May you be overwhelmed by His great love for you today and always!
Sunday, September 30, 2012
You Are So Beautiful
As you listen to this song. Just close your eyes and envision God singing this song over you. He loves us and desires us. We are His children and we are beautiful to Him! Now take this a step further and envision God gazing at you with His eyes full of love towards you!
May you be overwhelmed by His great love for you today and always!
May you be overwhelmed by His great love for you today and always!
Saturday, September 15, 2012
What Does Love Look Like (Arms Wide Open)
What does love, real love look like? Everyone is seeking love, they want to love and be loved. But as the song says they are "Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places." Love is sought in what people and the world has to offer. Both options fall severely short of the love mark. The world does not offer true and lasting love and people will never perform to our expectations.
A very popular book series, called 50 Shades, was a number one seller for numerous months. Because of the popularity of this erotica genre other similar books started coming out to capture the insanity of this craze. There was even an erotica movie released called Magic Mike. Tons of women, christian women included flocked to these books and the movie and this saddened me. I realized that these women were looking for love, and not real love at that, in some pretty warped places.
What made this genre so popular? Were women not happy with what they had? For those who were married, did they not find love and acceptance from their husbands? What makes people run after a fantasy type of love? Could they not accept or feel the love of God and other's in their life so they sought other sources?
I have never read 50 Shades nor seen Magic Mike but I have heard enough about both and have read parts of a manuscript that speaks out against 50 Shades to understand a little about both of these topics. It is not easy for me to write this because it makes me very sad to know that women would want a man to dominate them, chain and whip them all in the name of love. God's love is not painful, nor should our love towards each other be painful. Jesus was beaten, rejected, and crucified on the cross so we could enjoy life and enjoy it to its fullest.
If we fully grasped how deep God's love is for us (Eph 3: 17-19) then I believe we would not seek the love the world has to offer. We would be able to love ourselves, accept the love God has to offer, and be able to accept the love of others no matter if they do not perform to our expectations.
I went back to a book I have been reading this week, called Pursued by Jud Whilite (sorry it does not come out until Feb 2013). He stated that "we need to open our hearts and let God love us and that God's love is a loyal love that points to the future." If we open our hearts to receive God's love then we will begin to love ourselves and accept the love others have to offer. When we do this God will begin to reveal His great plans to us as Jer 29:11 states.
Take it from one who knows. For many years of my life I knew God loved me but I did not realize that love to it's fullest. Growing up I felt very unwanted and unloved because of my unstable home environment. The adults in my life were consummed with their own issues and not necessarily to the issues of those around them. It took many years for me to realize I was really and truly loved, others loved me and God loved me. It was a lightbulb moment! Years after that I was able to accept that not only did God love me He chose me! What an awesome concept. God not only loved me He wanted me. The same is true for everyone. God loves and chooses YOU!
50 Shades and Magic Mike offer a fleshy passionate type of love that does not satisfy and can never satisfy. Only God's love can ever truly satisfy. Let us become consumed and overwhelmed by God, let us stop pursuing illicit love affairs with the world and begin a beautiful love affair with the creator of the world.
I know you all would be terribly disappointed if I did share a song to go with what God laid on my heart to blog about. This blog was not an easy one to find a song for. I went through a great selection of songs before finally realizing that Arms Wide Open by Misty Edwards was the perfect song for this blog. May this bless you greatly.
A very popular book series, called 50 Shades, was a number one seller for numerous months. Because of the popularity of this erotica genre other similar books started coming out to capture the insanity of this craze. There was even an erotica movie released called Magic Mike. Tons of women, christian women included flocked to these books and the movie and this saddened me. I realized that these women were looking for love, and not real love at that, in some pretty warped places.
What made this genre so popular? Were women not happy with what they had? For those who were married, did they not find love and acceptance from their husbands? What makes people run after a fantasy type of love? Could they not accept or feel the love of God and other's in their life so they sought other sources?
I have never read 50 Shades nor seen Magic Mike but I have heard enough about both and have read parts of a manuscript that speaks out against 50 Shades to understand a little about both of these topics. It is not easy for me to write this because it makes me very sad to know that women would want a man to dominate them, chain and whip them all in the name of love. God's love is not painful, nor should our love towards each other be painful. Jesus was beaten, rejected, and crucified on the cross so we could enjoy life and enjoy it to its fullest.
If we fully grasped how deep God's love is for us (Eph 3: 17-19) then I believe we would not seek the love the world has to offer. We would be able to love ourselves, accept the love God has to offer, and be able to accept the love of others no matter if they do not perform to our expectations.
I went back to a book I have been reading this week, called Pursued by Jud Whilite (sorry it does not come out until Feb 2013). He stated that "we need to open our hearts and let God love us and that God's love is a loyal love that points to the future." If we open our hearts to receive God's love then we will begin to love ourselves and accept the love others have to offer. When we do this God will begin to reveal His great plans to us as Jer 29:11 states.
Take it from one who knows. For many years of my life I knew God loved me but I did not realize that love to it's fullest. Growing up I felt very unwanted and unloved because of my unstable home environment. The adults in my life were consummed with their own issues and not necessarily to the issues of those around them. It took many years for me to realize I was really and truly loved, others loved me and God loved me. It was a lightbulb moment! Years after that I was able to accept that not only did God love me He chose me! What an awesome concept. God not only loved me He wanted me. The same is true for everyone. God loves and chooses YOU!
50 Shades and Magic Mike offer a fleshy passionate type of love that does not satisfy and can never satisfy. Only God's love can ever truly satisfy. Let us become consumed and overwhelmed by God, let us stop pursuing illicit love affairs with the world and begin a beautiful love affair with the creator of the world.
I know you all would be terribly disappointed if I did share a song to go with what God laid on my heart to blog about. This blog was not an easy one to find a song for. I went through a great selection of songs before finally realizing that Arms Wide Open by Misty Edwards was the perfect song for this blog. May this bless you greatly.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Count it all Joy (Cover Me Mark Condone)
This week has been a very trying one with many distractions. Even as I work on this blog more distractions continue to occur and I can feel the same emotions and frustrations rising up within me. Thankfully the emotions and frustrations do not stay around as long as they used to. It has taken me awhile to learn this but pity parties are really no fun and accomplish nothing. God created me with emotions and I realize that at times that can be good or bad, thankfully God also gave me self-control. I do not have to give into the negative emotions when life spins out of control. I may be frustrated and it may take me a minute or two to get my eyes off the storm and back onto God but praise God the time I spend looking at the storm before looking at God is growing shorter and shorter.
So as I previously stated this week has a crazy one full of many life distrations. It all began Monday with no hot water and then an announcement at work that made everyone fear for their job and finally ended with discoverying that one of credit card numbers had been stolen. God was in the midst of every one of these distractions and every one of them was resolved positively but by mid week another event occured I came home to discover I had no AC. It was okay the first night but the second was torture as my house had heated up more during the day and it made for a long miserable night. Friday morning I was hot, tired, and frustrated and to borrow from Lysa Terkeurst I came "Unglued". I had focused on the storm instead of God. As I turned my eyes back onto Him the situation improved and in the midst of the hot house I began to cool down and peace started to return to me. And yes if you are wondering the AC situation was resolved Friday. I came home to a cool house!
As all these situations and others occured James 1:2 continued to come to me. Consider it all joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds. I did not consider it all "Joy" in fact I believe during my meltdown Friday I asked God when all the insanity would end. The next verses help define why we should consider it all joy when we face trials of many kinds. Verses 3-4 state: because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
So trials actually help me! God also gave me 2 Cor 4: 17-18, I thought I was being helpful and maybe a little spiritual on Monday when I posted this on Facebook Monday. Came back to haunt me later in the day. Thanks Esther for turning my focus back where it needed to be!
2 Cor 4:17:18
So as I previously stated this week has a crazy one full of many life distrations. It all began Monday with no hot water and then an announcement at work that made everyone fear for their job and finally ended with discoverying that one of credit card numbers had been stolen. God was in the midst of every one of these distractions and every one of them was resolved positively but by mid week another event occured I came home to discover I had no AC. It was okay the first night but the second was torture as my house had heated up more during the day and it made for a long miserable night. Friday morning I was hot, tired, and frustrated and to borrow from Lysa Terkeurst I came "Unglued". I had focused on the storm instead of God. As I turned my eyes back onto Him the situation improved and in the midst of the hot house I began to cool down and peace started to return to me. And yes if you are wondering the AC situation was resolved Friday. I came home to a cool house!
As all these situations and others occured James 1:2 continued to come to me. Consider it all joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds. I did not consider it all "Joy" in fact I believe during my meltdown Friday I asked God when all the insanity would end. The next verses help define why we should consider it all joy when we face trials of many kinds. Verses 3-4 state: because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
So trials actually help me! God also gave me 2 Cor 4: 17-18, I thought I was being helpful and maybe a little spiritual on Monday when I posted this on Facebook Monday. Came back to haunt me later in the day. Thanks Esther for turning my focus back where it needed to be!
2 Cor 4:17:18
17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Another friend, Maribel ,shared a verse in Lametations with me (see below) but on my way there I came across this verse in Isaiah pay attention to the bolded parts.
Isaiah 48:17-18
17 This is what the Lord says—
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you what is best for you,
who directs you in the way you should go.
18 If only you had paid attention to my commands,
your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
Another friend, Maribel ,shared a verse in Lametations with me (see below) but on my way there I came across this verse in Isaiah pay attention to the bolded parts.
Isaiah 48:17-18
17 This is what the Lord says—
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you what is best for you,
who directs you in the way you should go.
18 If only you had paid attention to my commands,
your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
Lamentations 3:22-24
22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
With so many wonderful promises from God how can I allow my frustrations to get the best of me. So remember as you go through life stuff will happen that is not pleasant and your family will test your patience from time to time but God has it all under control. I like what Brian Houston said in the podcast I listed to this week. "It is not all about me!"
There are two songs I wanted to share on this blog. One was by Casting Crowns I Will Praise You in the Storm and the other by Mark Condon Cover Me. After praying about it I believe Cover Me is the song that needs to be shared. The peace of God needs to cover us at ALL TIMES not just during times of testing and trials.
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
With so many wonderful promises from God how can I allow my frustrations to get the best of me. So remember as you go through life stuff will happen that is not pleasant and your family will test your patience from time to time but God has it all under control. I like what Brian Houston said in the podcast I listed to this week. "It is not all about me!"
There are two songs I wanted to share on this blog. One was by Casting Crowns I Will Praise You in the Storm and the other by Mark Condon Cover Me. After praying about it I believe Cover Me is the song that needs to be shared. The peace of God needs to cover us at ALL TIMES not just during times of testing and trials.
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