A Heart of Appreciation

1 Thess 1:2-3 says, "We always thank God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers. We continually remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ."

The Lord had me do a simple exercise once that caused great love and appreciation to well up from deep within my spirit. The exercise was this; He had me take our church communications list and go through the list(every man, woman and child) and write out what I remember each person for. For example, their faithful and steadfast service. Then when that was done, I took person by person and offered up a pray to God in remembrance of what they have done and asked the Lord to continue to bless their acts of service.

Not only did this exercise cause appreciation for each person to enter into my spirit, but it caused thankfulness to flow. God has blessed us so richly hasn't he? The other thing this exercise prompted was to give me ways to encourage those in our church body. We all need encouragement. We all need to be appreciated and know that our service to God is touching others in the way God wants them touched.

Mother Teresa spoke this and I quote, "We cannot do any great things for God, just small things done with great love." Work produced by faith, labor prompted by love, and endurance inspired by hope in Jesus.

I encourage you to do this same writing exercise. The fruit of it will be appreciation that overflows with thanksgiving and encouragement!

What God Loves

Yesterday we took a look at what God hates and what breaks his heart. Today we are going to take a look at what God loves.

I spend a lot of time planting good seed into my son, Samuel. Often our conversations and lessons are based on situations that arise and how to respond them. My response to many of his intending life questions is often the same..."Will it be pleasing to God?", or, "Will it put a smile on God's face?"

I don't want to be legalistic or to teach my son how to be legalistic. But, rules are rules and they have been put there for our safety. Some people think that "rules" can cause you to be legalistic and I guess they can be if the motive is fueled by works. I want to obey rules (and I want my son to also) with the motive being this - I simply want to put a smile on God's face and please (make him happy) with every aspect of my life. Yes, I am on a mission to please God and because of that I want to obey all his rules. Again, not because I have to, but because I love him - that's my motive. When your motive is love, then you always want to do things that please.

So after pondering the thought, "What does God love?" I made this list.

God loves it when we have no other God's before him.
God loves it when we don't have idols of any form in our lives.
God loves it when we do not misuse his name.
God loves it when we observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.
God loves it you honor your father and mother.
God loves it when you don't murder (or hold murder in your heart).
God loves it when you don't commit adultery (keep even your heart pure from these thoughts).
God loves it when you don't steal (don't take what doesn't belong to you).
God loves it when you speak truthfully of your neighbor (don't give false testimony).
God loves it when you don't want what is not yours (do not covet).

God loves it when we love our neighbors as ourselves.
God loves it when we love one another.
God loves it when we give cheerfully, for he loves a cheerful giver.
God loves it when we feed the hungry and give a drink to the thirsty.
God loves it when we clothe those in need.
God loves it when we take care of the sick.
God loves it when we care for the widows and the orphans.

God loves every thought he has of you.
God loves the fragrance of your offering.
God loves the time you spend with him.
God loves to call you by name.
God loves the sound of your voice.
God loves you with a never ending love.
God loves to pour his love on you.

The list of things that God loves could go on and on. Upon reading this list, I hope you can see how much God loves the work you are doing for His kingdom, as well as how pleased he is with the motive of your heart while doing it. You certainly are putting a smile on God's face for he loves not only what you are doing, but more importantly he loves you!

God's Heart

I am on a mission. My mission is to take on the heart of God. He has already given me the mind of Christ, but now I want his heart. I want to know not only what he thinks, but I want to know how he feels.

I have been spending more and more time in prayer lately. I think that is the key to becoming more sensitive to what he is sensitive about. The closer I draw to him the farther away I get from the cares and concerns of this world. Yet I am finding that the closer I draw to him the more I am understanding his cares and concerns for this world.

The other night at study, the speaker conveyed questions that stirred my spirit so emotionally that I just wanted to cry. Partly because it was convicting, but also because I just wanted to fall on my face and begin to intercede for this world that has become so far removed from the heart of God.

Here are a few questions to help us ponder what God's heart is. How do you suppose God feels as he watches a child huddled in a corner of the room crying because they hear mom and dad screaming at each other? How do you think God feels when he hears a man hitting hitting his wife? How do you think God feels when he hears a wife disrespect her husband? How do you think God feels when we discipline our children too harshly? How do you think God feels when we pass by our neighbor in need? How do you think God feels about sexual immorality, idolatry, hatred and discord? Pretty heavy questions aren't they?

In the book of Proverbs it is stated "To fear the Lord is to HATE evil". My question is this...do we really HATE what God hates?

We read it in the Bible. We know it in our minds. But do we have the reality of God's heart? Are we so moved by his heart that we are compelled to fall on our knees and cry out in intercession to see peoples hearts change? Are we so moved by his heart that we are compelled to fall on our knees and cry out in humble repentance upon recognizing our own wrong?

Knowing God's heart moves us. It moves us to prayer. It moves us to serve. It moves us go into the nations and preach the good news. It moves us to repent. Do you know God's heart?

A Simple Truth

It truly is a time for Thanksgiving! God has not only done so much in my life this year, but he has illuminated his truth to me time and time again. What a privilege to have and to hold on to his word. It never ceases to amaze me that you could read a passage of scripture nine times and on the tenth time the eyes of revelation open to new insight!

This past week my wonderful friend and piano teacher, Sarah, gave me an assignment. The assignment was to write a song of thanks in the key of E. She just loves to stretch me as this is two weeks in a row now that she has given me the same assignment but in a different key. Stretching is good...if you never stretched you would never grow!

I looked up relevant chords in the key of E. I taught myself how to play them. And I waited...no song...and I waited...no song. I prayed, I read. Nothing happening!

Last night (mind you my lesson is today!) I figured I would open up the Psalms in the 60's - there must be something there I could use in a song of thanks. What beautiful words from several different chapters and verses I penned on my note pad. I was truly excited as I thought, now I have some beautiful words to sing to the Lord! I sat down and began to plunk my new E chords and I humbly have to admit that these words of great treasure just weren't fitting. Now I was frustrated and ready to give up.

But God has not called me to give up, so I just continued to play the chords. Words began to flow from my lips of praise. They were not the words that I had expected, and at first I didn't see how they fit the assignment of writing a song of thanks. Yet as I continued to sing my praises to the Lord with the revelation I was receiving from him, I became ever so thankful.

The song that flowed from my lips expressed the simple truth, that it is for His glory that he created me. The truth I knew in my head, became a reality in my spirit. Assignment finished, and ready for my next lesson today. I am ever so thankful to God for his simple truths!

Entertaining His Presence

How precious was the time I spent with the Lord yesterday after church. When worship was finished and church was released, my spirit was not. So, I stayed and lingered a little while longer in the presence of the Holy Spirit. I can only imagine how Mary felt as she knelt at Jesus feet. I am sure that as she entertained the presence of Jesus that her spirit cried out to just sit there a little while longer too.

We are always in such a rush. We have to do this and that. The list of what we think is so important and must get done never ends. We schedule most of our time according to what we think is important or perhaps fun. We allot time for many things and we even find time to squeeze in two hours for Sunday service. We hope that service doesn't run over because it may infringe on other plans we have made. We even have a list of what needs to get accomplished on our Sabbath day. Many of us reading this are asking ourselves "what's that!".

I often think of the Sabbath day simply as a day of rest. But I think I am going to take a different look at. I am going to look at it as a day set aside for the Lord. A day I stay focused on Him. A day where I spend quality time with him, where my thoughts and affections are lavished on him. A day where I entertain His presence.

Martha and Mary sure can teach me a lot about what I need to do differently and even encourage me in what I am doing right. As like Martha, I just love to get things prepared for guests coming over. I go into great detail to make people feel welcome and even try to make a little something that I know each one would like to eat. Of course, a knock out desert will always be a great blessing. I like to make people feel special and loved. After all, God makes me feel special and loved, so my cup longs to runneth over! I must admit though, that I can easily fall into a trap of business. Thus, I need to learn to sit like Mary does. Mary discerned what was the better choice. I too need to discern what is best.

I am going to take what I am learning here and apply it to my Sabbath day. I am going to prepare and manage my time better through the week so that on Sunday's (my Sabbath day) I can share my affections with Jesus and stay focused on him and not on what I still have left to do on my never ending list.

I want to be better at preparing for my time with him in worship on Sunday's. I prepare for everything else all week long, meeting demand after demand, and taking care of everyone's needs, that it seems like I breathe a sigh of relief to simply come to church and sit for two hours (I don't think that is the kind of rest Jesus calls us to!!!). I don't think that is the mind set that Jesus desires me to have. I want to get to the place that I come to church on Sunday's with my heart prepared to spend time with Jesus. Where I come longing to spend time in the presence of the Holy Spirit. Where I am determined to enter in to the Holy of Holies. Where the desire of my heart cries to just linger a little longer. Where I don't put a time limit on the time I have to spend with him. Where I just sit and allow him to minister to me and me to him for however long he desires.

I rush all week...I don't want to rush my time with Jesus. After all, God sees that I am special and he loves me and he wants his cup to runneth over on me....again and again and again. Oh, to entertain His presence and linger just a little while longer.

How Deep Can You Go?

Many of us have been to parties in our younger years (and maybe in our older!) where we have played the exciting game of Limbo. For some that have not stretched out their muscles in a while, the game can be rather humbling as one attempts to go under the stick.

Yes, the measuring stick. Two people holding a measuring stick, that with each pass it becomes lower and lower and lower. People all around are simultaneously yelling "How low can you go?". The lower you go, the closer to the prize you get! I am humble enough to admit that I have never won!

There is a way to measure how deep we can go in God. It is found in Ezekiel 47. Ezekiel was led by a man with a measuring stick into the river of life that flowed from the temple of God. At first it was ankle deep, then it was knee deep. As they continued it became waist deep and eventually reached the depth that Ezekiel was submersed and had to swim. What we see here is a spiritual picture that we can apply in the natural.

The first lesson we can glean here is that Ezekiel didn't choose to simply stand on the river bank and watch the water run by him. In other words he didn't want the Spirit of God to run by him. By taking a step into the water, there was a willingness to experience a depth of God that he did not know.

The second lesson that we can glean is that Ezekiel didn't settle for just remaining in ankle deep water. He went to the next step. We need to be ever willing to go to the next level in God.

The third lesson that can be gleaned is that our growth has to be a continual process. We don't see where Ezekiel backed out of the water because he didn't like getting wet or because he didn't like the temperature of the water. No matter how uncomfortable things may get or if we don't like the process, we must keep going forward in Jesus. Be determined that there is no other choice.

The forth lesson is that we need to trust God enough to fully be submersed in him. When we are fully submersed in him, he has the ability to move us in whatever direction he so desires and all we can do is to go with the flow for he has full control.

The degree we are willing to go in determines how deep we go in God. This example shows us an outward expression of an inward work. An inward work is revealed by an outward expression. God has no limits on the depth that we can go in him. How deep will you and can you go?

Growth Spurts part 4

We could each write a story as to the wonderful work that the Lord, Jesus Christ has done in each of our lives. What a wonderful book that would be to encourage others in their faith. Hey, I may be on to something..."Testimonies from a Covenant of Grace". I just love a good project so you better get your pencils sharpened!

Today I am going to share with you a humbling lesson. I cannot use any examples because I am still trying to remove something that at times is too big...it's my plank. Just when false pride kicks in and tries to convince me that the plank is finally gone, God comes in and reveals its great existence! Yes, we go back to the word of God that says, " Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?" It does continue on by stating that if we do that, then we are hypocrites. What an ugly word!

There are plenty of opportunities daily that someone "bugs us". They irritate us, they offend us, they have embarrassed us...the list could go on and on. And of course we in return have even gone to others to let them know just what a jerk so and so is (come on be truthful...all sin is common to man!). But how often do we go to God and ask him why did that irritate, offend or embarrass me? Many times it is these very things, in sawdust form, that can be found to be a plank in our own eyes. The true problem is, that we become so consumed with pride as we check out and speak about someones sawdust that that we don't fall down in humility before God and cry out with a heart of humility, "It's me oh God that is in need of your cleansing!".

For two years now, my prayer has been for God to reveal to me issues of pride in my life. He has been very faithful in his revelation and I am so very thankful. It has not been easy; some pills are hard to swallow. At first, the plank is big and easier to see, but as the plank became smaller, the inward work became deeper. An outward appearance without inward character is not what God desires.

No one else can do this work for you. And to be honest, the type of work God has been doing in my life over the past two years, I don't think I would want anyone else to see. It's been pretty ugly... but then again sin is never beautiful.

Last week I wrote a truly beautiful song. It is beautiful not because I have written it, but because God has has written and inspired it. I leave you with these anointed words from the song that convey the cry of God's heart:
"Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord.
"Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow..."
(Isaiah 1:18)

Growth Spurts part 3

We have been given the mind of Christ, therefore we should also have the attitude of Christ. Attitudes are conceived in our minds, nurtured in our hearts and finally given birth through our mouths.

Everything we do, we should do unto the Lord. That is how God's word instructs us to serve in the kingdom of God. Be it to our husbands, our children, our brothers and sisters as well as to our neighbors, we are to serve them as unto the Lord.

Serving as unto the Lord has required another growth spurt for me. Attitude adjustments have been rather high on the list of things to work on!

I have found that not everyone thinks the same (it has taken 44 years, but I am finally getting it!). Not just in how we do things, but in doctrinal issues, thoughts as to what is morally right, and even in interpretation as to what God's word says.

Yet in the body of Christ we are called to unity. The greatest challenge seems to be how to serve unto the Lord while maintaining obedience to God's word and in keeping an attitude that rejoices in the Lord always. Questions arise as to when to speak and how to speak. How to consider what is being said and how to respond with speech that reveals that you serve the Lord God Almighty. How to redirect incorrect attitudes or thoughts to line up with God's word, his heart, and his thoughts.

It is never easy, but to be honest, it starts with us. Where is our heart attitude at for serving the Lord in the body of Christ? Will you be willing to give up the way you want to do things and consider someone else's? Sometimes it means that we state what we know and believe to be right so that we are right before God and then we have to drop it and let God deal with people. Or perhaps God will cause you to keep fighting for what is right. Sometimes we have to take a stand and speak up when we feel that something that wants to be done may cause an offense to someone (love does protect) and other times God leads us to be silent.

Our thoughts and attitudes have to line up with God's word. They have to be disciplined to be obedient to God's word. It takes time in God's presence and it takes the circumstance in our everyday life for God to teach us how to maintain an attitude of service unto the Lord. Oh, to have an attitude of rejoicing in the Lord always while serving the Lord in all aspects of our lives...how blissful that would be!

Growth Spurts part 2

2 Cor 11:30 says, "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness." OK, I am going to expose one of my weakness to you today so that I can truely boast of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life and so that God may be glorified through my weaknesses.

I struggle with trust. I struggle with trusting God and I struggle with trusting others. I have asked the Lord to help strengthen those areas that are weak. In that he has revealed to me as to why I stuggle with trust and areas that are still in need of work. He is always faithful to reveal when we ask.

I am finding that as I am trying to build and maintain unity that God is doing a tremendous growth in me in the area of trust. I am a worker through and through in the kingdom and God has gifted me with the ability to administrate. I love to plan things and I love to "do" things, and I must admit that I like to have them done in a certain way. They don't have to be done "my way". But I like to walk in excellence and I want to make sure that what needs to get done, gets done, and gets done with excellence. Therefore, I like to do them myself because I can trust myself to do the things that need to get done.

When I do things with just God and I (and that has taken a level of trust!), then I have not taken the opportunity to learn how to function as part of a unified body of believers. Working on a project with others causes me to have to trust on a whole new level.

It is not the other person that I have to trust, but I need to trust God at work in them and through them. My ways are not God's ways and if they didn't do their task with excellence, or if they even forgot to do it at all, is not God able to take care of the need? If God wants something done that someone else forgot to do, he is more than able to send someone else to do it or will give you the grace to do it when the time comes (you just have to keep a good attitude!!!).

If I don't trust God at work through others, I will always have to do the work alone. That sure would make me pretty lonely! It also wouldn't allow others to grow, use their gifts, of perhaps even allow their light to shine.

If we want to be a part of a unified body then we will have to give up control and trust God and learn to function as one...even if there are a few glitches along the way. We sure do grow as a body when we learn to trust each other and to trust God.

Growth Spurts

As I have walked with the Lord, (and I am sure you can attest to this as well for your life), I can honestly say that there has been consistent growth. Yet as I take an overview of the past 15 years, there have been a few times that I have experienced growth spurts. As with the natural growth spurts we experienced in our childhood years, we also experience growth spurts in our spiritual years.

God has been teaching me so much about unity. The Bible tells us, "How good it is to dwell in unity..." , and to "maintain unity through the bond of peace."

God is building His Church, He is preparing His bride. He wants his church unified!

I have been challenged to take a look at the part that I particularly play in the role of unity. How do I promote it? How do I exemplify it? There is a lot that goes into unity and maintaining it. Unity takes a lot of hard work; it takes a lot of sacrifice.

God has been showing me so many areas where division, strife and offense try to come into my life and cause me not to walk in unity. But I do not only want to discern where the enemy is at work, but I want God to do a deep work in me and reveal to me the root of these attacks in my life. I am finding that for each onslaught of division, strife and offense, that pride is the root.

God has not called me to nurture the hurts of offense and pamper them so that they can stay safe and sound within my spirit. Pampering and nurturing offenses only keeps us bound from ever experiencing the true peace of unity. The Bible tells us that every root not of God will be pulled up - it will be removed! Being that we have been crucified with Christ, and that it is no longer us who lives but Christ that lives within us, doesn't it make sense to want nothing in us that is not of Christ?

Deep calls to deep. The greatest growth in my life is not growth that can be measured outwardly, but will be expressed out of the overflow of my heart through the deep inward working of the Holy Spirit.

Every Member

Have you ever noticed that each time you read a scripture that God speaks something a little different to you? He builds upon His word and causes you to grow in maturity as to how you think, feel, speak, respond, and love.

This morning I was reading a familiar passage from 1 Cor 12:22-25. This is what it says, "On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

After reading this, I was think of our particular church body. How blessed we are to have each and every individual that we have in our church. Each person has a very special function and each person is vitally needed. But do we let each other know that?

We need to be a source of encouragement to each other. Sometimes we take one another for granted and do not realize that perhaps someone is feeling insecure or not needed or maybe not even wanted. Perhaps someone struggles with rejection or have issues with a lack of confidence.

We need to take the time to let each know that they are indispensable. We need to find ways to show honor, and treat with modesty those that are in need. We need to help strengthen those that are weak. That is what the body of Christ does. We should not show partiality to any one part for that may hold the possibility of causing division, but we should show equal concern for each and every person.

Being a part of the body that functions together in unity is what God has called us to. We need to keep the body healthy by building it up and strengthening each and every member. What a valuable tool the spirit of encouragement is. Take time to ask God how you can be a source of encouragement that shows appreciation and gives honor to those in your church body. The more we build up, the stronger we become!

Food For Thought

I so enjoy spending time with my son, especially the times we have doing his daily devotions. I also enjoy our time we have together cooking. He has actually gotten to be quite good at preparing meals as well as deserts. He practices his skills often and is even becoming very creative. Recently he made the BEST cheesecake I have ever had in my life. As any proud mother would do, I have encouraged him to enter the recipe in a contest!

Learning to cook takes a lot of time and he enjoys it so much that it has had a recent tendency to cut into our devotion time. During the time we would normally do our devotions, he now uses to cook himself a gourmet breakfast. With a full belly, we pray the "send off to school prayer" and off he goes for the day. His belly may be full, but I am unsettled knowing that his spirit is not.

This morning I made mention that he needs to start to cook earlier because we are not finding time to get his devotion done. His response was, "Well I go to church on Sunday's". My response was, "Would you like it if you only ate one meal a week?" That question was immediately followed by a "NO". I explained that if you don't study God's word daily that your spirit man is going to be starved just like your stomach would be starved if you didn't feed it food. With that, he took a quick look at the clock and saw he had 2 minutes before he had to leave, he grabbed his devotional book and his Bible and said "We have to go quick!". I encouraged his wise choice!

It is so important that we take every opportunity, no matter how small, to feed our children the word of God. Their spirit's need to be strengthened by the Word so that they may stand against the temptations they encounter, and so that they will by young men and women whose lights shine in dark places, and so that they will not choose to compromise their faith. The list could go on and on.

Take time to feed their spirit's as you do their stomach's. Their growth depends on it!

If You Can?

It was such a great word that was brought forth yesterday. It was both very convicting as well as very encouraging. How we are so in need of God's word to wash our thoughts of all conformity and to transform them to think and believe as God does!

Doubt always try to displace belief. They are two rival emotions. We need to remember though, that we are not to walk by emotions, but by the spirit. Emotions are flesh, Spirit is God (the Word). Every circumstance that arises will test how we choose to walk. The flesh always seems to be the first response that is triggered to arise. But we who know the word of God make a quick choice to push our emotions down and command our spirit to rise up!

No matter what we are walking through, we must choose to walk by faith and not by sight. Faith is not attached to how we "feel" but to the word of God we "stand" on.

When Jesus encountered a boy with an evil spirit, the father said (Mark 9:22), "But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us." Words of faith do not say "But if you can". We know that these were not words of faith by Jesus response back to him. Jesus said, " If you can? Everything is possible for him who believes." (Mark 9:23) Jesus took this mans doubt, and showed him what was possible if he believed.

Doubt will hinder our ability to believe. The Truth dispels doubt for the Truth says, "EVERYTHING is POSSIBLE for him who BELIEVES."

Take God's word and allow it to become truth in your mind. Then let this truth you know in your mind, become the passion in your heart. Speak forth what you know is truth in your mind and heart, for it is out of the overflow of the heart, that your mouth speaks belief.