The Challenge: Day 1

The Lord has challenged me to wait on Him to reveal a verse, meditate on it, and write publicly about it.

So here goes Day 1!

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all of your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you , says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you be be carried away captive." Jeremiah 29: 11-14

This verse is in Jeremiah's letter to the captives, I think about the captives in bondage now, including myself. Being captive can mean so many things, it can mean anything from being a slave to sex trafficking, to being a slave of television. It is so easy to be taken captive by the things of this world, media, relationships, pornography, food, etc. You name it. I would say most, if not all, the time we never intend to become captive. It is a slow process that the enemy sticks his nasty little hands in. He lures us with the enticement of the object our flesh is desiring. Then we stick our toe in just to see how it feels, next time a foot, a leg, until eventually we are drowning in the nasty sin. We become slaves, we become captive. Then once we are in, we began to believe all the lies the enemy tells us, "God hates you, you wouldn't be in this situation if he didn't", "Where is your God now? Why isn't he saving you?" "You are a disappointment to God!" "He is disgusted by you!" And we just began this path of self-destruction.

But there is GOOD NEWS! The Enemy has already lost! The Lord has already won! The Lord loves you and thinks nothing but thoughts of peace about you! He wants to give you a future and a hope! Don't let the enemy tell you what God thinks about you! He will NEVER tell you the truth. A good rule to follow is if the enemy is telling you one thing, believe the exact opposite! The Lord has not forgotten about you no matter how far away He may seem, no matter how silent his voice sounds to you. He is relentless when it comes to pursuing you. See Jeremiah 29 states that "when you search for Him with ALL of your heart, you will find Him" that is a delightful promise! An even more delightful promise is that he will "bring you back from your captivity!" He will not let you drown in it. You simply have to seek Him, see sometimes we tend to think the Lord is just going to come down and save us without us doing anything. Because He wants us to choose to love him, we have a choice to ask Him for our help. So we must call for him and pray to Him and he promises He will listen and bring you out of the darkness.

Never believe you are too far in the deep end to be rescued by your beloved. He loves you more then we will ever know until we are united with Him in heaven!

A question I have for readers! Why do you think He says He will bring us back to the place from which He rescued us out of our captivity? 

Incurable Fanatic

This blog post comes out of procrastination of homework and lack of sleep. As I sit here at IHOP I have so much going on in my mind. I have asked the Lord to give me His heart for His people. Though days it is a terrible burden I know that I couldn't ask for a better gift. As I sit and watch these two women sit at a table next to me, I am intrigued by their big hair and lack of clothing, and my heart sinks. My mind instantly turns to all I know of sex trafficking. I can't help but wonder, "Are they in bondage?" As I continue to listen to bits of their conversation, I seem to feel certain of they are. I am burning to go talk to them, but I hear the voice of the Lord, "No my beloved" and then He reminds of the hotline stickers in my bag. I instantly go to the bathroom and post a sticker in each stall of a human trafficking hotline number that anyone who is in trouble can call for help. I return my table and can't help but feel I have done nothing. I cry in my heart, "Lord, why do I feel so helpless lately? Aren't I supposed to love the orphans, widows and prostitutes?" All I feel like I have been doing is running away or doing the easy thing. "when, Lord, when can I love them?"

I sit and ponder awhile longer and realize my striving heart and self-righteous attitude. I so easily make it about me and how I can do something to feel better about myself. Thank you for your grace and mercy Lord. Last night I went and saw the documentary "Nefarious: Merchant of Souls" for the second time. This documentary, created by the organization Exodus Cry, is about sex trafficking around the world. The first time I saw it I weeped and felt so much brokeness. This time I was hurting for the victims and traffickers, but my heart also fell more in love with the Lord and his gentleness and love for His daughters and sons. I have so much hope that He has already set the captives free.

A staff member of Exodus Cry came out after the showing and I was in awe of his boldness to speak truth when its uncomfortable. He called the church out about turning our heads and trying to forget this issue. He reminded me that this is a spiritual battle. This is bigger then us. Gods heart is broken for injustice. He wants His people to be set free and to know their purpose and the love He has for them! Oh, I won't that more then anything for the beautiful daughters of the Beloved. I want them to know they are loved, I want them to know they are not shamed or condemned, I want them to know they are beautiful, they are holy, they are clean, they are forgiven!

I am called to be an incurable fanatic, I am claiming my identity so the captives can know theirs!

As I Am.

Lately I have been in this season where I feel like I need to strive to receive God's love. I have allowed myself to believe all of these lies the enemy is throwing at me. I seem to always think that the Lord's love is like a humans love: selfish and temporary. I continue to try and be better and always fail. I continue to think if I just do this one more thing He will love me more. I continue to think He is disappointed in my failures and that all He sees is a big mess crying herself to sleep every night.

The reason I share this with you is because I know many of us feel this way. Believers and non-believers. And I am here to tell you that if you are feeling anything like I just stated you are giving into the enemies BIG, FAT, STUPID, LIES. He thinks hes clever, but if you just sit for a moment and think about what you are believing you will start to laugh. You will laugh because you will see how unoriginal he is and how he has been using the same lies for decades.

Once I got over my pity party I realized that if all of these things I was hearing and believing about the Lords love was true, why in the heck would I worship Him and give up my whole life? It isn't because He is unhappy with my performance or think I can do a lot better. It isn't because of a challenge I have to be as good as I can and then He will love me. No, it isn't like human love at all. In a podcast by Graham Cooke called "The Inheritance", he talks about God loving us. He says that "we could do nothing to where God would love us more. We can also do nothing to where God would love us less." God loves us as we are, He sees us as His perfect beloved and we will always be His perfect beloved. We don't have to strive to be better, we don't even have to do anything. He loves us because it is His nature to love us. He can't help it.

I know it seems impossible to believe when we are surrounded by the pressure of humans telling us we have to be better. The pressures of being successful, beautiful and intelligent. The pressures of people telling us we are good enough and we must be better to be liked or even loved. But there is good news! GREAT NEWS! Jesus died for our sins, we know longer have to live with the guilt of our imperfections. God doesn't just forgive us, he forgets! We can live a life of freedom because our Savior died the penalty for us. Nothing else matters. In fact, Philippians 3:8 says, "Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."

Everything on earth is going to perish, we don't need to waste our time worrying about how well we performed. God loves us for who we are, I challenge you to quit living as if you are a prisoner, you were set free along time ago, now you just have to choose to live like you are.

In Christ,

-Heather

"Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:11-12

Book Sneeze Review #2

Great book if you want to use your creative side. It has so many fun ideas and they are easy to do! It makes journaling that much more fun!!!! You have easy crafts for beginners and some that are a little tough for those who want to challenge themselves. I like the way they organized the picturesa and instructions on the page. I also liked the way they organized the book in general.

Recieve God's Hope

The morning in my devotion the author talked about having hope in God. "Come near to God and God will come near to you" James 4:8. That gives me so much hope that if I just come before the Lord He will be there. It doesn't matter the problem(s) we are having or that we feel unworthy or too broken for God. If we believe that than we are believing lies from the enemy. God didn't say "Go get perfect and then come to me" No, he said "I am with the broken". He has the ability to heal the most broken people in the world. Our toughest challenge is nothing more than bobby pins and rubber bands to God. The issues were dealing with may seem so big in our eyes but in Gods perspective they are nothing worse than lost bobby pins and rubber bands.

The Lord will meet you where ever you are. He will meet you no matter how much sin you are swimming in. Did you know God doesn't look at us with our sin on us? NOPE! He sees the identity He created us to be. We are perfect to Him. We allow the world and Satan to lie to us and tell us we aren't good enough. We allow these lies to fester in our spirits and hearts and break us down until we have no hope anymore. Hoplessness is unbelief in God's power, [ouch]. We cannot partner with the Enemies lies. We are warriors of God and we must act like it. We must know the truth that God has for us. Because that truth will set us free. He wants us to walk out in freedom. He doesn't care what you or the world have to say about your issues. They are not too messy or dirty for God. There is no such thing as a problem too hard for Him. He is not confounded, confused, or discouraged. Recieve his hope, won't you? Receive it because you need it. Receive it so you can share it.

In Christ, Heather

Citizens of Heaven

"Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News." Philippians 1:27

I read this passage a couple weeks ago and it has been sitting on my mind for awhile. What does it look like to be citizens of heaven? Just thinking about that takes my breath away. I don't know what it was about seeing it on a page just made it so real. I looked up the word citizen in the dictonary and this is what it said:

An inhabitant of a city or town; especially: one entitled to the rights and privileges of a freeman

Entitled to the rights and privleges, we have privleges of being a citizen of heaven! So what does this mean? It means God is so gracious to give us citizenship to his home, to his kingdom! He doesn't force it upon us, he gently offers us the choice to live in enternity with him. But for one price, our lives. "Then called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." Mark 8:34

Its hard to give ourselves completely up to Jesus. We are humans who wish to control everything, to have the power. But wouldn't life be much simpler if we just gave all control to the one above? The one who knows the big picture, the plan. God called us to a life of freedom and joy. If we live our lifes for Him everything becomes more simple. We don't have to worry about what the next step is, we just sit a long for the ride.

How would our lives look differently if we sat in the passenger seat instead of the drivers? How would it look different if we actually acted like citizens of heaven? I challenge you to truly seek Jesus in a deeper way and find out how much freedom you will find. The truth will set you free.

In Christ,

Heather

Abundant Grace

It never ceases to amaze me how much grace God gives us. As Christians we talk about grace often but I don't think we will ever understand how much God loves us and cares about our life. This weekend I encountered a young man who to put it lightly is a mess. My first instinct was to judge him, then I thought about why and how he became this way. When I told my friends that we needed to be a positive influence on them they told me that it was a little too late for that. I didn't think too much of it but then in the middle of the night I was woken up and this boy was the first thing that came to my mind. God began to speak to me, he asked me "What if I was to look at you and say, oh its just a little too late for her?" This hit me hard, I realized that I am just as much of a "mess" as this young boy. I realized how I deserved to be given up on but yet time and time again God forgives me and never gives up on me.

My point is that we must not give up on anyone, we must always strive to share the love and grace of God to others. If we are saying its a little too late for someone, we obviously don't know the truth about God and have lack of confidence in what he can do. God can change around the worst in people. Don't we think if he can create a whole universe of people that he can change someones life for the better? We just have to be willing to allow Him to work through us.

I challenge you to not let fear or what others think to stand in the way of God's plan for your life. Be a positive influence on others and speak truth into their life. If God is calling you to say or do something for a certain person don't be afraid of what they will think. Because if He wants you to do it, and you respond, expect something amazing to happen. Even if you don't see a change of heart, you will plant a seed. You may never know how you affect people but know that if its God's plan then its for a reason.

In Christ,

Heather