I'm Still Alive...

...and I've got lots to share with you. So stay tuned!

Stop Fighting...

Jesus Wants to Ruin Your Life

I heard this sermon once that was titled “Jesus wants to Ruin Your Life.” Not exactly the most inspiring sermon title!

But stop and really think about that.

It doesn’t mean that Jesus wants to make us miserable, but I do think Jesus wants to challenge a lot of the attitudes and habits that we pick up along the way.

I was reading in John chapter 5 today. Verses 1-15 tell the story of Jesus healing a man on the Sabbath. In verse 8 Jesus tells the man –

“Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk.”

Verse 9 tells us –

“Instantly the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat, and began walking!”

So just imagine this newly healed man, strutting down the local avenue.  In verse 5 we learn that he had been sick for 38 years! I’m sure he had a little extra pep in his step. But he didn’t make it far before his celebration was halted by the local religious leaders. Since the miracle had taken place on the Sabbath, they were not happy -

…so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!” (John 5:10)

As I read these verses, I was just astounded. How could they consider themselves “religious leaders”, and yet be so blind to the divine!

They were so wrapped up in following the exact letter of the law (and making sure that everyone else did to!) that they couldn’t even see what was right there in front of them.

Immanuel!

God with us!

It’s really quite amazing and sad when you think about it… I think the core reason that the religious leaders struggled with Jesus, is because he messes things up! He challenges all of the religious systems that they’ve put into place. They’ve decided what following God means, and what it should look like, and Jesus comes along and ruins their standard.

In reality he’s still doing that. All of us have these notions of what we think it means to be a “Christian”. What we should look like. What we should sound like. Jesus is still here, challenging us, by messing with our normal. How we react says a lot about where our hearts really are…

Let us never get to the place that we are so wrapped up in our religion that we can’t see the compassionate and healing nature of God. I need that in my own life, and my desire is to be an agent of that compassion and healing to a broken world.

Let our eyes and hearts always be open to see the divine at work in and around us…

Shaped by the Word

I'm reading this book:

Shaped by the Word: The Power of Scripture in Spiritual Formation by M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

...I'm only 4 chapters in, but I can already tell that this book is going to change my spiritual life forever! Here's a taste of what's been blowing my little christian mind!

"...One of our problems in approaching the scriptures is that we approach them in the cognitive, rational critical mode. We stand off from them, look at them, evaluate them, and judge them in the light of who we are and our own agenda at that moment. We respond to the scriptures, but often our response is simply that of reading ourselves into the scriptures at some level rather than allowing God to speak to us our of them. We manipulate the scripture to authenticate our "false self", our pervasive structures of self-referenced being, and to resist God's call to our true self, that self that is actualized through radical abandonment to God." (page 22)

Because You're With Me...

I took this picture at a conference I was at on Sunday night...

God has really been encouraging me a lot through the Bible (imagine that!). Earlier that day I was studying Mark 4:35-41. It's the story of Jesus calming the storm...Basically Jesus and the disciples are traveling by boat when a storm comes. The disciples are freaking out, and Jesus is asleep. In verse 38 they wake him up, and say -

"Teacher, don't you care that we're going to drown?!"

So Jesus gets up, and tells the storm to "Be Still", and it listens (Awesome). Then he turns back to the disciples and says to them -

“Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

As I was reading that, I was thinking about my own situation, as I sit here in Las Vegas waiting for my Spanish Visa. In my head I could hear myself having a similar exchange with Jesus ...

"Jesus, don't you care that my visa is going to get denied, and I'm not going to be able to go do what you've called me to do?!"

And Jesus turned to me and said -

"Poppy, why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

As I wait to hear the final outcome about my visa, I feel more and more like God is giving me the opportunity to exhibit great faith and trust in him. On Sunday night in the middle of worship at the conference I was attending, we sang a song that says:

Because you're with me
Because you're with me
Because you're with me
I will not fear

As I sang, I stretched my hands high, and surrendered myself, and any fear and anxiousness I have about the situation over to God. As I sang, I felt God reminding me of what I'd read earlier. I felt him reminding me to not be afraid, to trust...

Hiking...

Reading...

Hope

Freedom for the Taking...

2 Corinthians 3:17 "For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Straight,simple, and to the point.

Where the spirit of the Lord is…there is FREEDOM.

And remember…

If you belong to Christ, the Spirit lives in you.

Do you get that?

Your key to FREEDOM lives inside you.

That means it’s always there.

Just waiting for you to take it!





North Korea

I was watching the news yesterday when they showed this picture of what North Korea looks like from the sky at night...

That's North Korea bordered in red. Most of it's citizens are without electricity. They have learned how to live in the dark.

I then of course started to think about the spiritual side of this. Most North Koreans are living in the dark both physically AND spiritually.

Now that Kim Jong Il is dead, the world;s attention has turned to his son that will take his place. What kind of leader will he be?

I think of all of those people in the dark, and I just want to pray for them. 24/7 Prayer actually posted a great article about praying for the new leader of North Korea. Check it out HERE.

Let's pray...

The Advent Conspiracy

I'm a Winner

 I have validated my word count and it is now official...I am a NaNoWriMo winner! I wrote over 52,000 words in just 27 days. I'm not done with the book yet, so I'm trying to finish as much of the first draft as I can before the month is over. Then I plan to take a few days off before I start editing.

After years of saying, I was going to do it, I've finally done it...

Advent Calendar

Check out this interesting Advent Calendar found at Busted Halo

Everything's Amazing & Nobody's Happy

Ephesians 2:10

Kim Kardashian & the Trouble with Herman Cain

What a crazy week it's been in both pop culture and political news. I've had a few thoughts rumbling inside my head that I want to share...

Let's start with Kim Kardashian. I'm not a big celebrity news follower, but obviously news of her divorce (after only 72 days of marriage) has been hard to miss. Now I don't know Ms. Kardashian, or the details of her situation... but from the outside looking in, let me tell you what concerns me. Kim Kardashian is a role model to young girls. Now before you start yelling at me that she never asked to be a role model, let me just say that it doesn't matter. She is a role model...period. There are millions of young girls who watch her every move. They watch her reality show, and they want to know what she's wearing, and who she's dating. They watch everything she does. I'm more than a little concerned about the message that her divorce sends to them. I was watching CNN today when they shared this quote from a statement Kim released on her blog:

"It [marriage] just didn’t turn out to be the fairy tale I had so badly hoped for..."

We live in a country with a divorce rate that is well over 50%, and I think part of the problem is that we're trying to live some sort of fairy tale instead of dealing with real life. Marriage is hard, and most of the people I know that have been married for while say that after the honeymoon is over, marriage becomes a choice. When there are problems, they choose to stay, they choose to do whatever it takes to work things out.

Here's another quote from her statement:

"I felt like I was on a fast roller coaster and couldn’t get off, when now I know I probably should have. I got caught up with the hoopla and the filming of the TV show that when I probably should have ended my relationship, I didn’t know how to and didn’t want to disappoint a lot of people."

I also think it has to say a lot about our "reality" culture, that this young woman felt the pressure to marry someone she shouldn't have.

I really do wish the best for her....

Now on to Herman Cain...

One word...REALLY?! I'm sure you've heard now about the two woman who accused Mr. Cain of sexual harassment when he worked at the National Restaurant Association. The way his campaign has chosen to deal with this issue has been laughable at best. I'm no political strategist, but even I know that in the instant information society we live in today, you can't be in the public spotlight and have secrets....or at least not have them for very long. His campaign had to know this was coming, yet they were seriously unprepared to deal with it. They lied, and please someone tell me why I would want to vote for a person who lies to me? 

And It gets worse...today I saw him on the news saying that these allegations were racist! Again with my one word...REALLY?! We're going to play the race card Herman?! Between him and Ann Coulter, I just want to bang my head against a wall...ahhh politics...

What are your thoughts????

Please Be My Strength...

Waiting for a Sign...

Several years ago, I worked as a youth leader with a very unique and fun couple. When I think of them, I think of two things. One is that they keep their Christmas tree up until February. And the second is a story.

When they were praying whether or not they should take the youth pastor position at this church we were attending, they asked God to give them a sign. The husband was scheduled to preach during a Sunday night service, and they were getting close to their deadline to make a decision. So they prayed and told God, if a teenager came forward during the alter call at the end of the service, that would be the sign that they should accept the position. The service began and my friend preached his sermon. And sure enough during the alter call, a teenager came forward. That was the sign they were waiting for, so they accepted the position.

Later they would find out that this same teenager, struggling in the assurance of their faith, came forward every Sunday night!

I share this story, because it's funny, and because it makes me think.

But first another story...

The other night, I was hanging out with a few people from my church. As the evening progressed we realized that we were all single, so naturally the conversation took a turn toward singleness. One of my friends revealed that he is in the beginning stages of a relationship with a girl who is not a Christian.

Just briefly I’ll say this...I can't imagine trying to share my life with someone who isn't passionate about God. My relationship with God is the most important thing in my life...How can I build a relationship with someone who doesn't share the same belief?

Anyways, back to my friend...he's basically already decided to pursue the relationship, because he asked God to give him a sign that she was the one, and he believes that God has given him several...

I wonder sometimes if we depend a little too much on signs. Don’t get me wrong, I do believe God uses signs to speak to people. But I also think that one of the most important tools that God has given us is his word. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

The problem is that a lot of people think the bible is irrelevant to their modern problems. It may be true that you’re not going to find the bible verse that says “Tweet unto others as thou would have others tweet unto thee”… But it’s also true that the bible is full of wisdom and truth that can show us how to navigate this thing called life. (Psalm 119:105)

I can think of so many times in my own life, when I’ve cried out to God to show me what to do, when like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, I had exactly what I needed all along…

God's word is the biggest sign of all... And any "SIGN" that we think we've received should fall in line with God's word. God does not contradict himself.

I think at it's heart, the desire to receive a sign from God, is the desire to know we're doing the right thing. The desire to know that he is listening, and that he cares enough to nudge us in the right direction.

From my own experience, I'll tell you that God's word changed my life. After being challenged at a conference several years ago, I decided I was going to make it a priority in my life. I began to read it regularly. I also began to meditate and chew on it (Psalm 1:2). And before I knew it the Holy Spirit began to work in my heart. He began to speak to me, and to reveal truth to me. It changed the way I looked at God, myself, my problems, and the world around me. So my advice to you is to seek God in his word...

Find your direction there
Find your hope there
Find all that you need to make your way home...

Unique...

Artists Alexa Meade takes photographs that could easily be mistaken as paintings...so cool!

Sucker Punch Wisdom

Finally saw the movie Sucker Punch this week. It was interesting...

I think it's one of those movies that you either love or hate. I loved it. Without giving anything away, it was basically about a girl in a tough situation who learned that she had everything she needed within her to fight for her freedom...

Here's one of my favorite bits:

Who honors those we love with the very life we live?
Who sends monsters to kill us, and at the same time sings that we will never die?
Who teaches us what’s real and how to laugh at lies?
Who decided why we live and what we’ll die to defend?
Who chains us?
And who holds the key that can set us free?
It’s you…
You have all the weapons you need…
Now FIGHT!

It reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures in 2 Peter 1:3

"By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence."

So remember,

You have all the weapons you need....

Now FIGHT!