Tomorrow is my birthday! I am feeling especially thankful for LIFE on this birthday, thankful that God has kept me safe and whole for the last 34 years, and best of all, hasn't treated me as my sins deserve! Amen!
Here is the entry from Jesus Calling on my birthday:
August 2
Bring me the sacrifice of your time: a most precious commodity. In this action-addicted world, few of my children take time to sit quietly in my Presence. But for those who do, blessings flow like streams of living water. I, the One from whom all blessings flow, am also blessed by our time together. This is a deep mystery; do not try to fathom it. Instead, glorify me by delighting in me. Enjoy me now and forever!
I think this was written just for the task-oriented, event-oriented, go-go-go person that I am! I would love to make this a life goal; to sit with my daddy and enjoy Him. Doesn't that sound more pleasant than continually striving for more stuff, more perfection, more experiences, more, more, more? It seems more restful, more peaceful, more life-giving to me! If you pray for anything for me on my 34th birthday, let it be that. Thanks for being in my life.
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Discipline of thankfulness
"Thankfulness opens the door to My presence...Thankfulness is built on a substructure of trust. When thankful words stick in your throat, you need to check up on your foundation of trust...See how many times you can thank me daily; this will awaken your awareness to a multitude of blessings. It will also cushion the impact of trials when they come against you. Practice my Presence by practicing the discipline of thankfulness." July 24, Jesus Calling
There's a lot to absorb in today's devotional on thankfulness. I shudder to think of the days that I choose to ignore the many gifts from God and instead focus on petty inconveniences or trials.
A prayer of contentment from Proverbs 30 (The Message):
And then he prayed, "God, I'm asking for two things
before I die; don't refuse me—
Banish lies from my lips
and liars from my presence.
Give me enough food to live on,
neither too much nor too little.
If I'm too full, I might get independent,
saying, 'God? Who needs him?'
If I'm poor, I might steal
and dishonor the name of my God."
We are oftentimes so FULL of food, stuff, busyness etc. that we don't perceive our need for Him. Let us remember our great need and turn to Him in thankfulness and trust today.
There's a lot to absorb in today's devotional on thankfulness. I shudder to think of the days that I choose to ignore the many gifts from God and instead focus on petty inconveniences or trials.
A prayer of contentment from Proverbs 30 (The Message):
And then he prayed, "God, I'm asking for two things
before I die; don't refuse me—
Banish lies from my lips
and liars from my presence.
Give me enough food to live on,
neither too much nor too little.
If I'm too full, I might get independent,
saying, 'God? Who needs him?'
If I'm poor, I might steal
and dishonor the name of my God."
We are oftentimes so FULL of food, stuff, busyness etc. that we don't perceive our need for Him. Let us remember our great need and turn to Him in thankfulness and trust today.
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Pics & Service Project
I enjoyed a great time of talking, singing and praying with two young ladies on Thursday night. My friend Jordan is so gifted on the guitar and has a beautiful voice, but most of all, she is all about Jesus! Here's a quick picture I snuck of Jordan playing. I hope you don't mind Jordan!
Mark your calendars for a service project at the Andover Food Bank on Thursday July 19th, at 6:30. It's also a great way for kids to get involved in serving the community.
Then, a photo that I took of the sunrise with my phone while on a run last week. It made my heart happy.
Mark your calendars for a service project at the Andover Food Bank on Thursday July 19th, at 6:30. It's also a great way for kids to get involved in serving the community.
Then, a photo that I took of the sunrise with my phone while on a run last week. It made my heart happy.
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Midsummer musings
Have you ever looked forward to something so much, enjoyed it, then felt kind of let down that it was over? For me, that happened this week with my sister's visit. It was everything we hoped it would be. Not that we did anything THAT exciting, but we simply enjoyed one another. We drank iced coffee on the porch while we watched the kids play, reveling in the fun they were having with their cousins.
Anyway, since they've left, I've felt exhausted, overcome by allergies, and have just overall tried to recuperate. Thankfully we've had a relaxing weekend, as relaxing as life CAN be with the three little munchkins that is!
It's time to regroup and reconnect with one another and most importantly with what Jesus is saying to us. We need one another, we need Him.
From today's reading: "Be prepared to be blessed bountifully by my Presence, for I am a God of unlimited abundance." When we are weak, spent, and barely hanging on, God wants to fill us up. Come, Father, and fill me up.
Anyway, since they've left, I've felt exhausted, overcome by allergies, and have just overall tried to recuperate. Thankfully we've had a relaxing weekend, as relaxing as life CAN be with the three little munchkins that is!
It's time to regroup and reconnect with one another and most importantly with what Jesus is saying to us. We need one another, we need Him.
From today's reading: "Be prepared to be blessed bountifully by my Presence, for I am a God of unlimited abundance." When we are weak, spent, and barely hanging on, God wants to fill us up. Come, Father, and fill me up.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Open your hands and your heart to receive
Receive. This is not a word we often associate with our relationship with Jesus. Many times, we think in terms of what we can give to him.
What have you received from Christ today?
My kids have been out of school for a month, and we are reaching that point of the summer where there is a lot of togetherness. This can be good and healthy, but it can also be exhausting when it involves a 6, 4 and 2 year-old. Tempers flare, fights ensue, and there are not many opportunities to be alone to regroup.
I need to be in a position to receive from Christ. I need it desperately. I know many others who need it also. I need his guidance, peace and joy.
From today's entry of Jesus Calling:
"Open your hands and your heart to receive this day as a precious gift from Me. I begin each day with a sunrise, announcing my radiant Presence. By the time you rise from your bed, I have already prepared the way before you."
What have you received from Christ today?
My kids have been out of school for a month, and we are reaching that point of the summer where there is a lot of togetherness. This can be good and healthy, but it can also be exhausting when it involves a 6, 4 and 2 year-old. Tempers flare, fights ensue, and there are not many opportunities to be alone to regroup.
I need to be in a position to receive from Christ. I need it desperately. I know many others who need it also. I need his guidance, peace and joy.
From today's entry of Jesus Calling:
"Open your hands and your heart to receive this day as a precious gift from Me. I begin each day with a sunrise, announcing my radiant Presence. By the time you rise from your bed, I have already prepared the way before you."
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Do not miss the Joy of my Presence
I was reminded of a couple of things this week. First, a friend suggested that obedience to God might be more important than seeing where He is leading me and how He is working. Sure, we can see and be grateful for A LOT. However, there is much we don't see and don't understand. Our role as children of God is not to know all, but to trust fiercely.
Second, I was encouraged by a sweet new friend. She wrote me a card and just made my day with her kind words. Sometimes it seems like our actions are small, but we never know how we are impacting someone else.
I am having one of "those" weeks where I am just feeling more emotional than usual and losing my temper easily with my family. I love this from today's entry in Jesus Calling.
"Do not miss the joy of my Presence by carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. Rather, take my yoke upon you and learn from Me. My yoke is comfortable and pleasant; my burden is light and easily borne."
Second, I was encouraged by a sweet new friend. She wrote me a card and just made my day with her kind words. Sometimes it seems like our actions are small, but we never know how we are impacting someone else.
I am having one of "those" weeks where I am just feeling more emotional than usual and losing my temper easily with my family. I love this from today's entry in Jesus Calling.
"Do not miss the joy of my Presence by carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders. Rather, take my yoke upon you and learn from Me. My yoke is comfortable and pleasant; my burden is light and easily borne."
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Rest in Me, my child
I am seeing things with new eyes, are you? I am so thankful for this season of seeing things a *bit* more clearly, because I know that it is a gift.
One thing I have been doing is trying to pick one word to meditate on during the day from the reading in Jesus Calling. I might think about the word Presence or the word Peace. The effect of that is that I see my experiences through a different lens. I need this! What other ways can we apply the readings to our day?
Today's reading begins with the line, "Rest in me, my child." Do we even need to read on :)? Isn't that enough to meditate on for the rest of our lives?
As I went through the week I felt a new and welcome calm.
One thing I have been doing is trying to pick one word to meditate on during the day from the reading in Jesus Calling. I might think about the word Presence or the word Peace. The effect of that is that I see my experiences through a different lens. I need this! What other ways can we apply the readings to our day?
Today's reading begins with the line, "Rest in me, my child." Do we even need to read on :)? Isn't that enough to meditate on for the rest of our lives?
As I went through the week I felt a new and welcome calm.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Ring, Ring, it's Jesus :)
Sometimes I think I MUST be an idiot.
The other day I was meeting up with one of my friends at a church she'd never been to before. I got there before she did so I could (in theory) show her where we were going since I had been there more than she. She called and I went out to the parking lot and couldn't find her. Turns out she was waving frantically and I just wasn't paying attention. At all. (kind of embarrassing, poor girl was jumping up and down and I still didn't see her)
I do that with Jesus all the time. I know He's right beside me, I know He never leaves. So when I can't feel Him around and when it seems like He's being quiet and is off doing more important things somewhere else, it's got to be me!
As I've been reading this week, I can totally picture Him waving, trying to get my attention only He's not a parking lot away, He's not even two feet away, He's right in front of me and I'm still not paying attention.
I've spent a lot of time in the last few years doing a lot of good things. I worked full time at a ministry, I've fed the homeless, led Bible studies, discipled younger girls, designed t-shirts for ministries, met with adult (aka OLD people's) Sunday School classes, gone to Africa and played with orphans, I've done it all. And in it all, I put my head down to take on all those tasks and totally lost sight of Jesus- the reason I was doing all of those good things in the first place. This week we read about how God is involved, how we can relax in His healing, how He wants to be central in our lives, how we can welcome challenging times because He is with us, and how He is the only One who can satisfy our desires. Can you hear Him replying to everything I've been struggling with? Kind of hit that one on the head.
Every time I pick up Jesus Calling, (I got first picked it up a few years ago), He speaks and works through it the same way. It's always so relevant! It's like God planned it that way or something ;)
Hope you all are having a blessed time with it. Praying for you sisters! See you Thursday!
Jordan
The other day I was meeting up with one of my friends at a church she'd never been to before. I got there before she did so I could (in theory) show her where we were going since I had been there more than she. She called and I went out to the parking lot and couldn't find her. Turns out she was waving frantically and I just wasn't paying attention. At all. (kind of embarrassing, poor girl was jumping up and down and I still didn't see her)
I do that with Jesus all the time. I know He's right beside me, I know He never leaves. So when I can't feel Him around and when it seems like He's being quiet and is off doing more important things somewhere else, it's got to be me!
As I've been reading this week, I can totally picture Him waving, trying to get my attention only He's not a parking lot away, He's not even two feet away, He's right in front of me and I'm still not paying attention.
I've spent a lot of time in the last few years doing a lot of good things. I worked full time at a ministry, I've fed the homeless, led Bible studies, discipled younger girls, designed t-shirts for ministries, met with adult (aka OLD people's) Sunday School classes, gone to Africa and played with orphans, I've done it all. And in it all, I put my head down to take on all those tasks and totally lost sight of Jesus- the reason I was doing all of those good things in the first place. This week we read about how God is involved, how we can relax in His healing, how He wants to be central in our lives, how we can welcome challenging times because He is with us, and how He is the only One who can satisfy our desires. Can you hear Him replying to everything I've been struggling with? Kind of hit that one on the head.
Every time I pick up Jesus Calling, (I got first picked it up a few years ago), He speaks and works through it the same way. It's always so relevant! It's like God planned it that way or something ;)
Hope you all are having a blessed time with it. Praying for you sisters! See you Thursday!
Jordan
The Spirit of Christ
I am so encouraged that a number of you feel drawn to read and discuss this devotional. It makes me wonder what draws us together. Why in the world would a bunch of busy women get together to talk about Jesus? Don't we all have better things to do? The only answer that makes sense to me is that Jesus is indeed calling us. He promises that His Spirit dwells IN us. In church on Saturday we read from Romans 8. These verses are from the Message version:
Questions to think about for Thursday. What does Jesus' call actually look like/sound like in your life? Why are you drawn to this study at this point in your life? How is Jesus drawing you to Himself? How can we help one another listen?
9-11But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!
12-14So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
15-17This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!
Questions to think about for Thursday. What does Jesus' call actually look like/sound like in your life? Why are you drawn to this study at this point in your life? How is Jesus drawing you to Himself? How can we help one another listen?
Sunday, June 3, 2012
New places
Jesus wants to take us to new places with Him through our relationship with others. I shy away from that at times, because my ego gets in the way of learning from others. I worry about how I am being perceived, or how I am perceiving others, instead of being fully present, ready to receive what God would have me learn through another.
(This came to me last night during church.)
(This came to me last night during church.)
Friday, June 1, 2012
Thursday group
I want to make something clear. This group is meant to be a show-up-when-you-can kind of thing. It will be designed in such a way that you can come to one meeting, or all of them. It could end in July or August, or continue through the school year. I have never "done" ministry this way--just letting things happen and not stressing about the "outcome" or "result" :). It is so freeing, yet scary for me.
Will you pray for me and those who are participating (either on their own or with the group) to let God work as he will in our lives, using his word, our circumstances and each other to form us into who He wants us to be? I need that so badly!
Will you pray for me and those who are participating (either on their own or with the group) to let God work as he will in our lives, using his word, our circumstances and each other to form us into who He wants us to be? I need that so badly!
Regrets
I have a lot of regrets, don't you? As I sought a quiet moment on the couch this morning, I listened to one of my favorite versions of the song "How He Loves Us" by John Mark McMillan (the Kim Walker version, look it up on youtube). The line that stood out to me was "I don't have time to maintain these regrets, when I think about the way he loves us".
Time. We don't have time! Attending three funerals in the last six months, two of which were for young friends, has reminded me of how short our time is here on earth. Let's make the best use of it, not wasting time on maintaining (definition: to cause or enable a condition or state of affairs to continue) regrets.
Today's entry from Jesus Calling also reminds us not to fear. Isn't that why we maintain regrets? Because we fear that they define us, or we wonder what we are without them? Isaiah 41:13 says "For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you."
p.s. Have you read your entry yet? That is, the entry on your birthday? My mother-in-law Julie told me at prayer last night that she read all of our family's birthday entries and that they fit us to a tee. She was right!!
Time. We don't have time! Attending three funerals in the last six months, two of which were for young friends, has reminded me of how short our time is here on earth. Let's make the best use of it, not wasting time on maintaining (definition: to cause or enable a condition or state of affairs to continue) regrets.
Today's entry from Jesus Calling also reminds us not to fear. Isn't that why we maintain regrets? Because we fear that they define us, or we wonder what we are without them? Isaiah 41:13 says "For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you."
p.s. Have you read your entry yet? That is, the entry on your birthday? My mother-in-law Julie told me at prayer last night that she read all of our family's birthday entries and that they fit us to a tee. She was right!!
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Prayer tomorrow
I hope you all are getting your books and preparing to meet together next week. I am not sure what format our meetings will follow, but I am trusting that God knows. I confess I am a control freak--it's tempting for me to formulate an action plan for our time together, but the words "patience" and "peace" have been on my heart, so I'm trying my best to not be anxious and let the Spirit lead.
We will be having a little prayer meeting tomorrow night in preparation for our first meeting next week. Everyone is welcome. 7 P.M. at Scooters coffee house in Andover.
This stood out to me tonight and I thought I'd share...
"I am a follower of Jesus, and maybe following looks different for each of us. Maybe some of us run and some of us skip and some of us mosey around and walk in circles for awhile and some of us take two steps forward and forty steps back. Maybe some of us just sit down and think for awhile, and come up with a hell of a lot of questions."
Glennon, Momastery blog
We will be having a little prayer meeting tomorrow night in preparation for our first meeting next week. Everyone is welcome. 7 P.M. at Scooters coffee house in Andover.
This stood out to me tonight and I thought I'd share...
"I am a follower of Jesus, and maybe following looks different for each of us. Maybe some of us run and some of us skip and some of us mosey around and walk in circles for awhile and some of us take two steps forward and forty steps back. Maybe some of us just sit down and think for awhile, and come up with a hell of a lot of questions."
Glennon, Momastery blog
Monday, May 28, 2012
Welcome
Welcome to the Jesus Is Calling You & Me blog. I'm so glad you are joining me. I in no way feel qualified to lead a group in growing closer to Jesus, but I would like us to come alongside one another as we read through the daily devotional Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. Grab the book, a Bible, notebook and pen and meet us at Scooter's coffeehouse in Andover on Thursdays (beginning June 7) at 6:30 pm.
I am a long time follower of Jesus, but I often think to myself, "With my background (a missionary kid and one who has engaged in all kinds of Bible studies, churches and small groups) I really should be further along than I am in this walk of faith. Why do I still have so many doubts, so much pride, and so many hang ups? Why do I buy into all these lies about what will fulfill me and feed my soul? Why do I still have so much anger, self-doubt, and cynicism?" and on and on it goes. I don't think I'll ever be rid of some of these thoughts, but I do believe God wants to keep pushing me along toward a truth-filled, peaceful inner life that spills over and impacts those around me.
So, it's time to stop beating myself up, and get moving. Get listening. Get talking with other women who want to move up and out of their heads.
There is no clear plan for this women's study. I just felt in my gut that I was supposed to reach out and start something. Something that would be open to women from all walks of life, from any denomination or maybe even a place of unbelief. So, I ask you to join me with expectancy of what God will do. (And, if you'd like to join me for prayer this Thursday, the 31st, let me know.)
I am a long time follower of Jesus, but I often think to myself, "With my background (a missionary kid and one who has engaged in all kinds of Bible studies, churches and small groups) I really should be further along than I am in this walk of faith. Why do I still have so many doubts, so much pride, and so many hang ups? Why do I buy into all these lies about what will fulfill me and feed my soul? Why do I still have so much anger, self-doubt, and cynicism?" and on and on it goes. I don't think I'll ever be rid of some of these thoughts, but I do believe God wants to keep pushing me along toward a truth-filled, peaceful inner life that spills over and impacts those around me.
So, it's time to stop beating myself up, and get moving. Get listening. Get talking with other women who want to move up and out of their heads.
There is no clear plan for this women's study. I just felt in my gut that I was supposed to reach out and start something. Something that would be open to women from all walks of life, from any denomination or maybe even a place of unbelief. So, I ask you to join me with expectancy of what God will do. (And, if you'd like to join me for prayer this Thursday, the 31st, let me know.)
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