  But it doesn't even come close to capturing the spectacular enormity of the evening. 

I think this was actually my view at the time...

Gifted

I've been reading through the book of Exodus.  There are several chapters in a row that lay out God's exact specifications for the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the ornate garments that the priests were to wear, and every other intricately detailed piece within the Tabernacle. 

Normally when I think about the Tabernacle, I have mental images of Aaron and all the priests who were directly called by God to serve Him there on a daily basis.  They were the liaisons between the people and God.  They were set apart.  They were special.  They were the main people God gifted for the specific purpose within the Tabernacle.

It's interesting how a similar mentality carries over into church today.  Pastors are directly called to serve God on a daily basis.  There are key leaders on staff that God's gifted for a specific purpose to lead the congregation.  They're communicating with God and receiving His vision.  They are the main people God has gifted for a specific purpose to lead the church.

While I believe that's true, I often find that leads some of us to think that God's given pastors, teachers, and leaders an incredible spiritual gift, but...well...the rest of us just aren't all that gifted.

I know I've read Exodus 31 before, but something new flew off the page this time around.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I have specifically chosen Bezalel son of Uri, grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the Spirit of God, giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts. He is a master craftsman, expert in working with gold, silver, and bronze. He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood. He is a master at every craft! “And I have personally appointed Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, to be his assistant. Moreover, I have given special skill to all the gifted craftsmen so they can make all the things I have commanded you to make.

Yes, God called great men like Moses, Aaron, and Joshua to step up and be incredible leaders and "Heroes of the Faith", but He also specifically chose and personally appointed many other key people to serve in so many equally vital roles along the way too.  He gave these other people great wisdom, ability, and expertise.  Without their special God-given skills, the Tabernacle would never have been constructed.  God's Spirit filled these people and gifted them as well.

When we come to know Christ and receive His salvation, we, too, are filled with the Spirit of God.  He has called us, specifically chosen us, and specially designed us.  Each and every one of us has skills and gifts that can be used to serve Him.

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

We are all gifted in some way.  And those gifts were given to fit each of us perfectly by a loving and creative Father.  So it's time to stop comparing ourselves to other people.  And it's time to start using our gifts to serve the One who gave them to us in the first place!

The Gospel

David Platt's Radical is one of those wake up call kind of books. Don't read it if you're looking for something to make you "feel good" or "comfortable". Don't read it if you're not willing to take a good long look at your heart. Don't read it if you're content sitting on the fence in lukewarm faith and not putting it into action. I'm about half way through, and it hasn't been easy pulling out the microscope to examine my life.

In order to fully examine one's faith, it doesn't do much good to look at outward actions until you've stripped it down to the basics, inspected where your roots are buried, and tested the foundation it's built on.  Everything we do and say will ultimately flow out of this underlying core. So Platt starts off with the fundamentals. He nails down the foundation of the Christian faith, and I just love how he lays it all out so clearly. I just had to share his telling of the gospel message...

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In the gospel God reveals the depth of our need for him. He shows us that there is absolutely nothing we can do to come to him. We can't manufacture salvation. We can't program it. We can't produce it. We can't even initiate it. God has to open our eyes, set us free, overcome our evil, and appease his wrath. He has to come to us.

Now we are getting to the beauty of the gospel.

As long as you and I understand salvation as checking off a box to get to God, we will find ourselves in the meaningless sea of world religions that actually condemn the human race by exalting our supposed ability to get to God. On the other hand, when you and I realize that we are morally evil, dead in sin, and deserving of God's wrath with no way out on our own, we begin to discover our desperate need for Christ.

Our understanding of who God is and who we are drastically affects our understanding of who Christ is and why we need him. For example, if God is only a loving Father who wants to help his people, then we will see Christ as a mere example of that love. We will view the Cross as just a demonstration of God's love in which he allowed Roman soldiers to crucify his Son so that sinful man would know how much he loves us.

But this picture of Christ and the Cross is woefully inadequate, missing the entire point of the gospel. We are not saved from our sins because Jesus was falsely tried by Jewish and Roman officials and sentenced by Pilate to die. Neither are we saved because Roman persecutors thrust nails into the hands and feet of Christ and hung him on a cross.

Do we really think that the false judgment of men heaped upon Christ would pay the debt for all humankind's sin? Do we really think that a crown of thorns and whips and nails and a wooden cross and all the other facets of the crucifixion that we glamorize are powerful enough to save us?

Listen to his words: "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me." The "cup" is not a reference to a wooden cross; it is a reference to divine judgment. It is the cup of God's wrath.

This is what Jesus is recoiling from in the garden. All God's holy wrath and hatred toward sin and sinners, stored up since the beginning of the world, is about to be poured out on him, and he is sweating blood at the thought of it.

What happened at the Cross was not primarily about nails being thrust into Jesus' hands and feet but about the wrath due your sin and my sin being thrust upon his soul. In that holy moment, all the righteous wrath and justice of God due us came rushing down like a torrent on Christ himself. Some say, "God looked down and could not bear to see the suffering that the soldiers were inflicting on Jesus, so he turned away." But this is not true. God turned away because he could not bear to see your sin and my sin on his Son.

One preacher described it as if you and I were standing a short hundred yards away from a dam of water ten thousand miles high and ten thousand miles wide. All of a sudden that dam was breached, and a torrential flood of water came crashing toward us. Right before it reached our feet, the ground in front of us opened up and swallowed it all. At the Cross, Christ drank the full cup of the wrath of God, and when he had downed the last drop, he turned the cup over and cried out, "It is finished."

This is the gospel. The just and loving Creator of the universe has looked upon hopelessly sinful people and sent his Son, God in the flesh, to bear his wrath against sin on the cross and to show his power over sin in the Resurrection so that all who trust in him will be reconciled to God forever.

Habits

I am a creature of habit.  I think my friends just might laugh at the simplicity of that statement.  The truth is, I can tend to be so habitual at times that it's almost borderline OCD.  I've written previously about my analities when it comes to grammar, but that's honestly just one of the many issues that I have.  ;-)

• I pretty much eat the same thing for lunch every day at work.  A sandwich, a yogurt, and a diet coke.  The meat product within the sandwich might change, and the flavor of yogurt might change...but it's still a sandwich and a yogurt none-the-less.
• I have a morning routine that I don't even think about when I'm getting ready.  It takes me an hour and a half to get it all done.  If I do something out of the ordinary one morning, it throws me off, and I subsequently tend to forget a step.  I get terribly disoriented on vacations.  Things just aren't where they usually are, and I'm sunk. 
• When I shop at Walmart, there's a specific pattern I have to take in order to work my way through the entire store and not miss anything...starting with toiletries and ending with groceries.  The same goes for the mall.  You have to work your way down one Park City wheel spoke to the next.
• Don't even get me started on work.  Let's just say that I love spreadsheets.  I love organization.  I love tying out account balances to the penny.  Give me a list of items to step through and check off one by one, and I'll be in my own little piece of heaven.  And I love it most when nobody messes with my system.  Please, just let me do it.  ;-)  I have certain daily rituals that need to be done, and I find that I do them automatically. 

That's just the tip of the iceberg for me, but I'm pretty sure we all have habits of some sort.  Granted, I err on the extreme side, but we all have things we do without thinking.  There are things that just come naturally, whether it stems from an OCD personality or if it's a learned trait.  We react a certain way.  We have a daily routine of some sort.  I'm not totally sure how it happens all the time.  It just seems to happen. 

So here's what I don't understand.  Why in the world is it so easy for me to have random habits and things that I need to do in order for my life to not feel off-kilter, and yet when it comes down to important, life changing, God-honoring habits, they never seem to stick? 

I've come to realize that I need some kind of structure when it comes to reading my Bible consistently on a daily basis.  I bet you would have never guessed that based on the description of my previous habits, huh?  Haha.  So, a while back I started working through a 365 day reading plan yet again.  Of course, now that I'm a couple of months into it, I'm hitting those fun Old Testament books that aren't always the easiest to read through.  I realized this weekend that somehow I had gotten a few days behind.  I had fallen out of my habit for a bit.  Thankfully, it's easy enough to catch back up, but I've often found that once you get out of the habit, even for a little, it's even easier to give it up all together.

Like I said, I don't understand why sometimes it seems so hard to make daily time for getting into God's word, but I'm finding out something interesting along the way. The more I make a concentrated effort to consistently connect with God, the more habitual it becomes. The more I get to know Christ on a daily basis, the less disoriented I feel. And the more I spend time with God, the more I realize how much I need His presence in my life in order to really live.

OMG!

Ok, I'll be the first to admit that I am not a fan of this acronym.  It totally makes me cringe because of the careless irreverence it expresses.  I'm pretty sure that if one of the ten commandments specifically states: Do not use the LORD your God’s name as if it were of no significance; the LORD won’t forgive anyone who uses his name that way., then it's probably safe to say that God's not too keen on our flippant use of His name.

So then you ask, why in the world is Victory Church using it as the title to their entire summer sermon series?!  The series image banner above certainly causes a few raised eyebrows.  I had that proven when a friend of mine happened to catch a glimpse of it when I was reading an email update from church.  I got an incredulous "what are you looking at?!" thrown at me.  :-)  It's supposed to be used as a tool to start conversation.  Mission accomplished.

Pastor Curt explains it a little more in depth in his blog post, but plain and simple, this series is digging deeper into discovering who God is.  We're exploring a different attribute of God each week.  So far we've learned how God is our Father, God is our Shepherd, and God is Indescribable.  The point is to really understand who God truly is.  The hope is that as we learn more and more about this great God of ours, that we'll come to know Him more personally.  And as we grow in our relationship with Him, we'll inevitably exclaim that He is MY God!!

Join us this Sunday at Penn Cinema theater in Lititz at 9:00am.  We'll be talking about how "My God is Love".  I can't wait!

Feeling Small

We watched Louie Giglio's sermon, Indescribable, in church on Sunday, and it's still reverberating around in my head and heart.  Louie showed a lot of breathtaking pictures...the sun, galaxies, and pictures of space that are billions and billions of miles away.  I can't tell you what most of them even were, but I know they were mind-bogglingly massive, and they were astoundingly beautiful.  And they were all made by an extraordinarily creative God. 

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

Here's the part that I'm still contemplating though. Did you ever stop and think about how extremely insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things? Our lives are pretty short in comparison to the history of the world. And when you compare the length of life to eternity, we're just a mere blip on the radar. In comparison to the expanse of the universe, we're nothing more than a speck of dust.

Psalm 8:3-4

When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?

Yet, the same Creator of the universe lovingly made each of us and knows each and every one of us by name.  That same Creator loved each and every one of us enough to send His Son to take our place and die for us so that we could spend an eternity with Him.  He's the same God who has adopted us into His family, and we can know Him intimately as our Daddy. 

You received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father."

Now to me, that is absolutely awesome!  We are so very small, and yet our great God loves us so amazingly much!!

 Psalm 145

The Lord is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.
The Lord is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made.
The Lord is faithful to all his promises
and loving toward all he has made.
The Lord upholds all those who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.
The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.
You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
The Lord is righteous in all his ways
and loving toward all he has made.
The Lord is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.

A Little Help

Did you ever have one of those days when you feel like you just don't have the energy or the strength to keep pushing forward.  When life has worn you out, and while you really want to stay positive, you just don't know if you can keep fighting.  When that same old hurt, failure, or disappointment rears its ugly head yet again, even though you thought you had surrendered it to God a long time ago.  When you know God's leading you right where He wants you to be, and yet you still have to hurdle so many obstacles along the way.  You're just tired.  And despite all your determination, you can't do it alone.  You need a little help.

In Exodus 17, the Israelites are making their way out of Egypt toward the Promised Land when they get attacked.  So Moses tells Joshua to take some men and fight.  Moses stood at the top of the hill with the staff of God in his hands, while they were fighting.  As long as Moses held up his hands, they would win, but as soon as he would lower them, the tide would turn.

Moses knew that God had called him to lead the Israelites.  He knew that God was taking them to the Promised Land.  Moses knew he was exactly where God had called him to be.  Moses also knew that by surrendering this battle to God, God would win it for them.  It was proven that God was fighting for them as long as Moses kept the staff of God raised.  But Moses was tired. And despite all of his determination, he couldn't do it alone.  He needed a little help.  And that's why I love Exodus 17:12 so much. 

When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.

I don't believe we were meant to do life alone.  I don't believe we're meant to face trials and fight battles alone.  Yes, we need to work on building our relationship with Christ, and leaning hard into Him first and foremost, but I also believe that we need to surround ourselves with a few good friends as well.  We all need a support system.  We all need people in our lives who will come along side of us and encourage us.  We all need friends who will recognize our weak areas and help us remain steady when we're faltering.  We all need accountability.  We all need people who will rally around us and help us fight through the difficult times we will inevitably face along the way.

I'm so thankful that God's brought people into my life that have helped me in so many ways.  I have friends who love me no matter what and are a great encouragement, and I have friends who truly understand some of my deepest unmet desires and can empathize right along with me.  I have friends that will call me out when I'm wandering off track and hold me accountable to making sure I'm pursuing God's will over my own.  I have friends who I've walked with through some really rough times, who have experienced similar hard decisions, and who have been through hell and back with me. 

I think the common denominator among all of my closest friends is centered around the fact that they all love God, and we all mutually spur one another on to become more like Christ.  And I love that when we feel tired and just can't go on, God gives us friends to lift us up and help us win the battles we face in life.  God provides a little help through our friends.

Whistling

It has become apparent that I can't stop myself from unconsciously humming while I'm at work...especially when I have my iPod playing.  I seriously just can't help it!  :-)  While my boss somehow ignores me and doesn't seem to mind one bit, another co-worker likes to randomly send me slightly annoyed emails asking if I'm humming again, because I can be heard down the hall.  Whoops. 

A few weeks ago, I had a cold, and I found humming to be a bit more challenging than normal.  So, I think I actually was fairly quiet for once...or at least I thought I was.  One day, I hear this statement being uttered by my boss from next door.  "I can't whistle.  I wish I could whistle.  I've never been able to whistle."  I thought it was odd.  It was seemingly out of the blue.  I thought, "Okay??  And why are you bringing this up randomly??"  And then I realized why.  The music was still being played on my iPod, and I still couldn't hum, but apparently I had found another way to release my inner need to "sing along".  The humming had morphed into whistling.  One way or another, I guess I was bound and determined to create my own personal music.

Yes, I think I have issues.  haha

So in honor of my boss's non-whistling lips, I'd like to offer her Snow White's song as a gift.  So any time she feels the need to compete with my whistling, she can just turn up this song, and she, too, can whistle while she works!!  :-)

And perhaps, since she will be the only person up in the front office area this afternoon, she should take some time to practice trying to whistle along with it!!  Just a thought.

;-)