spreading seed

I'm in my happy place today, spending time in God's Word on my sunny deck.

Watching birds eat from our feeders, dogs play and just exhaling.  It's a very good place.

The devotional I was reading today reminded me that each of us is gifted exactly as God intended so that we can be used by Him for the purpose of spreading His message.

I Corinthians 3:8-10 says, "He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. 10 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled[a] master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it.

It reminded me that although the Lord is the divine Sower, He places seeds in MY hands!  I don't have to have it all figured out, just be ready to take advantage of opportunities he lays right in front of me every day to sow into someone's life!

I loved this line from the study, " When I'm exhaling and not hyperventilating He uses me to spread seeds."  We are not usable when we're running non-stop and not listening to that quiet voice that allows us to recognize opportunities to spread the seed so the Holy Spirit can do God's work in someone's life.

I had a conversation with someone at Crossroads this weekend who said "as I get older I just look at my life and wonder, what have I done with my life?"  This is the tug at our heart to find our life's work and worth in Jesus alone.  Simply living an 'available' life with a heart surrendered to Him - with time to listen is all He requires.

It's no accident where God has placed you, there are seed to be sown that only your can spread!!

Preparing for Christmas at Crossroads

As our team spent hours preparing all the little details involved in Christmas at Crossroads - it's easy not to fully personally participate in worshipping God's gift of our Savior.  I find a longing in my soul for silence and personal, prolonged time to fully focus on Him.  

I found this amazing sentence in my devotional this morning...

"The angel explained... All the laws of nature are amendable by the one who wrote them...."

I long to wrap my heart around the truths of Christmas, the story I've been taught since I was born.  The sacrifice I take so for granted because I've known nothing else in my comfortable, Godly environment.

In America, Christmas is buried under gift-giving, and rushing around, things in themselves that are not wrong - just distracting.  In other countries Christmas provides a once-a-year opportunity to proclaim this life-saving Christmas message through special events like the one Savorn (the country director of Asia's Hope) just had in Cambodia.   Nearly 600 people attended to possibly hear the Gospel message for the very first time!

I wonder what it would be like to be lost and never have heard this message before?  Can you imagine discovering God's sacrifice for the first time, learning that the Creator of the Universe chose to become the Created?

I was reading recently about a movement of women in India who are telling their stories about how they've been abused, nearly killed over and over again and how they have no control over anything in their lives.  They have no voice.  Their stories are starting to be heard and creating change through a deep belief they now have in Jesus Christ as their only chance for survival.  A people who are completely desperate for a saving truth.

I want to be desperate for Jesus.  To understand that my life also is completely out of my own hands, and will only be fully completed in Him, in His timing.  I want to remember the longing my heart feels for Him, when I'm silent and listening...

Please join me in fighting your way through what Christmas has become with a renewed focus on what it really is,  God's mercy on us in our broken, sinful, rebellious state.  The laws of creation were amended through the miracle of a VIRGIN giving birth to the world's Savior!

Merry Christmas!

what I learned today

I've been studying The Sermon on the Mount - it's so interesting to realize what kind of people gathered around that mountain to listen to Jesus.

They were 'people with no spiritual qualification' (quote from the Divine Conspiracy).

I had never thought about that before - they were not people that already had answers, or spiritual accomplishment, they were people in great need.  They probably thought they only had physical needs but Jesus revealed there were much more important needs then those!  And these needy people were the 'ones that shall inherit the earth' - according to Jesus!

"if we look at the Beatitudes as another list of spiritual to-do's, we diminish the beauty of Christ" (DC)

I feel sometimes that's what I spend my time doing - diminishing the beauty of Christ.  When due to sin I do not even fully enter that 'beauty' how can I possibly tell others about it?

As I sat in my living room this morning looking at God's beautiful snow, I prayed - actually begged Him to so fully enwrap me in Him so that when I enter a room people immediately want to know what is different - how to know Him - there is no significance outside of this.  There is no purpose to take up space in the world outside of this.

The Crossroads fast that is going on right now, asks us all to spend some time today, day #2, reflecting on our areas of weakness, and reminds us that repentance means an internal change.  And true internal change will lead to an external change of action.

Will you join me in examining your life today - confess any unconfessed sin - and let's change this community for Him simply by being obedient and giving up anything that distracts us from Him.

Let's be different through Him.

saying goodbye

I was at Gary Harris' calling hours today, it was a very artistic, peaceful setting at the front of the Crossroads auditorium.  A beautiful tribute to a deeply loved man.  But as beautiful as everything was, I found myself standing there wondering what kind of beautify Gary was witnessing right now.

We often think of heaven in regard to the 'streets of gold' and joke about 'the least among us' having the largest mansion!  But I wonder instead if the breath-taking beauty of God Himself will so overwhelm the entirety of heaven that it's not objects we see or care about like gold, but instead experience for the first time complete satisfaction and peace as we join in everlasting worship of Him?  Maybe His essence so eliminates everything around Him, that it appears as streets of gold and gems…

As I left the calling hours, I heard Forever Reign on the radio, I love in particular one line from this song, where it says "my heart will sing no other name…Jesus, Jesus…"

This is the song being sung in heaven - Jesus, Jesus...

We will worship again one day with our departed loved ones who knew Jesus as Savior - I only wish we had the ability in our current bodies to understand just a small portion of His Glory and what awaits us.  If we did -  I don't think we could remain as we are...

preparing to go

To go on a trip to Cambodia requires so much more preparation then just packing to travel, you must be willing to give your heart away!

It's because of this that this trip forces you to consider if your life is focused on what's most important - and that is to give your life away.  Just as Jesus did.

I heard someone recently excitedly talking about how they are living and working just for retirement.  It occurred to me when I heard it that retirement has never entered my mind.  At least not the kind of retirement where you move somewhere warm and sit in a beautiful house.  Now don't get me wrong - I know the time to step down from my current position will come allowing the brilliant creative young adults preparing for ministry to step in.  But, what a life full of giving we can have long after our 'jobs' end... In fact if we live well within our means maybe we can be ready to go wherever God calls us!  That's what I pray for - to always be ready...

Please pray for us as we leave early Thursday morning

- we'll need it as we explore what God has waiting for us and as we wrap our arms around little ones who are waiting for us.  And as I grab my daughter and her husband and celebrate the amazing opportunities God has laid before them!

May God richly bless you Crossroads - we have no idea how many, many people God is using our ministry to touch for eternity!!

leading

Leading is difficult, especially if it is for a long continuous time.  Things are bound to go wrong at some point.  An inconsistency may limit the the desire of others to follow you or cause them to question your integrity.  Your creativity or eye for detail occasionally misses the mark.  You rely on your own ability instead of including others.  You begin to believe you are infallible.




Pastor Rick Warren said the following:  The problem today is we don’t know the difference between being a leader and a boss. They are not the same. Dictators demand. Leaders model. You don’t lead by dictating. You lead by example. The Bible says, “Don't lord it over the people assigned to your care but lead them by your good example.” (1 Peter 5:3 NLT)


I have to confess, I have never enjoyed working for anyone I considered just to be my boss.  There have only been a couple of people in my life in the position of boss that I consider a leader worth following.  The others were only there by appointment.  Put into a position that we were forced to follow by the acceptance of our job.


So I must ask myself.  Do I lead as Jesus lead?  Am I willing to do anything to help get the job done - willing to lead by example?  Do people follow me because they have to or because they feel like my leadership is worth following?  I long to lead like Jesus lead.


He never asks us to do what He hasn't already done.

the greatest is love

I was reading this morning and came across the scripture where Peter asks the question, "What about John?"

Obviously this had to be upsetting to Jesus because Peter had his eyes on John instead of what Jesus was calling him to do. As I continued to read I realized it was a question of love.

Jesus knew the only way Peter would follow him through everything he was called to do is if Peter loved Jesus more than life itself. This forces me to ask myself, how much do I love Him?

Beth Moore wrote, "dedication to ministry and to serving others can sustain you for a while, but without being deeply and completely in love with Jesus, we will eventually burn out and fall away."

That is NOT what I want my legacy to be. How awesome would it be if people someday look at our life and say, "she was so in love with Jesus that her love made her unafraid, un-distracted and unselfish".

I will admit, I do not think I am anywhere near that level of love. In 2011 I long to fall deeply into my Savior and I want all of my work to come from that love not obligation.

You don't have to work in the ministry in order for your day's work to come out of love for Jesus. Love Him so much that those around you see it and want it.

love others as yourself

Today at our staff devotional we discussed John 13: 34 -35 " A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

When you first read this it seems so simple. Then as I read verse 35 again - I really panicked realizing that how much I love others is my testimony.

The world fights, is full of jealous competition and lives within the mindset of entitlement. That is why God knew our greatest challenge would be to love them regardless of how they act or what they deserve. Just as He has loved us regardless of what we deserve.

Jesus loved us more than himself - He died for us...He chose to die for us...amazing!

what I learned today

I am reading a new book called Imagine That, and one thing that I had never considered before was a question he asked - " was Jesus artistic"?

He went on to say that Joseph, Jesus' earthly dad was not only a righteous man, (Matthew 1:19), but also a carpenter. Today's concept of carpenter is most often a home builder, but a more correct concept is that he was a craftsman. This kind of craft took years of training to master. And the custom was that fathers teach sons. So Jesus would most likely have known this craft from an early age.

I just never think of Jesus in such a common way. If he did indeed learn Joseph's trade, he was creative as well as a hard worker. To think he really was raised within the context of a family, taught regular things. Yet He was God. How amazing that his heavenly father would choose this way to raise a Savior! God is so gracious with His love for us...I cannot imagine in my wildest dreams watching my son go through the trials and humiliation that Jesus endured.

I spent time today thanking God for the gift of His son...though he walked the earth as we do, He was God. Amazing!!