#guilttogrowth

You may be feeling guilty for a failed obligation. You may be afraid to take the next step because guilt is holding you back. The Disciple Peter is a great example of how God can turn guilty around for His glory and His good.

Peter a fishermen was one of the first disciples called by Jesus to follow Him in Matt 4:19 “Come, follow me, “Jesus said, “I will send you out to fish for people”. That Christ follower, Peter once walked on water in Matt 14:29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat and walked on water and came toward Jesus.” That Water Walker, Peter later denies Jesus in Luke 22:34 “Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me”. That very same Peter who was guilty for denying Jesus was the first to perform a miracle after Jesus’s death in Acts 3:6 “Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I don t have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

Let your guilt be your catalyst to what God has planned for you and what Satan is working overtime to keep you from obtaining. Jesus still wants to walk on water with the guilty. Jesus knew when he called a fisherman named Peter, that the same Peter would later deny him. Last week Deborah talked about being chosen. In this song, “Praise Before My Breakthrough” some of the lyrics sing, “Lord all I need to know is you choose me” & “When I’m living out my faith, when I’m stepping on the sea, I know you take my hand and walk with me”.

How will you turn your guilt to growth? It is never too late. God will work it out for His glory in Rom 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according for his purpose”.

Praise Before My Breakthrough by: Brian and Katie Torwalt

#chosen #waterwalkinggirls

Chosen: having been selected as the best or most appropriate.  There are many places in our lives that we may be chosen and our view of what it means to be chosen may change depending on our age and the situation.  Sometimes being chosen is positive and sometimes it is negative. Whatever the situation, you and I must learn to respond to being chosen in a Christ-like manner.

When I was a child and playing with my peers I wanted to be chosen.  Being chosen signified acceptance.  Sometimes I desired to be chosen to be on a certain person’s kick ball team. Other times the goal was to be chosen to attend a birthday party for someone that was a part of the “in” crowd. However as I have grown older God has taught me that my worth does not come from earthly opinions but from the opinion of the One True King.

As an adult I find that sometimes being chosen can lead me in a negative direction.  I may be chosen to do a difficult or uncomfortable task.  Being chosen to complete something hard may cause me to want to hide or revert to my childhood practice of not making eye contact with the teacher to avoid being called on to answer a question.  Do you have a difficult task lurching in the dark corners of your life? Is there a task that you know needs to be done but you are avoiding making eye contact with the Master because you don’t want to be the one chosen?

I am sure you are familiar with Esther in the Bible.  However if you are not, I encourage you to read the book of Esther to learn about the events that led her to became Queen.  Some may call her circumstances coincidental but as a Christian I believe differently and her Uncle Mordecai did too. Esther found herself in the position to make a difference but she had to choose whether she should speak up or remain quiet. Mordecai sent word to her, “If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jew will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die.  Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” Esther 4:14

So now I ask again, is there a task that you know you have been called to but you are avoiding making eye contact with the Master because you don’t want to be the one chosen?  Is there something you have been chosen to speak up and say? Has God laid on your heart a difficult path that you are needed to walk through?  Has God chosen you to tackle a problem “for such a time as this?” I encourage you to listen to the words of the song below.  My prayer is that we listen to our individual call from above and that we say yes! The chorus of the song says:

Just a moment for a lifetime. For such a time as this, I say yes! I’ve been chosen to arise. For such a time as this, I say yes!

Take some time to sit still and listen.  Examine the current climate around you.  Is God calling you to speak up and act? Have you been chosen to make a difference in your home, your workplace, your church, your community? How will you respond? Will you avert your eyes in hopes that you don’t make eye contact with God? Will you remain still and silent? Or will you respond as Christ would? Let’s say yes! Let’s arise! For such a time of this, let’s say yes!

#Godisthere

Everyday we have the gift of the Holy Spirit in us and around us so that God is always there. My word for 2020 has been “Gifts”. For many of us 2020 has been everything but a gift. As I have suffered the loss of my Dad, many of you have suffered a loss or hardships as well. In the old testament, temples had to be built for God to be there. The book of Ezekiel gives us a clear picture of the new temple. In Ez 48: 8 NIV we read how the temple is to be presented as a “special gift”.

“Bordering the territory of Judah from east to west will be the portion you are to present as a special gift. It will be 25,000 cubits wide, and its length from east to west will equal one of the tribal portions; the sanctuary will be in the center of it”.

If an old biblical temple is a special gift, housing God, then our bodies as temples are a special gift as well. In Cor 6:19 NIV, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you whom you have received from God? You are not your own”. One of the many blessings of this gift is that God is with us always. In Ez 48:35 NIV we learn what the name, Jehovah-Shammah means.

“The distance all around will be 18,000 cubits. “And the name of the city from that time on will be: The Lord is There”.

If God is there, then he is always near. In the song God is near by Rend collective, we sing “Hallelujah God is Near”. A few of the lyrics sing, “Closer than a whisper, close enough to hear my heartbeat, closer than a kiss, close enough to raise my heartbeat”.

Last week Deborah talked about brokenness. Often in the brokenness we feel like God has left us. The Bible tells us in Psalm 34: 18 NIV the exact opposite; “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit”. October is Mental Health awareness month. Some people are so broken, they do not see themselves as a gift or worthy to house that special gift. In fact, we are all worthy of that special git, even sinners like you and me.

Let us all remember to pray for those that are crushed in spirit. May they feel God’s presence and know that He is there with them always.

#broken #waterwalkinggirls

Monday morning I rushed into my office to grab something and planned to run right back out. As the door slammed behind me I heard the sound of something hitting the floor and the glass breaking.  As I looked back I saw on the floor a broken picture frame.  Many people may have been upset to have broken something like this but for me it was a God wink as just hours before I had written and posted about the Water Walkers word of the week “broken.” God had provided a tangible example for me.  In fact it triggered a memory of when my son Preston was 4 years old.  He had come to school to be screened for preschool.  After the assessment the teacher told me one of the items he had lost points on was on his response to the question, “What should you do if you break something?” The expected answer was, “I get help from an adult or I take it to a grown-up.”  However Preston’s response was, “I fix it.” Being the independent 4 year old that he was, his plan if he broke something was to try to fix it himself.

Aren’t we the very same?  When we are broken or if we are experiencing brokenness often our first response is to try to fix it ourselves.  This week I have been reminded of a poem I read years ago.

Let Go and Let God

As children bring their broken toys with tears for us to mend,

I brought my broken dream to God because he was my Friend.

But then, instead of leaving Him in peace to work alone,

I hung around and tried to help

With ways that were my own.

At last, I snatched them back and cried,

“How could You be so slow?”

“My child,” He said,

“What could I do? You never did let go?”

(Author: Loretta P. Burns)

Last week my life was touched so closely by tragedy.  As a mother I wanted to help and I wanted to fix the brokenness.  However I was at a loss.  I had no words to help.  I felt helpless.  God has reminded me that I am not the one to fix the break.  Only God can mend the broken hearts.  The Bible tells us over and over that God heals, God mends, God fixes.   I encourage you to take some time today to read the entire chapter of Psalm 31.  The chapter closes with, “Be strong and take heart all you who hope in the Lord.” Psalm 31:24 NIV  Now read the Message version of Psalm 31:23-24, “Love God, all you saints; God takes care of all who stay close to him, But he pays back in full those arrogant enough to go it alone.  Be brave.  Be strong.  Don’t give up.  Expect God to get here soon.”

So my prayer for you and I is that we give God whatever it is that is breaking our hearts today.  Let’s let go of it and allow God to work in and through it.  Let’s stay close to God and not “go it alone.” Let’s be brave, strong and not give up.  Most of all let’s “expect God to get here soon.”

#dream

In the last few months several families, friends, and our community have experienced unimaginable tragedy. When you lose someone often it can feel like you are amid a bad dream. Yet in the morning when you awake, the unsettling truth is still reality.

As humans we ask; why do bad things happen to good people? My thought has always been that since Jesus died on the cross, our pain and suffering is no different. This past week my daughter Kendal helped me see things in new perspective. The perspective is that God loves all his children. We are all precious in his sight, therefore when bad things happen, he does not categorize us as good or bad. I was reminded of the scripture from Psalm 139:13; “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb”. God’s love for us started with our creation.

Kendal went on to tell me about a scene in the movie ‘The Shack” where the father is asked to choose one of his children to go to hell over the other, which would it be? Of course, no parent could make this choice because they are equally loved just as God equally loves His children.

This past week in prepping and planning to write, I came across this song, When God Dreams by Scott and Becky Parker. The lyrics sing; “When God dreams, there’s a throne. His children have come home. In one voice will praise His name, oh Lord. Will always remain in the image we were made. The old life gone to a long-lasting grave. When God dreams, I believe we become what we might be, there’s no more shame, no more pain, no more suffering”. Again, this is a beautiful reminder of God’s love for us and how He sees us from creation.

In our Run for God group, we have recently talked about how grief is different for everyone. My grief over my Dad’s death is going on ten months. Since we did not live in the same town, there are days I dream of seeing him at Christmas and then I wake up. A friend shared with me that grief is like an ocean and that it comes in waves. I find this to be very true. In the same song, the question is asked, “When God dreams, does he dream in colors we can’t see”? This is a beautiful reminder of how God sees our lives from beginning to end. Just like the footprints in the sand poem, He is there to carry us through our trials here on earth and will never leave us as we journey to our forever homes.

Note, the pictures shown are of my sister Leaha and I with our parents during and after my Dad’s cancer journey. We have been blessed to create many memories that we continue to dream about today.