Category Archives: Church

Feb21

DAY 51 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…Choosing God.

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DAY 51 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…Choosing God.

Lately, the state of the world and America have been heavy on my heart, for lack of a better description, what I am seeing grieves my heart. It scares me to think about where we are heading, especially as I watch people I respect and some I love fall into the trap of the world and its traditions. If we, who are called to be salt and light, look like the world, what hope is there? This question has been an ever-present fixture in my heart and mind for a while now. Sometimes it leads me to a sweet time of reflection and growth as I seek God and His words for direction and wisdom, and other times, it leads me to deep sadness and near depression because instead of looking to my Lord and Savior who walks on raging seas, I focus on the darkness I see engulfing us.

Here’s a reminder from God’s word of who we are and what God has given us, but most importantly, it’s a reminder that sin is subtle, it sneaks in, like satan in the garden, and distracts us with half-truths and tries to redirect our hearts and minds with questions like, “Did God REALLY say…” How do we combat this? By KNOWING WHAT GOD DID SAY.

“That their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments…See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ…Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch,” (Colossians 2:2B-4, 8, 21).

Our hope is Christ, our guide and the director of our path is Christ. Christ is who we look to when the world is upside down. Christ is where our hope and safety are found, NOT religion, NOT man, and NOT the world. God says DON’T handle, DON’T taste, and DON’T touch. We are God’s representatives to the world. Our call is to represent Him correctly, and God takes this charge seriously; we should, too.

“Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the river and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE.” (Joshua 24:14-15A).

Here’s the truth, friends, we are going to serve something. Whether that be self or God is our choice to make. I hope, like Joshua, your answer is, “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15B)

So, what am I thankful for today? That we can choose God.

Dec29

Day 363 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…God Taking My Heart of Stone

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Day 363 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…God Taking My Heart of Stone

Yesterday at church, I read a verse that I am sure I have read many times before, but it felt like the first time I had truly seen it. The verse is from Mark 6:52. However, before I write the verse, let me give some backstory: Jesus had just finished feeding over 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish. He then told his disciples to get in the boat and go ahead of him, while he spent some time in prayer. As the disciples continue their journey, a storm begins, and they struggle to keep control of the boat. Jesus sees this and comes to meet them by walking on the water. But upon seeing this, the disciples are afraid, mistaking Jesus for a ghost. We will pick up in verse 50b as we make our way to verse 52. “Immediately, He spoke to them and said, ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’ Then He climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. They were completely amazed, for THEY HAD NOT UNDERSTOOD ABOUT THE LOAVES; THEIR HEARTS WERE HARDENED.”

You see it too, right? “They didn’t understand about the loaves, their hearts were hardened.” I have read the book of Mark more than once, and I have never noticed this verse before. The disciples lived with Jesus, ate with Jesus, journeyed with Jesus, and witnessed every single miracle FIRSTHAND and STILL DID NOT UNDERSTAND. It made me think about my life, about all the ways I see God move in my life and in my world daily, and how, despite all He’s done, I still struggle to trust Him with 100% of my heart. It can feel discouraging, can’t it? Like a hamster on a wheel, only the hamster knows where the food is, has all the tools needed to get off the wheel, yet speeds up its pace of going nowhere. We complain about the disciples and declare that we’d have done it differently, yet here we are doing the exact same thing in real time.

Here’s the hope, friends, Jesus didn’t leave the disciples; He continued with them because He knew that one day He would lead them to understanding, one day their eyes would see fully, and when that day came, they would change the world in His name. Here’s a promise to hold on to when you feel like your heart is hardened: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:26-27).

Today, I am thankful that God will take away my heart of stone.

Dec20

Day 354 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…Tiredness

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Day 354 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…Tiredness

Have you ever been tired–sick and tired of everything? Where you just want to give up and not even try. Life can be tiring, making us expend all our energy with little to no return, as we run into roadblocks and complications at every turn. You wonder if God hears, sees, or even cares. Then you feel guilty for doubting God’s love. It’s a cruel and, yes, tiring cycle. But here’s some good news: none of this is surprising to God. He is not shocked or dismayed by our breakdown. He sees, hears, and (believe it or not) understands. No, I mean it. Check this out in 2 Kings 19, we find Elijah running for his life, after the Lord displayed His tremendous power against the prophets of Baal. In verse four, Elijah is so overwhelmed by it all that he cries out to God and asks Him to end it all, “I have had enough, Lord,’ he said. ‘Take my life, I am no better than my ancestors.” For some of us, this moment in Elijah’s life may feel very relatable. But what God does in response to Elijah’s cries is hope that we can stand on.

“All at once, an angel touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat.’ He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again. The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, ‘Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.’ So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God” 1 Kings 19:5-8.

God sent an angel to give Elijah exactly what he needed: strength for the journey. Here’s a truth you can bank on: God sees our tiredness and has exactly what we need and WILL SUPPLY IT. So cry out to God, friends, He hears, sees, and will answer.

Today I am thankful for (a God who understands) tiredness.

Dec18

Day 352 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…(NOT) Failure

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Day 352 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…(NOT) Failure

This year has been a year. We have been dealing with the pain of loss and the repercussions of bad decisions made. Making the year feel like one failure after another. If you are anything like me, that feeling of disappointing God and your loved ones is the most horrible in the world, and wallowing in that devastation becomes a playground for the accuser of our faith to remind us of our failures, faults, and flaws. But God has been teaching me that our struggles and shortcomings do not equal failure. Not to God. Where we see the bad we’ve done, our limitations, and mishaps, God sees opportunity.

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (NIV)

Let me say it again (for those in the back): struggling and falling flat on our faces does NOT mean we are failing. It means we are being refined and molded into the image of Him whose thoughts toward us are good. Struggles suck (yeah, I did use that word), they are painful and uncomfortable, and they make us feel like horrible humans. But, praise be to God, who tells us our struggles are momentary and working in us to achieve eternal glory. Don’t despise the struggle, friends, it’s a sign that God loves us.

Today I am thankful for (NOT) failure.

Dec12

Day 346 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…Talents

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Day 346 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…Talents

Recently, my father was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. He’s never smoked, never vaped, and has zero family history. And while his diagnosis is a heavy topic and something that does need to be talked about. It is not the subject of this blog. I introduced the topic because, for Thanksgiving, my husband and I, along with my brother and his family, visited him. It was a beautiful time of reconnection, learning lessons, and listening to wisdom about life from someone who experienced it first-hand. In one of those listening sessions, my father, talking to me about my photography, said this: “God gives us gifts and talents.” Gifts are spiritual for edification, the building up of the church, and the spreading of the gospel, like the ones discussed in Ephesians.

Ephesians 4:11-13, “Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

Talents, however, are something that God gives and does take away. They are physical abilities like being good at math, having steady hands for surgery, knowing how to solve a Rubik’s Cube, and, yes, of course, having an eye for photography. Today, while doing my devotion, this conversation with my dad came to mind, and I remembered the parable of the talents, Matthew 25:14-30. Yes, I know that in the context of the parable, “talent” means money. But stick with me, I have a point, I swear.

The master gave talents to his servants based on their ability (verse 15). To one he gave ten, that servant earned ten more. To the one he gave two talents, that servant also doubled his talents, earning two more. However, the one he gave only one talent, buried it, and did nothing with it. We can bury them, sit them on a shelf, letting them collect dust, wasting what God has given us.

Talents are to be used in the service of the one who blessed us with them. Talents are practical, helpful, and God gives them for a purpose. Have you been praying, asking God to bless you, to move, do something, anything? What if His answer is, I have given you the talent needed for that blessing. Friends, don’t sit on your talents, don’t bury them. Use them. God gave them to you for a purpose.

Today, I am thankful for the talents God has given me.

Dec11

Day 345 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…Mess and Filth

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Day 345 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…Mess and Filth

Feeling like you need to clean yourself up, be less ungodly, or make better choices for God to hear your prayers, love you, or accept you? Well, check this out. King David killed a man and took his wife. Abraham lied and said his wife was his sister and sent her off to another man. Moses killed a man, then ran away. Peter denied Christ, not once, twice, but three times. Paul persecuted and put to death followers of Christ without remorse or guilt. Yet, God calls David a man after His own heart (Acts 13:22), praises Abraham for his faith in Him (Hebrews 11:17-19), and allows Moses to glimpse His glory (Exodus 33:18-23). He makes Peter the rock upon which His church is built (Matthew 16:18), and Paul the doorway by which Gentiles find Him (Acts 9:15). Killers, liars, and deniers, these are the people God uses. Seems crazy, right? It’s not. You see, in God’s economy, our mess and filth don’t define us. Christ is not afraid of our dirt. In fact, it’s the reason He came.

Mark 2:17 (ESV) “And when Jesus heard it, He said to them, ‘Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.'”

Take heart, friends, you can be a mess, the messiest mess to ever mess. But you can NEVER mess up God’s plan for you.

Today, I am thankful for my mess and filth because God isn’t afraid of dirt.

Dec10

Day 344 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…Flood and Fires

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Day 344 of Random (hopefully inspired) Thought. Today I Am Thankful For…Flood and Fires

Today God said lock in, and follow His way, His will, His desires, and make Him the number one in my life. I thought about what that meant and wondered if it was something I could really and truly do. The answer: on my own, no. But in the strength that I have access to through the blood of Christ, absolutely! Does that mean I will suddenly be perfect, or that all my problems will dissolve into the wind? No, no, it doesn’t. Does it mean I will always make the right choices, right decisions, and always be in line with God? No to that as well. What exactly does it mean then? Well, I am glad you asked. It means, Isaiah 43:2: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.“

God doesn’t promise to remove the water and floods of our lives. He doesn’t say He will quench the fires that threaten to burn everything we hold dear. What He does say is, “I WILL BE WITH YOU.” He promises that the rivers won’t overflow us and the fire won’t scorch us, because He will be there wading through the rivers with us. He will stand with us in the midst of the flames. In this fallen world, life will never be perfect, but that does not mean disaster. It means we get to walk with God and let Him
turn our ashes to beauty like only He can. So, LOCK IN friends, hold on to Christ and let Him be your fourth man in the fire.

Today, I am thankful that Christ is with me in my floods and fires.

Sep7

DAY 249 (2014)

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Like a lamp with no bulb...so is truth with no substance. Both give no light. (Picture by Lisa R.)

Like a lamp with no bulb…so is truth with no substance. Both give no light.
(Picture by Lisa R.)

Today I realized just how important a good church home really is. I recently moved, to Williamsville, NY. It’s beautiful here, the people are very friendly. I have a beautiful place to live, a little money in the bank, I am actively looking for a job (money won’t last for ever). I know God will provide. I know He has a purpose and has a plan. He is not only my plan A, but my B thru Z as well. I can’t put into words why this journey is so important to me, and why I need God to be the complete guide of this adventure that I am now on. I also can’t completely explain the change in my heart, or my desire to see God be victorious in my life through this time. I want Him to be the light that shines so that others (who may believe God, but have a back up just in case) can see that truly God is ALL we need. Thus, I need a good home church, not just a building, but a place where I learn, a place where I grow, and place where I have community with other believers and lovers of Christ. I have been to a couple of churches, both were very nice, but nice is all it was. However, I am not looking for nice, I am looking to learn. I am looking for a church that is making disciples, creating people who are not just “Christian” in name only, but in deed, action, and lifestyle as well. I want to grow so that I can become what God wants me to become. These goals can not be accomplished in a “nice” church. Why, the diatribe? During church today (I watched my old church online), Pastor Doug said these words in regards to being a disciple of Christ: “Being a disciple of Jesus is a LIFE LONG pursuit”. It is continuous and until we reach our final destination (Heaven or that other place… 😉 ), we are to be growing and moving forward. We should be learning about our beliefs as well as being challenged to live what we believe. We need to be a light in the darkness. That calls for more than just a “nice” church, it  calls for an ACTIVE and ALIVE church.  If our goal is to change the world for Christ, but on Sundays we leave church feeling “good”, but not challenged, then it is time for a new church. However, if our goal is to just be happy, just live for ourselves then continue in the “nice” church. As for me I am not looking to just be happy (for the record there is nothing wrong with being happy), I am looking to CHANGE THE WORLD! So “just nice” won’t cut it.