Good Friday

Today has gotten my thinking...today, Good Friday, always gets me thinking. The day in and of itself is designed to help us remember, to help us reflect and to point us to the truth found in God's word. Truth that we, sinful human beings, need a Savior and God in his perfect plan sent Jesus Christ to this earth to live a sinless life and to die a horribly painful death on a cross for me....and for you! Today is an important, somber, reflective day where we remember the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross. Jesus, a perfect, sinless man, who was all at once fully God and fully man, died a horrific death on a cross to save us. As I read through the accounts of Jesus' death found in the Gospels this morning, I was once again in awe of my Savior. I can't even begin to image the pain and the weight of the sins of the world on his shoulders. In Mark chapter 14 we get a small glimpse into how Jesus was feeling:

Mark 14:32-36 (NIV)
They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Jesus is deeply troubled and asks the Lord to take this cup from him, but he doesn't stop there...he says "Yet not what I will, but what you will." This is incredible! Jesus knows what is to come, he understands the level of pain and separation he will experience from God the Father when the sins of the world rest upon him, yet he willing says YES! 

What an incredible level of sacrifice and obedience to the will of God the Father. It makes me think...am I obedient? Is my first answer to God's call yes? Do I pray big prayers like Jesus, because "everything is possible" for my God? So often the answer to these questions is no. I can easily ignore God's call on my life, I can be chicken and not talk about my faith with others, I can pray prayers that only seem realistic to me in my human understanding. 

I don't know about you, but I want that all to change and I believe God is changing me! I want my answer to always be "yes...not my will, but your will Lord." I want to pray prayers that seem impossible in my mind, because human impossibility is just God possibility! We see that lived out in the Easter story! Jesus was arrested, flogged, had a crown of thorns placed on his head. He was spit at, mocked and then forced to carry his own cross. He was then placed on that cross, with nails driven into his feet and hands. He hung there, bloody, beaten, mocked...for you, for me! Why oh why do I forget this, why oh why does this not bring me to tears each day? 

Today we remember this:

Mark 15:33-38 (NIV)

At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).

When some of those standing near heard this, they said, “Listen, he’s calling Elijah.”

Someone ran, filled a sponge with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to take him down,” he said.

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.

The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, saw how he died, he said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”

Surely Jesus is the Son of God, he is the Savior of the world. If you haven't accepted him, why not? Look at the love that he has for you! He loves you enough that he gave up his life for you! 

John 3:16-17 (NIV) clearly states it all:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

God loves you! What does your yes need to be? Today, let's remember, reflect, and praise our God for his amazing plan and his gracious gift of Salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Friday is here, but Sunday is coming...death could not hold him! Jesus is RISEN and ALIVE! 

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord...

Psalm 150

¹ Praise the Lord.

Praise God in his sanctuary;
    praise him in his mighty heavens.
² Praise him for his acts of power;
    praise him for his surpassing greatness.
³ Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
    praise him with the harp and lyre,
⁴ praise him with timbrel and dancing,
    praise him with the strings and pipe,
⁵ praise him with the clash of cymbals,
    praise him with resounding cymbals.

⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord", that's what life should be all about, praising our God! He deserves all of our praise, he deserves praise in every area of our lives, but too often we leave the praising for a Sunday morning during worship. 

I've been thinking...what does it really look like to praise God in every area of my life? Do I give God praise enough throughout my day? Why is it that I can be so blind to the miracles that surround me each day? I think the answer to those questions are that at my core I am selfish, I get too focused on myself, my plans and my day to really give God the praise he deserves. So how do we change? 

Recently I was challenged to start to pray that God would really open my eyes to see the ways He answers prayer in my life. Sometimes we get so caught up in the things we feel like He hasn't answered yet that we miss the other answers to prayer. And when we miss those other answers to prayer, we miss an opportunity to give God the glory and praise He deserves. 

Each week my friends and I meet to walk or run on a trail with our kids. And each week I see other moms pushing their strollers and I always wonder...do they know the Lord? For years I have just been OK with wondering, but this week God convicted me. He convicted me that I need to be praying for opportunities to talk with those other moms that I see each week and open doors to share His truth. 

So on Monday I prayed and on Tuesday God answered! 

During our run, I saw mom after mom and I continued to pray, "God open doors for me to talk with them and give me boldness". And when we reached the end of our run at the park, it was filled with moms and kids, more than I had seen in a really long time. Now, I'm going to admit...I got a little shy. I wasn't quite sure that I could start a conversation with someone I didn't know. But I decided I had to be bold and obedient and you know what, I didn't even have to start the conversation, another mom asked me a question first. God is SO good! He blessed me with the opportunity to meet two new moms and tell them about my church and invite them to join our group on our outings each week. I love that my God answers prayer!

Psalm 150 got me thinking today. I love how the verses talk about all of the ways that we can praise God, it goes through so many different types of instruments. I love music, put anything to music and I can remember the lyrics (well...sometimes I have a tendency to remember words to songs incorrectly...but hey, I still remember them.) These verses are talking about way after way that we can praise our God, through many different expressions. It got me to thinking, am I praising God through each area of my life? With all of the different instruments that I have access to? I am praising Him through the way I'm a wife, mom, daughter, friend, employee? Does my life bring Him praise? So today, I am challenging myself to slow down and ask God to open my eyes to the miracles around me. God's miracles are not over, they don't only happen in Bible stories, they are real, they are here now and they are all around us. So today, I choose to look for them and I choose to praise my God in every area of my life. There's always time to stop and thank and praise God for all that He has done!

Enthroned over the flood

Psalm 29:10-11
"The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever. The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace."

I love reading through Psalms, the book is filled with words of wisdom and comfort. It challenges my thinking and reminds me of God's great power! The verses above have gotten me thinking today.
Throughout the Bible one way we see God's power is through amazing miracles over nature. Think about the story of the great flood and how God told a man named Noah to build a huge ship to hold the animals of the world because he was going to flood the earth. When we really sit back and look at the story, it's crazy. I mean that ark was HUGE and how in the world did all of those animals not kill each other and man, it must have stunk in there!
The thing that I love about God is that he is in the business of the impossible. He works in ways that we as humans could never fully comprehend. Psalm 29:10-11 reminds us of that great power. It tells us that "the Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever". Just as the Lord sat enthroned over the flood that covered the earth, he sits enthroned over the floods of our lives. He is "King forever"! Not just King some of the time and King of some of the areas of our lives, but he is King over it all, forever! The tricky thing about this for me is not holding on to some of those deep dark areas of my life that I feel I still need to control.
I've been asking myself these questions today.... Am I allowing God to show his power is every area of my life, even those deep dark places of fear and control? Am I truly recognizing his amazing power on a daily basis and praying like I am praying to God who has done the impossible? Am I letting go of my need to control, know and plan so that God can reign as King over every area of my life forever? Honestly, I have to say no, not fully. I still try to control my life, I still let myself go to places of fear and I still try to do it all on my own. But I am thankful to say that God has been changing me, he has been reminding me that he is the God of the impossible, that he wants me to know him in a deep and intimate way. And another amazing thing about God, he not only controls the floods of our lives, he gives us strength to face them and peace throughout them.
Sometimes our lives sprinkle, sometimes it's a steady rain, sometimes it pours and other times it floods. But Psalm 29:10-11, reminds us that God is in control and he will give us the strength and the peace to navigate any level of rain in our lives.

Today I Choose...Thankfulness

Today is one of my favorite days of the year. I love the day before Thanksgiving! I always take this day off work and spend the day cooking, usually listening to Christmas music (I know, wrong holiday, but hey, after November 1 that's what I like to listen to :) and preparing for that holiday to come. And today I am especially happy because it's raining, I love the rain!
This morning as I was reading my Bible and spending time praying I started to think about Thanksgiving and what it truly means to be thankful. As I was journaling my prayers, I started to think about all of the ways that God has blessed me. I have an amazing husband who loves me, provides for our family and is my best friend, I have awesome kids who make me laugh, are adorable and who's love is so pure. I have a wonderful family who I love spending time with, they aren't just family, they are my friends, my support and such an important part of my life. I have great friends who I know will lift me up in prayer. I have a wonderful church family and a great job! I have a house, more clothes and things than I will ever really need and the list could go on and on. I also started to think about how grateful I am for my relationship with God. I have a personal relationship with my Creator, the God of the Universe, the Almighty King of Kings and Lord of Lords. God cares for me, He provides for me, His love never changes or fails, He is patient with me, He teaches me and He calls me his child. As I was writing down all of the characteristics of God I couldn't help but realize and ask myself, am I thankful for these things on a daily basis? Do I tell God thank you for who You are enough? It's really easy for us to just go through life and lift up a quick "hey, thanks God" when we get something we want or when something works out for us, but how often do we as believers really sit down and thank God for who He is? For all that He has done? And remember that all things come from Him? Do we thank God that He has a plan for our lives? Do we thank Him even for the trials of life? Do we thank Him for being God?
God has been taking me on a journey for the past six months or so and He has been revealing himself to me in ways that I never thought possible. He has broken me down so that I could finally realize that my strength is found in Him alone. And boy, am I glad that He has changed me! Changed me to truly desire to get up each morning and spend time with Him. Changed me to be thankful for His blessings each day. Changed to me realize the importance of admitting my sins daily and asking for forgiveness. Changed me to really present my requests before Him and to bring others in my life to the foot of the cross. Changed me to realize the words of Psalm 73:26 "My flesh and my heart my fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." Changed me to daily be thankful for all that He has given me, because "How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." (Psalm 84:1-2)
So, today I choose thankfulness. "You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever." (Psalm 118:28-29)

My Grandma's Legacy

Today is a hard day, but a day where I am rejoicing in the fact that God's promises are true. Today, I lost my Grandma. A woman who I have admired since I was a little girl. A woman who taught me what it means to love deeply, to follow Christ faithfully and to be joyful in all circumstances.
My Grandma has left behind a legacy that is inspiring and a life well lived. Her patience, love, compassion, grace and gentle spirit are all characteristics that I desire to emulate in my own life.
I am saddened by the fact that I will not be able to see her again on this earth, but can find peace in the fact that I know she is face to face with her Savior. And I am certain that when she met the Lord, He said to her, "Well done, my good and faithful servant".
I was blessed to have a Grandma who invested in my life. Even though we never lived in the same town, she always knew what was going on in my life and her investment was a beautiful gift. She was always quick to say "I love you" and "Grandpa and I are praying for you". Those are words that I will treasure for the rest of my life and will hopefully one day be able to say to my own grandchildren.
My love of cooking and baking goes back to the many hours I spent in the kitchen with my Grandma. She taught me how to bake in the most patient and loving way. She would lead me through a recipe and patiently let me add the ingredients, even if it meant I dropped an egg on the carpeted kitchen floor of my childhood home (I mean, who puts carpet in the kitchen anyway :). But a mess was never a big deal, she would gently say, "Oh, honey girl, that's OK.", clean it up and we would continue on. She was not only a wonderful cook, but a gracious and welcoming hostess. Her home was always warm and welcoming, the kind of place where a kid feels safe, comfortable and loved. I am blessed to have so many wonderful memories of my Grandma's home and the love that filled those walls.
There are many things that I will never forget about my Grandma and my memories are what will inspire me to live up to her legacy. Not only was she gentle, humble, kind and compassionate, she was strong, a fighter and filled with joy during the hardest of times. My Grandma fought hard for the last five years of her life, but during all of her health issues, she had a smile on her face and faith in her heart. She was a ray of sunshine each time she walked into dialysis and for those of us who were blessed to know her, we know that her smile, strength and joy came from her deep rooted faith in our Creator. A faith that she was not shy to talk about, to tell others about and to teach her children and grandchildren about. A faith that set the course for future generations and a faith that will continue to be passed on long after her time on this earth. A faith that inspires me and challenges me to live like Christ.
There are so many things I will miss about my Grandma, our chats on the phone, cooking together, baking together, hearing her say "Oh you guys", lunch on the pontoon boat, shopping and coffee in Thief River, playing farkle, her biscuits and gravy, her warm hugs and sitting around her kitchen table just catching up on life. I always knew that she loved me, she was proud of me and that she was praying for me. If I have but one hope, it's that I can be half of the wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother and friend that my Grandma was. I love you Grandma and I am so thankful that you are free from pain and worshiping our God face to face! 

What a difference a year makes...

Today is my 28 birthday and as I was spending time reading God's word today, I couldn't help but think how different my relationship with God is from this year to last. Kyle woke me up this morning with a wonderful birthday song before he left for work and after he was done singing, he asked me if I wanted to sleep in or get up. My first thought was, I had better get up because I want to make sure I have enough time to read my Bible and get myself and the kids ready before I have to leave for work. You see, last year I probably would have been motivated to get up early so that I could have enough time to make a stop at Starbucks before work and treat myself to a coffee. Honestly, my time with God wouldn't have been one of the first things that came to my mind as I was deciding whether or not to get up early. What a difference a year makes!
I have missed blogging each day and mostly I have missed my work study! God taught me so much through those 35 days and above all he gave me a true desire to be in his word daily, no matter what day it is....Monday, Saturday or even my birthday. I want to start my day with him! (well and usually with a cup of coffee too :)
Recently I have been reading through Ephesians, my favorite book! Today I read Ephesians chapter three and I think it perfectly puts into words how I want my life to be and also my prayer for my husband and my kids.
Ephesians 3:14-21
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
God can do things in our lives beyond what we could ever imagine if our hearts are open, willing and ready to do His work. God loves us more than we will ever be able to fully comprehend, a love that is deep, that is high and that is everlasting.
I want to "be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God", I want him to be alive in me and I want him to do things in my life that I could have never imagined were possible. And I want others to see his love through my actions.
So, today I choose to be filled, to be used and to give all the glory to my God for blessing me with another year of life!

Today I Choose to Move...

Today I choose to move. To not stand still and go where God is leading me.
Today is day 35! I can't believe how quickly the days have gone by. I have loved studying 35 different words. God has taught me so much and I have come to a place where I truly crave and want that time with the Lord each day. My quiet time with the Lord has changed into something I truly desire, instead of just something that I feel like I have to get done each day.
I have been challenged to do things that feel big, scary and hard, but I know that God will give me the strength and will open up doors that feel sealed shut and boarded up. I think it is fitting that the final word in my 35 day challenge is move. I have gained all of this knowledge, have been challenged and now I must act. Matthew 21:28-32 gives us a wonderful challenge of making sure that our actions match our words through the parable of the two sons. '"What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.' 'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. 'Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing.' He answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go. 'Which of the two did what his father wanted?' 'The first,' they answered. Jesus said to them, 'Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.'" Our actions much match our words. We can't just go through the Christian motions, we have to act, we have to change, we have to learn, we have to grow and we have to open up our hearts so that God can use us. 
It's also important that we evaluate what really motivates our faith. "John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, 'You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.'" (Luke 3:7-9) What motivates our faith? If it fear of the future or a desire to be changed and used by God? Our repentance must be connected to action or it isn't real. We can't just go through the motions of a Christian life, there has to be fruit that shows we are changed and that our salvation has impacted our lives. We have to live differently, we have to live a life that points others to Christ. And in order for that to happen, we must MOVE! We can't just sit around waiting for God, we have to earnestly seek him and follow after his will.
So today, I choose to move. To move on the things that God has challenged me with and to follow after his will for my life.