stealing my freedom

I'm growing weary of everyone else's selfish, sinful decisions stealing my freedom.

All through history it's really what's driven any destructive era of time.  One man or a group of people decide they want something to change, or that their evil desires are most important and it drives movement.  Typically a movement that doesn't consider what the majority of people believe or want.

Even when I've heard of horrible things people have done in our own country, when it's not happening to me, it doesn't effect how I live.  I intend to be more attentive to what's going on in other's lives and pray more, lots more.


This week I've paid attention, I've paid close attention.  Authorities are still telling us not to leave our houses or cars unlocked, and to stay inside if we can.

This morning I had a window of time I could be sitting in my favorite spot on our deck and I've decided to be obedient and do what I've been asked and stay inside.  Not fair!

The sin of even one man can change our lives.

Just like Adam did in the garden.

These troubled people desperately need The Savior and keep looking in all the wrong, selfish, pointless places...

But just like we've been taught from God's Word - evil, trouble, disappointment, sickness always drives us to our knees.  It's completely understandable why God allows trouble in our lives.

We turn to Him. 

many words spoken

Today there were many words spoken - by me!  Shocking I know.

The average woman speaks 13,000 words each day.  Today I seriously think I may have spoken 50,000!  Meetings began at 7:30 a.m. and ended WITH NO BREAKS BETWEEN at 4:00 p.m. 

One of the meetings I attended today was our staff book study where we continued our study of the book, Simplify.

In today's chapter we looked at the idea of being a Builder or a Buster - with our attitudes, our words etc.  So I wondered how my words affected people today?

Some were words about the future of Crossroads, some were words about our worship service details, about future services, about future leaders and all the details between.  Were they pleasing to the Lord?

I believe today I got to participate in building.  And I couldn't be more excited!  I'm certainly not claiming perfection in the execution of every single word spoken, but my heart was hopefully a reflection of God's heart.

Oh how I wish every time I opened my mouth my words were God words - being used to build His kingdom, never being used to defeat or discourage.

As Jocelyn lead our study today, she read how Willow Creek encourages their staff to spend 15 minutes praying for the Lord's guidance over their day before they step foot in their building.   I am going to try very hard to commit to this practice each day. 

Pastor Dave has been sharing his vision for Crossroads to be the catalyst for change in our community - I'm guessing a commitment like this from our entire congregation before entering their workplace could help make that kind of change very possible.

Matthew 19:26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Will you consider joining me in this commitment - to first of all honor the Lord with our words and actions each day - but to then be used as an agent of His change in our community?  Let's begin tomorrow!

learning and leading

I was reviewing one of our daughters Harvard final papers yesterday and this was a quote from it that I cannot get out of my mind.

 It is easier to be in control than to truly love and invest in relationships and the
betterment of others. 


I found this very convicting.

I find myself leading most of the time - both and work and in other various community involvements.

 When you lead and when you are very busy there isn't much time left to really know people, and sometimes I like it that way.  How sad that must make God.

And then I must look at the second half of the quote betterment of others...except for my family and close friends I don't know if I have the betterment of others foremost in my mind.  Or even as an intention that would affect my decision making.

How do you live for the betterment of others - by truly loving them.  And truly loving them means you put them before yourself.

I have probably learned more about how God really wants me to live this year than all the other years of my life.  Cambodia caused a great deal of change in my understanding of God's Word and it just figures, the older I get the more I learn from my kids!

what I learned today

Actually, I should title this what I'm about to learn today...

I am getting ready to begin a new book given to me by my new friends from this weekend - Kari and Stephanie titled " Proverbs. It is such a cool book - it's formatted like a journal and you write out the passage of Proverbs that you are reading each day!

It is always exciting to me (mostly because God has to show me 2 or 3 times before I listen), when several different sources suggest the same thing to me!

(Don't tell him I said what I'm about to say) Wendell - one of my favorite people at Crossroads, taught us recently on the benefit to our spiritual maturity it is when we read a chapter in Proverbs each day. Of course I have not yet begun this practice because I spend a lot of my life waiting for the 'right' time to begin things...

But, today is the day that I begin in Proverbs with the help of my new book - I am very excited to begin learning. Writing it out is the perfect compliment to just reading for me - writing is my favorite thing and it helps me to remember what I read!

I write this hoping to encourage each of you to study today - if you don't study on a regular basis begin small and simply read God's Word - and if you want to learn like I learn - write it out!

what I learned today

The enemy hates scripture read live. When a ministry completely immerses itself in the Word and nothing but God's Word..this gets non-believers very bothered.

As most of you know the congregation from Crossroads is reading scripture, the entire Bible straight through. Satan and all of his followers hate this! You can watch the reading here.

We had to take down our live chat because of all the profanity and hassle that one or two people were writing on our live chat page.

I am so sad for those people. They must be so lonely and so desperate to silence the gospel. It will never happen.

People have died for their belief in God for centuries. Believers have been taunted, tortured and terrified by those who stand against the Lord. Despite this we stand strong and sure in our salvation and the enemy will never win against us. Never!

Today I learned just how much it bothers some people to hear God's Word read, they simply cannot tolerate when truth is proclaimed!

lead sentence

In writing, the first sentence of each paragraph is always the most important sentence, or at least considered the 'lead' sentence. The fact that I never consider this to be the case may say something about me I guess.

I am ALWAYS drawn to the inside of a paragraph more than the beginning. I found the most profound, most memorable information hidden deep within the text. Always.

Now...this could be because it takes me a while to get focused whenever I begin most anything. Or it could be that writers hide goodies deep within a text just waiting for someone to discover what abides there. Either way - I never only read the first sentence and I am almost always glad that I read more. Kind of reminds me of God's Word...so many 'devotions' just take a verse or two and offer suggested readings - I think this robs us of the rich discovery waiting if it is studied in context. I have been very convicted of this lately - skimming - just squelching the nagging guilt of no study at all. I really do want the meat of the Word and that takes work - no 'just reading the first sentences'.

Are you a skimmer, or are you willing to do the work?

GPS

I want a GPS for Christmas.

This is something I can probably justify as actually 'needing'...ish

I often turn the wrong way or take the long way. What a concept, having a piece of technology that just talks to you as you drive even correcting your errors - wrong turns.

Very cool that I already have the ultimate GPS - God's Word. Does it give instruction, yes, does it tell me when I take a wrong turn, yes, does it suggest the best direction for my life, yes.

Do I still sometimes go the wrong direction, yes. But, there really is no excuse to. It is a choice - I can listen and follow instruction or try to find my own way.

I do hope I get a GPS for Christmas - meanwhile I will try to follow the instructions I already have - and maybe do a Google maps search !