I don’t know if you’ve noticed lately, but the enemies hitting the scripture pretty hard.  Several politicians have been using scripture on billboards and in speech…twisting it to make it work for an evil agenda.  Yes, evil.  Killing babies in the womb is nothing but evil.  But, for years, I’ve heard many pervert the words in scripture to serve their own purposes.  The trans movement is using it to defend their position and have some pastors playing right along.  That is appalling. 

This practice has been occurring forever.  It was part of the homosexual movement in the beginning too…although the Bible is quite clear about God’s feelings about this practice.  Preachers have long been using scripture to control people.  Cult leaders use it to serve their own agenda.

If we’re honest though, we’d admit that we also use scripture to affirm the things we do and don’t want to do sometimes.  We also have a tendency to pervert scripture when it suits us.  We are all sinners.  One truly isn’t worse than another.  It’s true.

What am I getting at?

Well, the word of God is alive and powerful…just like scripture says…and the enemy is constantly trying to steal the power from it.  It’s time for us to become acutely aware of this…

We have one way to fight back…that’s to make sure we are each steeped in scripture, enough to know when it is misconstrued.  We must feast on the word every day so we will not be brought into confusion.  We must allow God to convict our own hearts, and even offend us if necessary.  The word of God is meant to do these things.  It’s alive. 

For the word of God is alive and powerful.  It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow.  It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.  Nothing in all creation is hidden from God.  Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes, and He is the one to whom we are accountable.  So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.  This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all of the same testing’s we do, yet He did not sin.  So, let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.  There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.  Hebrews 4:12-16

God, forgive me for any time I have bent scripture to suit my own selfish desires.  I repent of all perversion of scripture that I’ve ever done.  Please forgive me.  Help me to walk in the truth.  I never want to twist the gospel just to suit my own selfishness and sinfulness.  Lead me in Truth.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I keep seeing God pouring light over me.  I see Him releasing favor over me.  We are children of favor, when we are children of God. 

I pray that each one of us learns how to gracefully receive the favor of God. 

Imagine it this way…

Which of your children do you favor the most?  Of course, your answer was, “I love all of my kids and favor them each the same.” 

Well…

This is how God sees us.

We are each His favorite.  We each live under His favor.

Does this make sense?

Knowing that each of your own kids is favored by you…what do you prefer…for them to act and feel as if they are favored by you, or not?  Do you enjoy watching them be and feel insecure?  Of course not.  If you’re anything like me, then you long for your children to be fully established in their value and to walk with confidence.

God is the same. 

Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead?  Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?  If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?       Luke 11:11-13

You are special to God.  You haven’t earned it, it just is.  It’s about time we all start to act like it.  Imagine how much authority, wisdom, and courage you would walk in if you actually believed God favors you.

God, I receive Your favor.  Thank You for loving me.  I long to walk more confidently, please encourage my heart.  Bring my mind into alignment with the Spirit You have placed within me.  I belong to You, I know that full well.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

“Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you.  He will be with you; He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”  Deuteronomy 31:8

The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.  You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.  Isaiah 58:11

Today, I want to share all of Psalm 104.  I read it recently and was so moved at this revelation of God’s greatness.  Fear melts away when we begin to understand Who and how great God truly is.  Knowing and acknowledging His greatness increases our wonder and solidifies our perspective…nothing and nobody can even challenge God. 

Let all that I am praise the Lord.  O Lord my God, how great You are!  You are robed with honor and majesty.  You are dressed in a robe of light.  You stretch out the starry curtain of the heavens; You lay out the rafters of Your home in the rain clouds.  You make the clouds Your chariot; You ride upon the wings of the wind.  The winds are Your messengers; flames of fire are Your servants.  You placed the world on its foundation so it would never be moved.  You clothed the earth with floods of water, water that covered even the mountains.  At Your command, the water fled; at the sound of Your thunder, it hurried away.  Mountains rose and valleys sank to the levels You decreed.  Then You set a firm boundary for the seas, so they would never again cover the earth.  You make springs pour water into the ravines, so streams gush down from the mountains.  They provide water for all the animals, and the wild donkeys quench their thirst.  The birds nest beside the streams and sing among the branches of the trees.  You send rain on the mountains from Your heavenly home, and You fill the earth with the fruit of Your labor.  You cause grass to grow for the livestock and plants for people to use.  You allow them to produce food from the earth- wine to make them glad, olive oil to soothe their skin, and bread to give them strength.  The trees of the Lord are well cared for- the cedars of Lebanon that He planted.  There the birds make their nests, and the storks make their homes in the cypresses.  High in the mountains live the wild goats, and the rocks form a refuge for the hyraxes.  You made the moon to mark the seasons, and the sun knows when to set.  You send the darkness, and it becomes night, when all the forest animals prowl about.  Then the young lions roar for their prey, stalking the food provided by God.  At dawn they slink back into their dens to rest.  Then people go off to their work, where they labor until evening.  O Lord, what a variety of things You have made!  In wisdom You have made them all.  The earth is full of Your creatures.  Here is the ocean, vast and wide, teeming with life of every kind, both large and small.  See the ships sailing along, and Leviathan, which You made to play in the sea.   They all depend on You to give them food as they need it.  When You supply it, they gather it.  You open Your hand to feed them, and they are richly satisfied.  But if You turn away from them, they panic.  When You take away their breath, they die and turn again to dust.  When You give them Your breath, life is created, and You renew the face of the earth.  May the glory of the Lord continue forever!  The Lord takes pleasure in all He has made!  The earth trembles at His glance; the mountains smoke at His touch.  I will sing to the Lord as long as I live.  I will praise my God to my last breath!  May all my thoughts be pleasing to Him, for I rejoice in the Lord.  Let all sinners vanish from the face of the earth; let the wicked disappear forever.  Let all that I am praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord!  Psalm 104

When we meditate on these words, it brings all things into perspective.  Never forget the God we serve.  The Giver of breath.  The Creator.  Our God.

Praise the name of the Lord!!

As believers, I hear so many people acting as if getting involved in elections or in politics at all is not the position of the church.  But it is!!  How can it not be?

It matters to our future and the future of our children and grandchildren, etc.  The world they live in will be shaped by the leaders we elect.  In America, we have a unique system…we the people are the ones in authority…and we hire…or elect those that we decide will best represent us into government positions.  If Christians tap out of this fight, then we are doomed.  How can just leaders be chosen when those who carry Jesus inside decide to actively be disengaged?  In fact, I’ve seen several pastors recently bringing candidates into their churches to promote them to their congregations…and these are not godly candidates.  They are candidates who promote abortion at all stages and have no regard for the family unit.  How can it be that these pastors are willing to promote them, yet the real church is afraid to stand firm.  Any church leader that promotes a candidate who has zero regard for the sanctity of life, is a fraud.  They have lost sight of the God of creation. 

God of creation.

He made these babies that are being ripped apart in the womb.  Each of them was a special gift from Him that is being rejected by its mother.  The only consolation is that when those babies are cast aside on the earth, they go immediately back to their Creator and rest for eternity in His arms.  Can you even fathom the amount of missed opportunities that there have been by killing the future of millions of babies?  It’s devastating to consider. 

As I consider the evil that is operating in our government currently, I contemplate this scripture…

People may cover their hatred with pleasant words, but they’re deceiving you.  They pretend to be kind, but don’t believe them.  Their hearts are full of many evils.  While their hatred may be concealed by trickery, their wrongdoing will be exposed in public.  Proverbs 26:24-26

I pray this over every politician with evil intent and every pastor whose heart doesn’t really belong to Jesus.  Having a title, doesn’t make you something…having Jesus in your heart does.  We must wake up and see that we’ve been deceived by too many for too long. 

It’s the winnowing season.  More will be exposed, and our responses to this matter.  We can’t blindly follow those who are leading the way to hell. 

For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.  Matthew 24:24

Keep me on the narrow road, God. 

Oh Lord, forgive us.  Forgive the church for not actively standing against the evil one.  Forgive us for believing that being godly meant stepping aside and not engaging politics.  Give us wisdom now, Lord.  Teach us how to stand.  Show us the way to engage.  Lead us.  Rescue us…not only us, but our children and their children.  Lord, redeem America…One nation, under God.  We remain under Your covering.  We surrender to You.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

It’s time for us to more faithfully call the youth forward.  It’s past time for us to pursue their hearts for Jesus and then help lead them to establish real relationship with Him.  Instead of shiny and shallow youth groups that further cater to the entitlement and quick pace of technology, what if we began to offer deeper opportunity?  Sure, not all of them would respond, but I guarantee that some would and then as others saw the depth and peace that took hold of them, then more of their peers would come and desire a deeper walk too.  Honestly, I believe that for far too long we’ve dumbed down the walk with Jesus because we don’t think kids will respond, but from my experience working with teens, I’ve seen the opposite.  In my experience I’ve found the teens are craving the realness of a deeper walk with Jesus.  Of course, they are still silly and flighty, but they will continually come back to the deeper expression, if we simply continue to offer it. 

We love to read the scripture from 2 Timothy about not despising youth…but then we treat youth as if they are incapable of depth. 

I guess you might be wondering why I’m on this soap box today.  Well, largely because I can very clearly see that culture and Hollywood are eating up and spitting out the youth of today and the youth are losing their conception of what’s real.  They’ve largely lost their ability to see the value of hard work.  They’ve never learned the value of being long suffering. 

It’s largely our fault, as parents, because we’ve created a world for them where they lack for nothing and rarely face conflict of any kind…but it’s in the conflicts and struggles of life that we develop character and strength. 

We need friction in our lives.  Just as a butterfly in the cocoon needs the struggle of getting out of the cocoon to strengthen its wings, we need struggle to strengthen us internally.

The faithful love of the Lord never ends!  His mercies never cease.  Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning.  I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him!”  The Lord is good to those who depend on Him, to those who search for Him.  So, it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord.  And it is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of His discipline:  Let them sit alone in silence beneath the Lord’s demands.  Let them lie face down in the dust, for there may be hope at last.  Let them turn the other cheek to those who strike them and accept the insults of their enemies.  For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever.  Though He brings grief, He also shows compassion because of the greatness of His unfailing love.  For He does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.  Lamentations 3:22-33

As a parent, I know it’s very difficult to see a child struggle in any way…but I have learned that when I don’t give them room to struggle then we will all pay for it later.  I’ve learned this the hard way…by making mistakes.  But I repented and now I’m much better at stepping back to allow God’s hand to move in their lives.  The bounty from this practice has been great!

I encourage you to give your kids space.  Stand carefully watching but let them struggle sometimes.  Listen to God and respond when He tells you that He needs room to work in their heart.  It’s a gift to our children when we allow them to be grown in this way while they still live in our homes.  It’s a gift because of the level of protection they have while safely residing in our homes.

If we let them wrestle with life while at home, then when we send them out into the world, we will have much more peace and they will have much more success. 

This morning while exercising, I felt the Lord draw my attention to Himself.  I looked up, and in the spirit, I could see He was looking at me.  Something rose up inside of me and said, “Don’t look away.”  So, I looked straight at Him, and even widened my eyes.  When I did, I saw sapphires.  I immediately knew they were my eyes, then I saw a ruby in my mouth, an emerald in my heart, and a pearl deep in my soul.  I was equal parts startled and in awe.  It was amazing.  Then I saw God lift me and place me on His head as a crown. 

All I can say is, “Wow!”. 

When I woke up this morning, I could feel the frustration and discouragement that Chris and I are dealing with, in regard to desiring forward motion in our life.  It was trying to take a dominant position in my day, but in complete rebellion toward that weapon of the enemy, I went ahead and exercised and began my day listening to a sermon…instead of my own thoughts and his fiery darts. 

I’m so glad I did.  Every time we choose God, we receive a reward.  It may not be something of earthly value, but who wouldn’t want to see the vision I saw this morning?! 

It established my heart again.  It reminded me that even though life is stretching and feels lacking…God wears me as a crown.

He is so gracious to us, isn’t He?

When you feel discouraged, or like things are lacking in life…remember that the Creator of all things has made you a treasure.  He delights in all that you are.  He looks upon you with awe and wonder, as you look upon Him with awe and wonder. 

He is intimate with us…if we allow Him to be. 

God, thank You for the vision You gave me this morning.  Only You could’ve known how much I would need it in order to face the rest of this day.  You knew the assaults I’m currently facing were coming and You went ahead of them to re-establish my heart and value in You.  You alone carry my value.  You and You alone tell me who I am.  I love You beyond words.  Thank You.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

The faithful love of the Lord never ends!  His mercies never cease.  Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning.  I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him!”  Lamentations 3:22-24On that day the Lord their God will rescue His people, just as a shepherd rescues his sheep.  They will sparkle in His land like jewels in a crown.  How wonderful and beautiful they will be!  The young men will thrive on abundant grain, and the young women will flourish on new wine.  Zechariah 9:16-17

This morning I’ve been contemplating exactly what it is that has hurt my heart so much, regarding some women I’ve had friendship with that ended.  None of these relationships had any sort of blow-up or problem that I knew of, but each ended, none the less.  For years I was baffled and just hurt.  Then I realized that what happened was they saw the friendship to have no value and cast it off.  I see every relationship as valuable, so simply casting things off is rare for me.  I am wired for deep relationship with people.  I’m not a surface friend.  When I forge a friendship, I give myself to it.  This is both a blessing and a risk…but it’s a risk I continue to take.  I honestly don’t know how to do life differently.  I am an honest and open person, so that’s how I build relationship with others…with openness and honesty, and I expect that in return.  I have come to realize that in friendship, I am very trusting and believe the best of people.  Sometimes, to a fault. 

I have come across one woman after another who seem to have no idea how to be open and honest.  Self-protection and looking good seems to be the name of the game in a large chunk of Christian women.  I crave honesty and real connection.  I love the give and take of conversation and life shared together.  I love comfortable friends.  People who know they are welcome in my home and welcome me into theirs without pretention.  Unfortunately, that’s not the way many others see things. 

I’m still longing for what I’m describing.  Once or twice, I have had really comfortable friendships.  They are rare.  A real treasure. 

Years ago, I had a friendship and they rejected one of my children…using that child as an excuse to distance from us.  I will never forget the pain of it all.  But right in that moment, God spoke, “The stone the builders rejected will become the cornerstone.”  I know that scripture describes Jesus, but in that moment, it was a promise straight from God to me, that my child would be very useful to His kingdom one day. 

People won’t always value you.  Not everyone is meant to be a friend to you.  But I know one thing…Our value never changes with God.  He is meant to be a friend to all.  People will let us down, but our God is our best Friend.

When the world casts you off, and acts like you don’t matter…look up.  See the Father’s eyes fully focused on you and remember where your value comes from. 

The stone the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.  Psalm 118:22

“Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures?  ‘The stone that the builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.  This is the Lord’s doing, and it is wonderful to see.’”  Mark 12:10-11

I know I’ve spoken to this before, but this season of brokenness is taking so much longer than I expected.  The depth of brokenness is taking much longer to come to the surface than I ever dreamed.  It takes a lot longer to really touch those deep and hidden places.  This shouldn’t be a surprise, but it is. 

Actually, I believe what is really happening is I am just now taking the time to do a deep dive into brokenness.  I’ve received a lot of heart healing over the years, but the wounds from the last 3 or so years, have taken time reach. 

I realized the other day that instead of allowing God into those hurts, I had tried to skip a step and just head on over to forgiveness.  That doesn’t work.  We can’t skip steps in the healing process.  You can’t heal from what you won’t acknowledge. 

Some of the events that had occurred over the last few years had been so surprising and abrupt that I had trouble even assessing what had happened.  In fact, it was just this week that God revealed some more of the details to me.  When those were revealed, that was the catalyst I needed to finally let out the true pain in my heart and invite Him inside. 

Another factor that led me toward openness to this deeper healing was that I began to see how the pain had begun to hinder new relationships I’m trying to build.  I had a great distrust in my heart.  I had begun to expect people to talk about me behind my back, so I had trouble accepting kindness and compliments.  I also feared rejection, so my mind kept trying to see rejection coming…it’s just that I have come to a place where I see when that’s happening, so I stop and readjust to trust. 

Some of our wounds happen as children, but day to day life also brings wounding sometimes.  It’s inevitable…the only question is are you willing to take that brokenness to God so you can be healed and grow?

God, come and heal my broken places.  I trust You enough to show You my greatest places of pain.  Come and clean out my wounds and fill me fresh with Your love.  I belong to You.  Thank You for caring about even the smallest details of my life.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol Him, all you peoples.  For great is His love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.  Praise the Lord.  Psalm 117

An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up. Proverbs 12:25

I keep having a vision of myself.  I’m swimming deep under water and every time I try to swim up and get some air, I discover there is a clear film (much like plastic wrap) covering the top and I can’t get out.  Instead of panicking though, I just tell myself to breathe in the water.  That sounds strange, doesn’t it?  But I’ve been here before and I know if I breathe where I am, I’ll be breathing in the Holy Spirit. 

When I first began to have this type of vision, years ago, I would see myself panicking in the water.  Now, I have come to a calm place…

I can’t fully explain why I continually have visions of myself underwater and then needing air, but it seems indicative of the suffocation I feel because of our circumstances right now.  Life can feel suffocating for all of us, at times. 

It’s been so helpful to realize that I am never far from a breath.  Holy Spirit lives within me, I have full time and unrestricted access. 

Do you realize that you don’t have to be freed from circumstances to find relief?  Relief lives inside of you.  Take that in.  Let it soak you through.  Let the rain of this truth drench your weariness away.

God doesn’t have to remove us from the struggle for us to find relief. 

We have escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped.  Our help is in the name of the Lord, Maker of heaven and earth.  Psalm 124:7-8

You can learn how to find relief no matter what your season is and what it looks like.  Our peace can’t be circumstantial.  This is a skill.  Learning to walk through life with peace is a learned and intentional behavior.  Yes, we carry the Prince of Peace inside, but we still have to learn or re-learn what it is like to trust.  Some of us were raised living in a family dynamic that went from one stress or trauma to the next and before we knew it that was what we felt was normal…making it hard to know how to function when there was no stress.  Some people struggle to live peacefully because they are always worried about what might go wrong next.

You don’t have to live this way.  You can learn peace.  When you become better acquainted with the Prince of Peace, then you have access to Him and can allow Him to re-wire your brain.  Our brains become trained.  Years and years we spend with our minds being trained to respond in certain ways.  Some of those ways are incorrect and must be relearned in order for us to become healthier. 

Does this make sense? 

God, I thank You for transforming my mind more every day.  I trust You.  Help me to live a life wrapped in peace.  Let peace exude from me.  Let me be so peaceful that others feel peace when they are around me.  Take away my fear of calamity and instead help me to look toward the future with hope.  I praise You, Lord.  In Jesus’ name, Amen.

I lift up my eyes to the hills- where does my help come from?  My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.  He will not let your foot slip- He Who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, He Who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.  The Lord watches over you- the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.  The Lord will keep watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.  Psalm 121

The other day while exercising, I was listening to Sean Feucht talk about “Let Us Worship”, and I started feeling that pull to something more.  Watching the impact he is having, left me feeling like I am completely ineffective.  I felt frustrated between my call to lead worship and this season that I’m in where I feel like our transition may never come.  I know that’s a lie, but that is a lie that I must wrestle with daily.  Our family is at the point of labor and delivery where we can’t really see the end…we can only see the strain of today.  That focused place.  The place where the labor is so uncomfortable that all our efforts must be focused on attempting to keep living a “normal” life in the midst of it. 

No, it’s not as if we are miserable, we are just really uncomfortable.  We have a lot of joy in this season, but the underlying sorrow is always there.  I have prayed it through.  I have asked God to come heal it and remove it.  I have looked at it in a lot of different ways, yet it remains.  Every once in a while, that sorrow bubbles up to the top and I deal with another layer of grief.  It surprises me every time, but it just reveals things that I had yet to discover I needed to deal with. 

When I thought of Sean and his worship, I felt that stirring.  I really want to share authentic worship.  I do not want to be stuck in the church rotation rut ever again….leading worship according to a 20 minute time slot and suffocating restrictions…it’s simply not where God wants me, and I don’t want anything to do with it. 

I lead worship nights at my house once a month, and I find so much freedom in that.  The Spirit moves so freely and is so intense.  I long to share it, yet the group remains so small.  Even though I know that small group is exactly where God has me right now, I still long to have a larger community…to move to our forever home and establish a lifelong community.  A place where we are truly loved and valued, and where we can freely love others.  I have tried to become established in every location we have ever lived, and what I’ve found is that others don’t freely give.  I have found people to be guarded and suspicious and to enjoy sabotaging anything new so they can remain as they have always been.  Every time I take that to God and ask if I’m causing that, He gently shows me any places where I need to grow…but also, He shows me how I wasn’t able to settle into those places because they weren’t meant to be our home.  He kept us slightly unsettled because we were waiting, but waiting isn’t a sedentary thing…waiting is a transforming thing.

Chris and I have been married for 18 years and we’re still waiting to be settled.  The only difference is that now we know where we will land.  We will land full circle, back in my hometown.  I never imagined it, but I am very excited about it. 

So, when I saw Sean and had a cacophony of thought cascade into me in a second…He also spoke, “Micro/Macro”.  I was so confused.  He spoke again, “Micro/Macro”.  So, I decided to look it up when I finished running.

Micro: Small

Macro: Big

Then He showed me that Sean is in his Macro ministry season, but I’m still needing to root into my Micro season.  He also showed me that one day those two would converge for me, but that for now I was to continue to dare to live small…focusing within the four walls of my home.  Focusing on family…and trusting that even though I’m 45 years old and have been told I’m too old for current worship ministries (which I know is a full out lie)…He will use me when He and I are both ready.  The more I root, the further and larger I can grow and fly one day.

This is a good season.  This is not a punishment.  What He’s really doing is rooting me in identity, value, and character.  He is giving me deep roots in character and value, so that I won’t implode and lose it all when He advances me forward. 

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.  Colossians 3:23-24

Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.  Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.  In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat- for He grants sleep to those He loves.  Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from Him.  Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth.  Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.  They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.  Psalm 127