“You Won’t Relent Until You Have It All”

God is pursuing us. He’s relentless!! ha!

Think about it.
Before we knew Him and Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He pursued us, and He continues to pursue people who don’t know Him still.
Some people get annoyed by it. “Oh my gosh! He just doesn’t give up!!”
Others are in awe of it. “Oh my gosh! He doesn’t give up!!” ha.
And it makes me smile/laugh out loud every time I hear the question, “What makes Him so different from the other ones?”

And it doesn’t stop..
Even when we accept His gift of love, He is in constant pursuit of our hearts.
He longs for us to be with Him, to grow closer to Him, but it remains a choice.
He finds ways for us to fall in love with Him all over again on the daily and moment by moment basis.
He created us and knows exactly what makes our hearts happy, sad, frustrated, angry, etc…

You’d think He’d give up on us by now with how many times we refuse Him, turn away from Him, or not trust Him, but He doesn’t.

He absolutely refuses to give up on you because of how much He loves you!

So, for those of you who are annoyed, be aware that He won’t relent until He has it all!

And for those of you who are in awe, be thankful that He won’t relent until He has it all!

God is clever and sneaky….i love it! :)

it’s not really anything specific…

I just see in my life how He’s used little things to let me know everything will be okay, even though I have no idea what to expect or understand.
He’s there telling me, “Trust. Everything will be okay. I will take care of you.”

Despite how much I want to worry or be anxious, there’s a subtle, yet very significant, sense of peace and content that seems to suppress all worries when I think and believe, “God is good, and that’s enough.”

I don’t fully understand this sense of peace, but I KNOW He’s up to something, and as frightening as not knowing what that is…it fascinates me at the same time!!
It’s an adventure!

Here is the God,the author of the greatest story ever told.
He wrote every single life story and made us uniquely for a specific reason.
We are, in fact, a masterpiece, not a mass product.
He has something huge and more incredible planned for our lives, better than we could ever dream or imagine…

And then, having conversations and seeing God move in different people’s lives and situations…it’s fun and exciting being the outsider looking in, watching God’s handiwork when the people may not even realize what’s going on…and all you can/want to do is sit, watch and pray!!

God is clever and subtle (sneaky) in His ways, and when it hits you and you see all that He has done in an area(s), your response is an excited “Whoa!! I can’t believe it!” then, a calm, reflective appreciation “..really? that’s how you did that? …thanks!”

God Is Wonderful!

It’s been a really cool week!!
I’ve had a couple really cool conversations this week with customers, and I got some pretty cool feedback from my history professor…
It’s all God! He is just so absolutely incredible!!! =D

My favorite customer conversation so far, though was….

Today, I had a conversation with a customer.
He came in, ordered, and couldn’t believe he had been to our store 3 times in the same day!
I asked him how his day was going, and he mentioned he was a licensed caregiver who just picked up an assignment to help a young woman who just had a stroke.
I guess she’s about 40 years old.
She was a professor at OSU, her motor skills aren’t very good anymore, but she’s still very sharp, mentally.

It was all he could talk about, and I really enjoyed listening to what he had to say!

He got into sharing his life from the last 15 months and how God has worked in his life through today…(this conversation took place in between taking care of other customers, as well as while I was cleaning and doing my other tasks)..amazing how much can happen in a short amount of time..

He talked about how he was laid off about a year ago…for 15 months he didn’t have a car, or a job and within the last week (I think), he found out he needed to find somewhere else to live.
I’m not sure how old he is.
He’s young. My guess-he’s in his 40s, and has kids who are old enough to understand faith and God’s sovereignty.

He went on to talk about his involvement in inner city ministry.
He used to help troubled kids, including those into drugs and alcohol, and really spent a lot of time with them!!

“Man, that was something else. Just the stories of various family lives and just being able to help them out in different ways. It was great!
It just got to the point to where it was getting to be too much.
I had a family to tend to, so I needed to back off a little bit.”

I was able to tell him a little bit about the trip to Minneapolis last summer, and how it was really cool to be able to partner with the church and reach out to the Boys and Girls club and do a little inner city stuff as well..

He mentioned he raised his kids in the faith and that through the last 15 months, he really worried about what the next step looked like…his kids just kept saying, “why are you so worried? God’s got it under control.”
He then said, “you know, I’ve always said, ‘God’s timing isn’t ours. He’s never late. He’s always on time.”
He just kept praying that God would provide..

He went on to tell me about how within the last couple days, he was sharing his testimony with someone and a girl a couple aisles over came into the conversation.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be nosy, but I listened to everything you said.
These last 5 years have been kind of rough for me, and it was great to hear your story.”
She heard how he didn’t have a car.
He said he wasn’t trying to find a car. It was just a humbling experience to be without one.
The girl replied, “I have one. I can give it to you.” (Whoa!)
I guess they continued talking and knowing he was a licensed caregiver, she also knew of a job opportunity with that. (ha!)
THEN, on top of that, she heard about his housing situation and said, “I know of a place for you to live as well!! (Oh man!!)

The only thing he could say about it was, “It’s such a God-thing, Mandy!! It’s absolutely incredible!
I told my kids about it and they just shrugged it off, like “we told you, so!” (lol).
It was everything I’ve been praying for…”
He beamed the entire conversation!!

God is so great!!
I felt bad I couldn’t give him my full attention the entire conversation, but he totally understood I had a job to do.
It was SO cool to see his excitement about it, and I can totally relate when a God-thing happens and I run into another believer/person who understands and you just pour out everything that just happened-even if it’s someone you just met!

I thanked him for sharing his story with me. It was encouraging to hear!

Man…He told me it was encouraging to see a young person with faith and who understood God’s goodness, too.

It was just an awesome story that I really wanted to share with you guys!!

Hope you enjoy it and are encouraged as well!! =)

One Step At A Time.

Yesterday, I went to work on campus. Did what I needed to do and left. Got back on the bus and headed home. Normal routine. But, as I was riding the bus home, something different happened.

The bus made its normal stop at Meiling Hall.
A man with a cane came up to the bus and asked, “Do you go to Mid-Towers?”
The driver said, “Yeah..in about 2 stops.”
“Great.”
He slowly gets on the bus, one step at a time.
He excitedly mentions, “the Special Olympics starts today.”
He finds a seat and sits quietly, patiently waiting for the bus to take him to “Mid-Towers.”

As soon as this conversation happened, my heart lifted.
Here was a man who was minding his own business, but could not contain his excitement for such an exciting event.
Within those few genuine words, I saw his heart’s passion for the Special Olympics.
Oh man, with the confidence he had and the few genuine(heart-full) words he spoke, I could see this was a day he’d been anxiously awaiting.
I thanked God for the passion and excitement he felt and that God would bless his time at the Special Olympics.

The bus ride continued and we reached “Mid-Towers.”
The man got up and slowly walked to the door.
The bus driver said, “Have fun,” and the man said, “yeah.”
Then, he slowly but proudly got off the bus.
One step at a time.

Wow. Amazing to see how God uses people to touch lives.
It really made me think of a passion for God.
As my ride continued on to West Campus, I sat and I prayed…

Lord,
Help me to have the same genuine passion for You as that man did for the Special Olympics.
Let my faith have that same subtle, yet profound impact on other people.
Lord, right now, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do, think or feel.
All I know is that my hope is in You, and I want a faith and trust in You that would really impact someone else to be encouraged, to desire to know You more, and to see Your beauty.
Lord, fill me with so much of Your love that I can’t help but pour out to others.
I don’t know what that looks like, but I pray that even when I don’t feel very useful, You would still use me for Your glory.
Lord, even when those steps are challenging, I pray that I would take pride in You, Almighty Refuge and Strength, one step at a time.
That I would patiently, confidently and stubbornly hold to Your truth.
That one day, you WILL be back and everything will be made right again.

What a day to anxiously await!

“No one can convince me there’s somebody else. No one can convince me there’s no one at all.”

Loving People Is Tough

Excerpt from the message today:

‘Jesus answered, ‘The most important command is this: ‘Listen, people, of Israel! The Lord your God is the only Lord. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.’ The second command is this: Love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ There are no commands more important than these.” -Mark 12:29-31

What does loving God look like?

1). We love God by loving His word
2). We love God by loving His works –>His grace, power, sending Jesus, the process of learning and changing our hearts
3). We love God by loving His people –> lay down our lives for others
4). We love God by loving the lost and wounded.–>Jesus came to seek and saved the lost.

Love God and your neighbor…you can’t separate the two…

You love God only, it leads to spiritual arrogance
You love people only, it leads to self-gratifying actions (self-love destroys God’s love)
—————————————————————————————————————
It’s so easy for me to focus on loving God, and not the lost…
At first, it’s heartbreaking to see people who truly are lost and wounded and either don’t see it, or, they do, but don’t choose to do anything about it.
My heart truly breaks for those I meet and see their hearts struggling to find answers, and I love them enough to lift them up in prayer.

Unfortunately, when I’m around those same people on the regular basis and continue to see their careless attitude towards it…it gets frustrating and discouraging.
Some hearts are so hardened to it, and sometimes, it gets to the point to where it’s just frustrating to be around!!
But does that matter?
Does that justify my attitude toward them?
No. it doesn’t.

Jesus said that anyone can love a friend or someone whose company they enjoy, but we as Christians, Jesus’ followers, are called to love even our enemies and people with whom we don’t agree.

‘But that’s tough!!’

No one said it’d be easy.
We as humans do not have the capacity to love.
We only love because God first loved us.

It’s so easy to forget that we were once lost and wounded, cold and afraid, before we knew who Christ was.
A savior.
Our savior.
My Savior.

The love we have for others is the very same love God showed us when we were lost, and our love for God is a response to how He loves us.

Do we really have the right to say, ‘but it’s tough!’ when we know God could have said the very same thing to us?
Isn’t that what makes His love so radical and amazing and unfathomable?
Isn’t that the reason we go forth and share our story with others??
God doesn’t just love. He IS love.

Lord,
Because of your cross my debt is paid
Because of your blood my sins are washed away
Now all of my life I freely give
Because of your love, because of your love I live.

You did it for me. You did it for love.
It’s your victory. Jesus you are enough.

“I was lost and alone till you came and brought me home.
I was cold and afraid and you whispered my name.” =D

This is just my response to the message today….

A Good Dose of Jesus..

“It was faith in Jesus that made this crippled man well. You can see this man, and you know him. He was made completely well because of trust in Jesus, and you all saw it happen.” Acts 3: 16

I read this today. Here is my thought:

“It was the faith in Jesus that made this crippled man well….he was made completely well because of trust in Jesus.”
I see this as a visual for what God is doing in our lives.

We all have a crippled heart that is also vulnerable to sickness.
Spiritually, we are all broken and have no hope of getting better.
However, when we choose to place that trust in Jesus, He begins to heal the heart and mend the spirit to be made completely new again.
Faith in Jesus is our only medicine for getting better.
The medicine affects everyone differently. It really depends on a person’s history, their symptoms, and what causes the infection.

Nevertheless, we all need a good dose of medicine in order to have any hope of getting better.

The beginning dosage is usually the most intense because the infection, the disease, is being attacked for the first time, and it establishes the foundation of any hope of the heart being healed completely.
Once you get passed that first period of an intense dosage, the process becomes a little easier in that the dosage is now apart of the normal routine.
You continue to take the medicine and trust that it IS good and that IS working.

There is now a hope for getting completely well!

Make no mistake, we will all reach the points to where our heart, our body, is so used to having that infection in us, that we begin to feel extremely uncomfortable and uneasy with this new medication.
Isn’t this medication supposed to make me better? Why does it hurt so much?

Periodically throughout our lives, we’ll face a natural pull/temptation/struggle to want to give up taking that medicine and just deal with the consequences of the infection.
Every time we struggle, we face a choice.
It is this choice that determines how much more healing will take place.

If we choose to lower the dosage or stop taking the medicine altogether, we give in to the infection.
We begin losing the hope of being healed.
We know that without this medicine, we can’t be healed.
If we can’t be healed, it’s just a matter of time before the infection overtakes the heart/body.
It’ll reach what seems like the incurable stage, but alas, if no medicine is taken, eventually there truly is no more hope.
It will lead to death.
It’s just a matter of time.

However, if we choose to endure the pain and the struggle, to trust that this hurt, this uneasiness, is a sign the medicine is working, there’s still hope of getting better and being completely well!

There’s hope for life!!

It’ll be really tough.
It’ll seem like it’s hardly worth it.
But, if there’s hope that this medicine will make us well, isn’t the slightest chance worth it?

But why hope in the risk? We KNOW that it’ll make us better.
100%, matter of fact.

“It was the faith in Jesus that made this crippled man WELL. He was made COMPLETELY well because of a trust in Jesus.”

It doesn’t say he was made “better,” and the second part doesn’t say “partially” or “mostly.” but that he was made COMPLETELY well!
Also, when Jesus healed people, it was never partially, it was always completely. Entirely.

It’s not going to be easy.
Healing isn’t easy.
It takes a lot of time, and it’ll require doing some things we don’t like and we’ll have to give up some things we normally do.

However, if we continue to have that trust that one day everything will be okay and continue to trust that God knows what He’s doing (I mean, He’s the best doctor there is!), and we follow His instructions on getting that daily dose of Jesus and putting faith in Him daily, we’ll be sure to make it through another day!!

Those days add up.
And, before we know it, we’ll reach that day of complete healing and get to experience an infection-free life!

Oh, and what a glorious day that will be!! =D

hmm…

so…I had a thought yesterday….
Does Satan know he loses in the end? Or is he blinded by his pride to that part of the story?

I mean he’s really good at convincing and blinding us, but if he knows he loses, why waste the effort?

I guess it just mind boggles me…
I mean, just a hint of who God is is overwhelming to me, and Satan upfront disagreed with God.
I wonder what Satan went through to be so against God?
What made his heart sad?
Did he lose someone close to him and he blamed God?
Did he really want his way so much that he justified it was worth giving up what he had in heaven?

Quite frankly, and thanks to God’s grace, I don’t see anything else worth living or fighting for.
I long to try and love God and others more like He loves me, even though I will never understand it in its entirety.
It’s extremely hard to do, but God teaches (and displays) that when you love someone, you don’t give up….no matter what.
It is a choice to love someone.

I’m thankful for the love God has for me.
I don’t deserve it whatsoever! this never-ending, never-failing, nothing can separate us, perfect love!!
And now, it’s because of that love I’m not the same, and it’s because of that love I have hope and therefore, a purpose.
Because of that love shown to me, I want others to know they too have the opportunity to experience it, and I want nothing more than to share what I can with others…but I need God to help me….it’s not mine to give.

Lord, you are good, and I thank you for your love and your patience with me.
I know you intentionally made me who I am and knowing that makes me appreciate the patience you have, not to mention your sense of humor!
Lord, thank you for not giving up on me, and for fighting for me.
I love what we have!
I pray you’ll help me have a teachable and changeable heart, and that you would continue to teach me to be more like you, to continue to choose you, and to recognize your voice in my day to day life.
Thank you for who you are.
love you!
amen.

Just The Average Joe

To those ‘turned off’ of Christianity by HYPOCRISY and/but want to still believe in God:
We all believe what we believe.
Whether we manipulate the truth, act according to our own wills, put on various masks, justify our actions, etc.
But truth is truth, and God is God.
It doesn’t change.
He doesn’t change.
He’s the same now as He was oh so many years ago and He WILL ALWAYS be the same.
He’s the one in life that doesn’t change.
Again, how we act is our choice.
We’ll all reach that judgment day, and He won’t care who did wrong to whom.
He looks at YOUR heart and yours alone.

Unfortunately, I think hypocrisy is a result of refusing to do what we know is right or what we believe/represent.
I know I’m not perfect and it’s easy to fall into this state when we see what needs to change/be done, yet we avoid acting on it.
You know it is right, but do you believe it?

Because we’re not willing to go further in our relationship with God, we become fakers who say we believe, but are too scared to act or be bold in how we live.
All I can do is pray that in everything I do, I’d seek his guidance-in every step and every decision I make.
That I would be willing to have courage and be bold enough to act.

Yes, I will make mistakes. You will make mistakes.
But, no matter where we are in our journey of life, God is always waiting with arms opened wide.
He’s waiting for us to come running to Him and for us to tell Him what is on our mind.
We may be angry, sad, happy, exhausted, stressed, frustrated, excited, or at the end of our rope, but that doesn’t matter.
He wants us to question. He wants us to learn.
Whatever we’re feeling, thinking, wrestling, God wants to know.

That’s part of the relationship we can have with Him.
A relationship is 2 ways.
For us, a lot of the time, the relationship feels like one way.

From my experience, let me encourage you to just continue to talk with Him, especially if you don’t understand.
Yell at Him if you’re angry.
Cry to Him if something upsets you.
Tell Him what a wonderful day you’ve had.
And, in all things thank Him for what He has given you (even if the answer was no) on the daily basis.
Be thankful that when all else fails, you are saved. Your name is written in the Book of Life!
What else matters?

If we learn more about what He has to say in His word, and look at all the things in life, we’ll eventually see how God is acting in our lives.

He’ll do with what He receives.

These are just some thoughts I’ve had lately, and I felt like sharing….

Our value in His eyes…

An analogy I heard once was a parent taking his child to the doctor to get a shot.
The parent knows this is beneficial in the long run, but the kid doesn’t understand what’s going on.
The child continues to trust the parent because he believes his parent wouldn’t let any harm come to them, but when that moment of pain comes, there’s that look in the child’s eyes as he goes through it.
Even through the rest of that day, you see the child feels betrayed…
In that moment, the child can’t understand the goodness of that situation, and there’s no way the parent can explain it to him in a way he can understand.
But, later, as he grows and learns, he’ll realize that this brief moment of pain will be relatively small compared to what it could have been if the shot didn’t happen…

Following Christ also leads to changes in our lives.
As we seek to learn more about this relationship God wants with us, we see areas needing change.
How we respond to these realizations/convictions determines our next step in faith and our relationship with God.
Some areas are much easier to change than others.
Believe me, I know and am still learning!
I’m not going to lie, sometimes, it’s downright scary!!! BUT, God is faithful.
He IS, He was, and always will be.
It’s just up to us to decide if we’ll take that next step…
If we take that step, He’ll be there.
He promises.
He’s always by our side, taking our hand. He desires to tell us what happens next in our life story. He wants to show us how we play a role in HIS story!!

Some Thoughts I Had Today….

You know…
God doesn’t need us. He doesn’t love us because of anything we do or don’t do, say or don’t say.
He loves us simply because He created us.
It is because of that love that He sent His one and ONLY son, Jesus Christ to take on our punishment, (the ultimate love gift) so that we could be made right again and experience a wonderful relationship with Him….IF we CHOOSE to accept it. I can’t stand by and say it’s not awesome! Because it is!!!

You see, God loves us so much, with so much passion, it hurts.
Think of the best love-displaying relationship you know….that’s just a GLIMPSE of how much He loves YOU. He wants everyone to love Him back, but He’s not going to force that on anyone.
That’s not what He wants.
God loves you so much that He’s giving you the choice to both accept His gift and love Him in return, or to deny Him completely. He doesn’t want us somewhere in the middle, on the fence.
We need to choose which side we’re going to be on and place our flag.
Which side are you on? Which side do you want to be on? Are you willing to stand your ground?

No, life doesn’t get easier when we choose to follow Him. No one ever said that it’d be easy.
Actually, Jesus, blatantly told us that if we are His followers, we WILL be hated and we WILL be persecuted.
Choosing to follow Him is accepting the fact that we can’t do this life thing on our own.
We acknowledge the fact we are broken, lost, unworthy of anything God has to offer us, and that we’re not in control. And why would we want to be? Anything by human authority will fail, but anything of God is unstoppable (not to mention according to His perfect plan).

God wants nothing but the best for His children.
I know some will argue, “Then why do bad things happen?” Well, I don’t have the answers to those questions, and I’m not going to sit here and try to figure them out or act like I do.
However, if you were always on the top, if things were always good, would you continue to realize that you needed help? I know I wouldn’t.
God reveals to us what He wants to reveal. We might not like it, we might not understand, and/or it’s not the way we want it to go.
But, if we continue to trust in the fact that He IS good, and has nothing but the best in store for us, then…why not take Him up on it?
He promises that everything He has in store for us is so much better than we could ever imagine or plan for ourselves…
I’ve realized that if I’m honest about it, yeah, the way things turned out really was better than I could ever imagine.