strength

The Lord gives strength to His people; the Lord blesses His people with peace.
- Psalm 29:11
 
Sometimes I just want to throw my hands in the air and give up.
There are days that it seems like I just keep getting these curve balls and I just can’t catch a break.
Days like that I feel that I just don’t have the strength to take another step.
Those are the days that I have to fall on my knees and talk to my Savior.
I am not going to try to convince you that all it takes is one conversation with God for me to feel better, because it is far more than that.
I lean on Him for strength and peace, and that is what I get in those conversations.
It’s not always about the answers, it can be about the strength to endure, and the peace of knowing that I am not on the road alone.

ignore God?

 

But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!

Worse followed. Refusing to know God, they soon didn’t know how to be human either—women didn’t know how to be women, men didn’t know how to be men. Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches.

Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bothering them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care—worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!

- Romans 1:18-32 (MSG)

 

If you have stayed with me this long, thank you, some folks bug out when they see a longer verse.

I borrowed this scripture (and the version used) from my pastor’s sermon on Sunday of this week.

Because it hurt me.

Do you see yourself in the verses, because I sure can see me.

If you are on social media, what are you reading, and more importantly, what are you posting?

At the beginning of his sermon, my pastor said “When you try to counter anger with anger, there is never a time that you look less like Christ.”

Ouch.

I am guilty of arguing with people on Facebook, and I have lost friends over those petty arguments.

People say things on social media that they would never say to someone’s face.

No matter what you say or do, Jesus loves you, but He still hates your sin.

Don’t forget who you are – look in the mirror – you are a child of God.

To quote my pastor once more, Jesus became truth and love by reaching into people’s lives, Jesus continues to be truth and love by sending us into people’s lives, will you go where He sends you?

in control

As they sailed, He fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm.

- Luke 8:22-24

 

There were some crazy storms around the United States last week, Hurricane Laura made landfall and left significant destruction in her wake. 

I wonder, if the storm that the disciples experienced was as crazy as a hurricane, if it was, I can sure understand how they might have felt like they were going to die. 

Check out the lyrics of this new song I heard:

From Heaven You can hear

I know You're drawing near

As I worship

Held within Your love

The wind and waves will come

But I will stay here

I lift my hands to Heaven

Here my heart surrendered

I tell my soul again

You are Lord of all

And though the seas are raging

You will speak and tame them

In You I find my rest

You are in control

Through valleys I will trust

Your spirit is enough, to keep me walking

You guide my every step

Speak life to me again

Lord I need You

Oh I need You

I lift my hands to Heaven

Here my heart surrendered

I tell my soul again

You are Lord of all

And though the seas are raging

You will speak and tame them

In You I find my rest

You are in control

I will trust in only You

No one can add to Your perfection

You're the beginning and the end

More than I can comprehend

There is no one like You

No one

God is in control.

Not me, not my family or my boss, just God.

If the storms and raging seas listen to Him, why don’t we?

always

"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

- Matthew 28:19-20

 

These verses are at the end of the Great Commission, Jesus has been crucified, died, was buried and rose again, and it was in these verses where Jesus told His disciples what their next steps needed to be.

I really want to focus on the last line: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

In life we face a lot of really tough circumstances, in those times we need to lean on God more than ever. 

We need to trust Him even when it feels like He is not there.

We can overcome incredible odds as long as we remember that we are never alone, that God is with us, always. 

He wants us to reach for Him.

His love is for us will carry us through every trial, every circumstance, every bitter spoonful of evil thrown at us. 

He will be there.

Always

unified

I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose.

- 1 Corinthians 1:10 (NLT)

 

I really dislike politics, especially the last several years.

Everywhere you look is another article, another picture, another something telling about how terrible the politicians are. 

And they all are.

Everyone has an agenda, and none of those politicians are going to be able fulfill their campaign promises in accordance to what we as people need. 

This is not a political post.

This is not an outlet for hate.

God created us to love each other – no matter what color our skin happens to be, no matter how much or how little money we have, no matter what. 

We need to stop making assumptions about others and jumping to conclusions about them based on where they live and work, how they dress or act. 

We need to reach out, be a blessing to others, be gracious and love one another.

Did you ever think that maybe with all this fighting we are doing, we are hurting God?

Unending

Again and again they limited God, preventing Him from blessing them. Continually they turned back from Him and provoked the Holy One of Israel! They forgot His great love, how He took them by His hand, and with redemption’s kiss He delivered them from their enemies.

- Psalm 78:41-42 (TPT)

 

Do you remember the song “Little Bunny Foo Foo”?

Little bunny Foo Foo
Hopping through the forest
Scooping up the field mice
And boppin' 'em on the head!

Down came the good fairy
And the good fairy said:
"Little bunny Foo Foo, I don't wanna see you
Scooping up the field mice and boppin' 'em on the head!
I'm gonna give you three chances,
Then I'm gonna turn you into a goon!"

OK, now that you have that in your head (you are welcome) I want you to think about the was the song ended. 

Three times Foo Foo scooped up field mice and bopped them.

Three times the fairy told him to stop.

That last time – well *poof* Foo Foo was a goon.

If you are done laughing, I really do have a point to this story 😊

How many times do we turn our backs on God, and how many times does He let us run back to His arms and when we ask for forgiveness and repent of our sin? 

God freely gives us His unending love.

God doesn’t just give us three chances and turn us into goons.

He gives unending love – that is His amazing grace. (yeah, that was another song reference).

Don’t forget His great love.

And don’t bop the field mice on the head.  

beauty

On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

- Psalm 145:5 (NRSV)

 

We recently returned from a trip to Iowa and South Dakota.

I love driving through the Black Hills National Forest and seeing the beauty that God created.

We had the opportunity to see a herd of buffalo, what a majestic beast they are!

We saw mountains and trees, some of the most breathtaking waterfalls and other glories of God’s creation.

How lucky we are that God gave us this earth to live on, and He painted landscapes, fiery sunrises and sunsets, beauty every where we look. 

On that adventure, everywhere I looked I could see our God.

Take a moment soon to go explore the beauty of God’s creation, whether it is in the face of a child, the peace of a sleepy kitten, or the majesty of a mountainside. 

Be still, and meditate on Him.