Obedience, Sacrifice and Blessings

I ran out of life excuses to not read Leviticus, so I read it. All of it page by page. Chapter by chapter. Bible.org says, “Leviticus used to be the first book that Jewish children studied in the synagogue. In the modern church, it tends to be the last part of the Bible anyone looks at seriously.” They were right. It was my last book to read and I am almost 50.

All my life, I feel that pastors and Sunday school teachers and other well-meaning people have pushed me away from Leviticus as if it had a plague connected with it and not a blessing for my life. However, friend, if you could just make it a plan to open up the Word of God to Leviticus, you will see God’s marvelous plan for us as humanity unfold and how his grace really is sufficient.

In Leviticus, we see how the Law of God is deeply connected with God being the God of the Promise. We can see how obedience is connected to sacrifice. We can see how the sacrifice is connected to the blessing. We can better understand the Word of God from Genesis to the Book of Revelation.


The Law of God: 

When we open up Leviticus, it can be daunting because the laws are confusing. I can only imagine how confusing it was for the Israelites living at the time. It seemed like a big list of thou-shalt-nots and that would make sense as it was the Word of God given to Moses to be a directive to the Nation of Israel. It was hard to keep them, but that is why God had in place, the Day of Atonement and shows us that our walk with God in holiness as he is holy, is a day by day process and not a big, once-in-a-lifetime event. Maybe Leviticus seems like a long boring movie with bad lighting, shoddy CGI and the worst lines for characters to read ever, but it is not. It is the Word of God and the Word of God is precious and it is ever important to read so that we can understand God more and his grace.


God of the Promise: 

The promises of God are the real heart of Leviticus for me and not the list of all the things I fail at. In fact, I could make that list all by myself. I know I am a sinner and were it not for the grace of God I would be a perpetual hot mess. In Leviticus 26:1-11 we read this:

The Lord continued, “Never make worthless idols or set up a carved statue or a sacred stone for yourselves. Never cut figures in stone to worship them in your country, because I am the Lord your God. Observe my days of rest as holy days and respect my holy tent. I am the Lord.

“This is what I will do if you will live by my laws and carefully obey my commands:

“I will give you rain at the right time. The land will produce its crops, and the trees in the field will produce their fruit.  Threshing[a] time will last until grape gathering, and grape gathering will last until planting. You will eat all you want and live securely in your land.

“I will bring peace to your land. You will lie down with no one to scare you. I will remove dangerous animals, and there will be no war in your land. You will chase your enemies, and you will defeat them.  Five of you will chase a hundred of them, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand of them. You will defeat your enemies, and I will be pleased with you.

Your families will be large, and I will keep my promise to you.  You will clear out old food supplies to make room for new ones.  “I will put my tent among you, and I will never look at you with disgust. So I will live among you and be your God, and you will be my people. I am the Lord your God. I brought you out of Egypt so that you are no longer slaves of the Egyptians. I have broken their power over you and made you live as a free people.”

Obedience: 


Obedience to God is the key to unlocking his promises. In fact, our act of obedience comes before any manifestation of the blessing. It comes first. Just like we need to seek God first. It is the first fruit of our life as a follower of Jesus. It is believing that God’s best for us is wrapped around our obedience and even when we are called to obey the Holy Spirit and the way God speaks through the Holy Spirit to us in a way we don’t understand deeply, it is awareness that we are not meant to understand all things anyhow. Just do it.

For example, let me start with the beginning. No idols. That means nothing comes before God. Nothing. Not sports, not friends, not social media, not culture, not social standing or status….nothing. Idols are things that are worthless, things that hold no eternal value. I know you like myself, have the Ten Commandments down pat and idols is also one of them. In the Old Testament, the Israelites are constantly forgetting God and making idols and it is not a surprise that the blessing didn’t follow them.  This is the area that God is working in me deeply to the core of who I am, going back to see where I carelessly picked up idols and eased God out. Yes, there are many, many ways we can cut figures of stone in the days we are living in because I find that I myself build up idols within me and how I set up my days and how I spend my time, it is not about things I set out in my house that are more important. Its how I set myself UP, my posture, me before God in certain areas. God is dearly dealing with my heart alignment, my vertical alignment to him.

Sacrifice: 

Obedience requires a sacrifice.  So how does this involve sacrifice? Things need to go. Today, it is about mindset changes, how I use my time and heart. In Leviticus, there were many types of sacrifice. Sacrifice should cost me something, otherwise, it is not a sacrifice. What I am pressing in on right now has in a way that I didn’t expect and I have asked God if there was another way, or to reduce the season of time. Instead, God has opened up the door to me to see me as he sees me and do some renovations in my heart and spirit about certain matters. There is also a posture in the sacrifice required by God for me.

“When you sacrifice a peace offering to the LORD, offer it properly so you will be accepted by God.” Leviticus 19:5 

As I think back to other ways I have “sacrificed,” I realize how my heart posture in the sacrifice was withholding me from the blessing because it was not done from a true spirit.



Blessings:


If I look at the beautiful blessings that are poured out over the Israelites in Leviticus 26, I can’t see how any of them would not want to live a life full of obedience and sacrifice to God. It just makes sense, but then I think of myself and the ways that I did not and how because of it, God had to lead me through my own wilderness until I had nothing left to offer but my obedience and sacrifice. It is not only for the blessings that are listed in Leviticus 26, but it is for all the blessings in the Word of God. They are for me, but they come with sacrifice and that sacrifice is an act of obedience. I can’t have it any other way. I would be nice, but it doesn’t work that way. What I gave up for God to do his best work in me was awkward and uncomfortable. I stumbled a bit trying to find my new feet. There is a joy in the full surrender. There is a magnificent release when you can finally sing, “I Surrender All” not “I Surrender 5/8ths.”

Grace:

When we close out Leviticus we continue reading the Word of God, we will see how the Grace of God makes sense. We can see why God got so frustrated with the Kings of Israel and of Judah and the many Israelite people who no longer followed the law. We can see the grace weaved through the Old Testament through the stories of the faithful remnant and Tamar, Rahab, Ester, Ruth, Sarah, Bathsheba come to mind first but there are oh so many more.

I like how Bible Study Tools explains it, “The word "grace" in biblical parlance can, like forgiveness, repentance, regeneration, and salvation, mean something as broad as describing the whole of God's activity toward man or as narrow as describing one segment of that activity. An accurate, common definition describes grace as the unmerited favor of God toward man. In the Old Testament, the term that most often is translated "grace, " is hen; in the New Testament, it is Charis [cavri"].


The word hen occurs around sixty times in the Old Testament. There are examples of man's favor to man, but the theological concept of importance to us is the grace of God demonstrated toward man. The term occurs most often in the phrase favor "in your (i.e., God's) sight" or "in the eyes of the Lord."”

We understand more about what the Apostles in the New Testament were preaching about when they talk of “The Law” and ever much so with Apostle Paul who did his best to follow the rules but knew nothing about grace until God found him on the Damascus Road. In the New Testament, we learn that grace is given freely and without merit. We don’t deserve it. I don’t deserve it. God willingly sent his Son, a member of the Trinity, Jesus to die for me and take my place by exchanging my sins for his pure sinless love that I might go forward like so many people did in the New Testament and share with others the same great hope. I need a redeemer. I need Jesus the Redeemer.

We have parts of our lives that are lived well and parts that are not. God wants the whole surrender from us. Not the partial. He doesn’t even want the partial credit. He wants all the glory and all the honor. He is worthy of it.

What is the story of the Bible?

It is this: Obedience requires sacrifice and sacrifice is needed to open the storehouse of blessings. 

They are all interconnected.

Do what is right

Be faithful to God

Be obedient

Seek God with a whole heart, soul and mind

This is important not just when things are going well, but for times when we can’t see what God is doing and instead of freaking out, rest and believe in the faithfulness of God and his promises over us. Claim them. Worship. Pray. Repeat.  This heart posture opens the gates to the storehouse of blessings that God has prepared in advance for us! That is good news.

A Place Called Shechem

It was five years ago when my mother had the great idea that we all should go to family camp. I was 100% less enthused as she was. However, if you have met my mother, you know that she can con you into almost anything. Though the whole family was invited, only my daughter and I went with my parents in a small car on a 4.5-hour drive to Wisconsin. I still didn’t want to go. I thought it would involve *camping* in cabins and I wasn’t down with that, but I was at least relieved that it would not be in a tent. As we pulled into the old Lawson Estate now known as Green Lake Conference Center, I could feel a shift in my hard heart. The winding roads through the historic estate and the wide-open lake with the beautiful buildings called my name. Then a bit of panic set in. I had packed camping clothes and around me, as we drove through the estate, I could see ladies in dresses, nice shoes and jewelry. For the love. I had no idea what happened. I was extremely thankful for the onsite gift shop that includes crafts from around the world as well as *jewelry*. (And side note, people don't always dress up, people do wear shorts and workout gear, but that was my first gut perspective.) I felt a bit better, but I still had sneakers and flip-flops and I didn’t have any nice dresses. The brochure said formal dinner and I had read that, but really while camping? That didn’t make any sense. It was no lie. I was unprepared.


Have you ever been unprepared? Are you a planer and the answer is no? I think I fall somewhere in the middle. Not entirely unprepared, not entirely a planner. I like to leave room for “the Holy Spirit to work.” Ha! So, this was me, unprepared not just with what I had brought with me, but with what was going to happen to me through the gift of this week away from the hustle and bustle and concentrated time with Jesus.  It has become a place to listen to God.

So, where do you go to spend time with our Abba Father? Is it a certain place in your house? At home, it is on my sofa. I am a girl with a book, a pen, a journal and a Bible. If there is a weight on my heart, it is a walk outside in prayer for a long time listening to worship music. Here at the lake, it is about being outside. As I write, I am staring at the green trees, the rippling water and basking in the sunshine.

The lake escape called Northern Pines has become Shechem. Have you heard of Shechem? It is a place in the Bible. It is not lost on me at all that Shechem is nestled between two valleys. Nor is it lost on me at all that is is a place that was well protected and a place of refuge. I come to this camp just before school starts and there is always something very personal that is resting on my heart and I need to hear from God.

It was in Shechem Abraham pitched a tent and made an altar of worship to God. It was in Shechem that Jacob bought land and settled and built a well. It was in Shechem that Moses gathered the Israelites by God’s command to talk about blessings and curses. It was in Shechem that Joshua brought people together to say good-bye and renew the covenant with the Israelites and God by laying down a large “massebah” or standing stone. It was in Shechem that Joseph’s bones were buried and kings were appointed. It was in Shechem where Jesus stood and offered hope to the women at the well, the very same well that Jacob made. God had a plan for Shechem.

Today, Shechem has become part of the West Bank. The ruins of ancient Shechem were rediscovered in 1903, situated at Tel Balatah two kilometers east of the present-day Palestinian city of Nablus. (New World Encyclopedia). Its history is rich and alive ever still.


Shechem is also Northern Pines. The name of the family camp I go to with friends I have made and love to see that come in from all over the United States and sometimes, other countries. Shechem is my family gathered here including my sister and her family and sometimes my brother and his as well as our parents. Shechem is my daughter thriving through the “Wilderness” and then hopefully moving up to the Jr. High and next year, being a “Wilderness” counselor (though she could go to the Sr. High program. Shechem is my two little nephews playing in the kids Bible school program, having lunch with us and really having a super great time. Shechem is my nephew who struggles with his faith coming anyhow. Shechem is my parents who lovingly welcome us to come with them again and time spent with them here. There are things we all do together, things we all do separately but we come back to Shechem to gather daily and renew our commitment to our family and to God.

Do you go to camp somewhere? I’d love to know where! If you don’t, would you love to come with me? I have a seat for you at my table, you can get to know new forever friends and if


There is a space for you on this dock.
you are a family with littles under the age of 3rd grade, you get free babysitting. What? Click on the link to both the Green Lake Conference Center where we are as well as to our camp Northern Pines that gathers here.

My prayer for you is that you too will have a place called Shechem in your life.

Into the Deep

I live in Minnesota where there are lakes on every corner, however, I hate deep waters. I don't even like to dive in off a pontoon into the lake. What is in there? What is at the bottom? Where is the bottom? I am anxious about drowning due to an unpleasant childhood incident and the only way I like to be in deep water is if I can see the bottom. My fear is conquered a bit through snorkeling. I really enjoy it. Recently we were out snorkeling at Palancar Reef, El Cielo, Columbia Reef and Paraiso Reef.


It was magnificent. Except I almost missed it. See, I panicked during the first dive. Even though I had a waist flotation device so I wouldn't drown and I could see the bottom (and golly was it beautiful!), the waves in the deep ocean were crashing over me and the wind was rough. I couldn't get my breath regulated and I panicked. I told myself, Kimberly, God didn't bring you into the deep waters of the ocean to drown you today, get your act together. I mentally had to tell myself to breathe.  I counted my breaths and I relaxed and floated. I missed some of the beauty of the moment because of my panicking.  Though we hope to return one day,  bits of the first dive are lost. I missed some of the treasures of rare beauty because I panicked.




As I was floating, God was speaking to me about deep waters. In the deep waters of my life, when I couldn't see the bottom when the winds were rough and waves were crashing over me like fierce giants, he has been ever faithful and ever true. His word full of his promises for me is my flotation device and need to rest in him and breathe deeply and trust him at his word.  I have panicked before in life. Actually, I have had massive panic attacks that freeze me up. The only way for me to work my way through it is by worship music, by turning my thoughts deeply toward the one who made me. The Bible says that we are to be knitted to God.


1 John 2:27 says in the Amplified version that, "We must remain in Him [being rooted in Him, knit to Him]."  Knitted? So, do you knit? I do not. I sew and I know that when a thread or a yarn is wrapped around thread it is stronger. That is why we are to be wrapped around our Father. We are stronger in him. We are to be knitted to him. Rooted deeply in him so when we feel like we are in the middle of the ocean without snorkel gear or scuba gear and no life preserver, we can trust the one who made us, who knows us full well and who has promises for us written in scarlet and he will be with us even in the deepest of waters.


Bethel Music has a song called Goodness of God and the repeating line is: "All my life you have been faithful. All my life you have been so, so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the Goodness of God."

It is true. It is all true.  My entire life from my very first breath until my very last, I will sing of the goodness of God. His faithfulness chases me down. His love for me is unfathomable. Even in deep waters, he is with me and he will be with you too.


"I love You, Lord for Your mercy never failed me. All my days, I've been held in your hands from the moment that I wake up until I lay my head. Oh, I will sing of the goodness of God. 

All my life You have been faithful. All my life You have been so, so good. With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the goodness of God.

I love Your voice. You have led me through the fire. In the darkest night, you are close like no other. I've known You as a Father. I've known you as a friend. I have lived in the goodness of God. 

Your goodness is running after, it's running after me. With my life laid down, I'm surrendered now. I give You everything. Your goodness is running after, it's running after me."

In the Valley

Life can seem to be one trial after another leaving us feeling overwhelmed. We all get that vibe every now and then. When you feel overwhelmed what do you do? It is easy to crawl back under and want to flatline, but there is a better way.  Stand up and sing praises to God in the middle of your battle before there is any manifestation of answered prayer. When we lift up our highest praise after God has done something, that is gratitude, that is a heart of thanksgiving. It is vital that we lift up our highest praise in the middle before there is an answer to our prayer. That is what it means to walk by faith. We don't even know what God is going to do, but he is going to do it. In 2 Chronicles 20, there is a situation and the Israelites are overwhelmed. There are enemies everywhere. -Ites, many, many, many -Ites that overwhelm them. When God showed up he turned their situation from overwhelmed to the Valley of Blessing. You would think that the highest praise would come from people on top of the mountain of life, not the valley. The Valley of the Shadow of Death can become the Valley of Blessings all because of praise, the highest praise to the highest King.


2 Chronicles 20:26, "On the fourth day they gathered in the Valley of Blessing, which got its name that day because the people praised and thanked the LORD there. It is still called the Valley of  Blessing today."




Here is what King Jehosaphat (His father was King Asa, his grandfather was King Abijam, whose mother was Maacah, the granddaughter of Absalom whose father was King David) prayed in this section of the Bible, “O Lord, God of our ancestors, you alone are the God who is in heaven. You are the ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth. You are powerful and mighty; no one can stand against you!”  Then he takes us as the reader of this section of the Word of God through generations in the past and how God helped them. He goes on to talk about how God befriended Abraham and helped Solomon build the temple.  He went back generations remembering God’s goodness in troubled times. It had been a while in Israelite history since King David that the Israelite Kings were following the instructions of the Lord. King Jehosaphat did. The Lord showed him great favor because of it and because of his faith.


Today may be the day you are feeling overwhelmed. You know exactly what King Jehosaphat was praying.  You see in your life -Ites on every side. Friend,  lift up your highest praise to God in worship and in prayer. He deserves it all. There is no one like Jehovah. Worship and prayer is an act of holy surrender and in that, you will see the pathway open up from being overwhelmed the Valley of Blessing!

Life and Mac Shortcuts

Macs are handy little things! I absolutely love the way I can sync with my iPad and iPhone with it and there are some lovely shortcuts which you may know that make work easier. I wonder if there are some shortcuts we could apply to life as well? Here are a few!

Are you on the other side of something yet you feel far from anything? We can get that feeling because we have too many tabs open and we are not designed for that. It is time to Command + Command+ W. Too many tabs open takes us away from our purpose leaving us with a feeling of not only lack of accomplishment but confusion as well.


Command (God's promises to us & his word) + Control (Giving it back to God)+ Power Button (God):  God will do a hard shut down or restart for us. He closes doors and shuts out opportunities for our good.

Command + shift + delete will empty trash: What sorts of things to do you need to get rid of? Perhaps it is a fixed mindset on an issue where we need to be more flexible. Perhaps it is a habit that we need to change. Perhaps it is toxic situations or people that are energy vampires that we need to remove from our life.


Command-O: Will open the selected item, or open a dialog to select a file to open. Open up the Word of God. Let it breathe fresh and new. His promises in the Bible are available to us today but how we will ever know if we don't have our Bible opened? Opening up the Word of God is engaging in a conversation with him because he speaks to us through his word.


Holding down the Media Eject (⏏) key or F12 key will eject the media that you are using: Media in our head is not always good. The news is not full of good news. We have to be careful to eject negative self-talk, the voice of Satan and the negative influences that fight a battle in our mind for attention. It would seem hopeless. Eject it! Let's put all our hope in Jesus. Fill our minds with his Word and put on the helmet of Salvation to protect what it is we are thinking on and meditating on. As a soldier puts on a helmet to protect the head in battle, the helmet of salvation protects us from Satan's schemes and provides hope for us.


So, I guess there are some life ideas we can apply to our lives after all!

How To Outlive Yourself

We can't live forever however if you want to outlive yourself, it is tied to who is coming up behind you. It is the generation that is watching you do your thing, whatever your thing is. Leaving behind a building or a foundation named after you, books that you have written or even money is lovely, but a legacy of faith is more important to leave behind.

 I finished reading through Deuteronomy a few months ago and now I am in 1 Samuel and it fascinates me with specific instruction, the key moments when the Israelites are told to pass down information to the next generation.

Deuteronomy 4:9-10 says, "Just make sure you stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don’t forget anything of what you’ve seen. Don’t let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant as long as you live. Teach what you’ve seen and heard to your children and grandchildren. That day when you stood before God, your God, at Horeb, God said to me, “Assemble the people in my presence to listen to my words so that they will learn to fear me in holy fear for as long as they live on the land, and then they will teach these same words to their children.”


 Joel 1:3 says, "Make sure you tell your children, and your children tell their children, And their children and their children. Don’t let this message die out."

We pass down so many things: heirlooms, photos, stories, cancer, addictions and diseases as well. My prayer for you is that you would focus on being families of faith, being rooted in passing down the stories of what God has done, of his faithfulness in the past that gives hope and points our children for what God will do in the future, in their tomorrows.

Sara Groves: Generations (Conversations CD)
I can taste the fruit of Eve. I'm aware of sickness, death and disease. The results of our choices are vast. Eve was the first but she wasn't the last and if I were honest with myself, had I been standing at that tree. my mouth and my hands would be covered with fruit..things I shouldn't know and things I shouldn't see.



Remind me of this with every decision, generations will reap what I sow. I can pass on a curse or a blessing to those I will never know.

She taught me to fear the serpent, I'm learning the fear myself and all of the things I am capable of in my search for wisdom, acceptance and wealth, and to say that the devil made me do it, is a cop-out and a lie.  The devil can't make me do anything 1hen I'm calling on Jesus Christ.


To my great, great, great-granddaughter, live in peace. To my great, great, great-grandson, live in peace.  Live in peace, oh, live in peace! Oh, remind me generations will reap what I sow. I can pass on a curse or a blessing to those I will never know. Oh, I may never know.

But What Is My Purpose

Our purpose is like the river in this picture. It has a constant ebb and flows within you. It is not the same as our job, where we live or who we know.

I believe it is something that is sacred between us and our Creator who put us here on Earth. Sometimes it is hard to know what our purpose is. It gets muddled up with our to-do list and assumptions & trivial things & we get stuck in a season of time, far from our purpose.

So, let's unstick ourselves, shall we?

1) Open up the Bible. I believe it is the living and breathing Word of God and that he speaks to us through it. Find a Bible reading plan that works. I use the One Year Bible (ESV version).

2) Stay surrounded with accountability people who will celebrate and pray us through good and bad seasons. Join a small group or have 5-7 close friends to bounce ideas off.

3) Remember that God is in the crushing business and some of living out our purpose will feel like crushing. It's okay! It's important. God is good at making us uncomfortable for a reason.

4) Look deeply at what our talents, gifts and passions are. I like the SHAPE test. Have you done it? Here is the link. It helps us look at spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality and experiences. In the end, our purpose has little to do with us and much more to do with what God wants to do through us. God doesn't make mistakes and so that is the cornerstone of walking toward our purpose and letting him lead us on.

Take the Shape Test!
The SHAPE test is 72 questions long and there are some fill in the blank questions as well.  The test comes from Saddleback Church where Rick Warren is the pastor.

https://www.freeshapetest.com/

We might not know each other, but I do know that our loving God created you wonderfully for a purpose. You are here in this world and God will use the spiritual gifts he has given to you, you heart and how you fill up that heart with things you love or things that break it, the different abilities, the skills that you have and how you use those skills in this world, your wonderful personality and finally, experiences you have had in life,

Friend, the tugs on the strings of your heart are delightful and the shape of your heart is beautiful. Follow your purpose where ever it leads you.

Lessons Learned From Donkeys

When Moses is writing in Deuteronomy this word for the Israelites, he is recounting all the miracles of God and the hand of God over the Israelites. He is telling them how to live together in community with each other and with him. He is reminding them to NOT fall prey or be trapped by false idols. Deuteronomy 23:3 says,  "No Ammonite or Moabite is to enter the congregation of God, even to the tenth generation, nor any of his children, ever." 


That brings us to the story of Balaam. So, do you know the story of Balaam in the book of Numbers? He makes his grand appearance in chapters 22-24 as a person who is a soothsayer, a quasi-religious prophet of sorts who was asked by the King of Moab at that time Balak, the King of Moab (now central Jordan, the place where the Israelites were on their way to capture), to place a curse on the Israelites. If you didn't know your stuff, you would think that he did hear from God. He said he did, but he was a false prophet.

The King of Moab had heard about the God of the Israelites and how their army was like no other. He wanted Balaam to lay down some serious curses and save the kingdom and bargained and tried to bribe him.  Balaam, however, made it look on the outside like he was seeking a word from God, but the motivation was greed. On the outside, he looked like he was listening to God because God did use him and did speak to him for the sake of the Israelites, but what he wanted was God to bless what was wrong to do in the first place. 

 God is able to get our attention any way he wants to. In the story of Balaam, he has an encounter with an angel of the Most High God. This angel knew caught the attention of  Balaam's donkey who could see with its own donkey eyeballs, the angel with a sword in his and standing on the road. He had to go through the donkey because Balaam ignored the supernatural visit from the Lord himself to NOT to curse the Israelites. Balaam was unamused because his donkey wouldn't go anywhere, so he hit the donkey three times quite badly. The third time the donkey said to Balaam, "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?" (Numbers 22:28).

His eyes were opened wide to the presence of the Lord and the angel said he could go on to the King of Moab but only to proclaim a blessing over Israel. Not only did he go on to bless Israel, he went on to tell the King of Moab all about how he would lose the fight and tells of a trying times to come an of a time not yet, a prophecy of one who is to come who will rule and reign over all (Numbers 24).


Toward the end of the story, we see Balaam trying to get the Israelites to turn away from God and to worship idols. Some did.  Numbers 31:16 says, “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the Lord in the Peor incident so that a plague struck the Lord’s people." Then he was killed by the sword during the time when the Israelites were victorious over the King of Moab and the other four kings around the area.


So, the lessons we learn from this story besides be kind to animals are these:

1) Do not follow false prophets or false idols because they are stumbling blocks to our faith in the Most High God. They might say things that sound true, but there is a motivation that is not good behind their words. 

2) Do not leave out parts of God's word to suit your needs. 

3) God's plan is going to happen no matter what and he can use the most absurd situations and broken people to do it.

4) Be careful about the pursuit of things of this Earth. 

5) Honor and respect the God of the Universe. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Life Interrupted

Unexpected. Change. Frustration. Disturbance. Shift. Inconvenience. Adjustment. Interruptions. 

Those are not fun words and when we think of the people in the Bible that we have come to know, we can see how these words played out in their lives, they were heading in one direction, but then God stepped in and disrupted their life. If I listed them here, I would be rewriting the entire Bible. The word of God to us, the Gospel means good news! So the disruption of God in our life is to be expected and it is for our good. 

Life interrupted, is it uncomfortable? Yes. Very. It also can be a life-altering, game-changing moment. However, it is there for a reason that we might not know this side of eternity. There is a purpose to it all. God doesn't have to reveal it, but it should cause us to stop going one direction and go toward another, it should cultivate a changed heart or mindset. It is a moment when the grace of Heaven touches Earth, becoming the reminder that we need to recenter us in who we are and to be adjusted again in our foundation of who God is. God will always interrupt our lives and we can rest on his Word to anchor us.

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God... It is a strange fact that Christians and even ministers frequently consider their work so important and urgent that they will allow nothing to disturb them. They think they are doing God a service in this but actually, they are disdaining God's "crooked but straight path". It is part of the discipline of humility that we must not spare our hand where it can perform service and that we do not assume that our schedule is our own to manage, but allow it to be arranged by God.” 

― Brennan Manning, The Wisdom of Tenderness: What Happens When God's Fierce Mercy Transforms Our Lives 

It takes a big dose of bravery to pray the prayer that God would interrupt our lives for the sake of his glory, but I believe that when we pray that prayer from a position of honesty, God will do amazing things through us. 

Fine Wine and Apostle Paul

Ask any wine person who knows their stuff and they will say that the winemaking process is pretty much this: harvesting, crushing and pressing, fermentation, clarification, aging and bottling. Then people pay big money to drink it. In fact, according to Big Ticket Bottles, CHÂTEAU CHEVAL BLANC 1947 was the most expensive wine single bottle of wine bought for $304,375. It was six liters. People thought it was good...no, they thought was great. They thought it was worth it.

Henri Nouwen writes in his book, Can You Drink the Cup?

“When we are crushed like grapes, we cannot think of the wine we will become.” 


That is so true! There will be things that will crush us. We too will feel like we are being pressed in on every side...or fermenting...or aging...but God is using this time for our good. Apostle Paul knew this first hand. He writes in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12,

"If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That’s to prevent anyone from confusing God’s incomparable power with us. As it is, there’s not much chance of that. You know for yourselves that we’re not much to look at. We’ve been surrounded and battered by troubles, but we’re not demoralized; we’re not sure what to do, but we know that God knows what to do; we’ve been spiritually terrorized, but God hasn’t left our side; we’ve been thrown down, but we haven’t broken. What they did to Jesus, they do to us—trial and torture, mockery and murder; what Jesus did among them, he does in us—he lives! Our lives are at constant risk for Jesus’ sake, which makes Jesus’ life all the more evident in us. While we’re going through the worst, you’re getting in on the best!"

In his ministry of around 32 years after God pulled him aside, changed his name and placed him on a new path, Paul suffered greatly. He was arrested and treated harshly then put in prison. He was shipwrecked, bitten by a snake and then in prison again.  Then after that, he was under house arrest. Only later to be executed. He writes in 2 Corinthians 11:21-29,
"Since you admire the egomaniacs of the pulpit so much (remember, this is your old friend, the fool, talking), let me try my hand at it. Do they brag of being Hebrews, Israelites, the pure race of Abraham? I’m their match. Are they servants of Christ? I can go them one better. (I can’t believe I’m saying these things. It’s crazy to talk this way! But I started, and I’m going to finish.)

 I’ve worked much harder, been jailed more often, beaten up more times than I can count, and at death’s door time after time. I’ve been flogged five times with the Jews’ thirty-nine lashes, beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I’ve been shipwrecked three times and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day. In hard traveling year in and year out, I’ve had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I’ve been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers. I’ve known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.

And that’s not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches. When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut.

Whew. That is a lot going on! His writing is important to read in the Bible because it reminds us that when we are being crushed, we are becoming new wine. What a beautiful perspective. Apostle Paul writes in 2 Timothy 4:6-8,

“For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.  Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.”

Nouwen goes on to say, “Drinking our cup is not simply adapting ourselves to a bad situation and trying to use it as well as we can. Drinking our cup is a hopeful, courageous, and self-confident way of living. It is standing in the world with head erect, solidly rooted in the knowledge of who we are, facing the reality that surrounds us and responding to it from our hearts.” 


So, whatever it is that you are going through, however, it is that you feel crushed, pressed down, or pummeled God is with you. You are not forgotten. Do you feel stressed? Reach out in prayer to God and spend time in his Word. His mercy is NEW every morning and his faithfulness to you reaches as high as the sky! (Lamentations 3:22-23) God is for you! He is all about you and the hardships are turning you into new fine wine! That is a good thing.

Good Grace & What's So Amazing About Grace

In this song by Hillsong Worship, called Good Grace, we are reminded beautifully about how amazing grace is. I drew many parallels with the song and Philip Yancy's book What's So Amazing About Grace. Yancy writes,

"Grace is the church's great distinctive. It's the one thing the world cannot duplicate, and the one thing it craves above all else--for only grace can bring hope and transformation to a jaded world. ... Grace does not excuse sin, says Yancey, but it treasures the sinner. True grace is shocking, scandalous."


There is nothing more central to the life of a person who loves Jesus than Grace. We can't have grace without the cross. It is the cross alone that changes the course of lives.  Philip Yancy says this,

“If I care to listen, I hear a loud whisper from the gospel that I did not get what I deserved. I deserved punishment and got forgiveness. I deserved wrath and got love. I deserved debtor’s prison and got instead a clean credit history. I deserved stern lectures and crawl-on-your-knees repentance; I got a banquet—Babette’s feast—spread for me.”  (What's So Amazing About Grace?)


If you have not seen the movie or read the book Babette's feast you are missing out on something GREAT. It is a French film that draws parallels to the grace of God and the lavishness of it for all of us.

Isak Dinesen the author of Babette's Feast writes,

"Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude. Grace, brothers, makes no conditions and singles out none of us in particular; grace takes us all to its bosom and proclaims general amnesty. See! That which we have chosen is given us, and that which we have refused is, also and at the same time, granted us. Ay, that which we have rejected is poured upon us abundantly. For mercy and truth have met together, and righteousness and bliss have kissed one another!"


Hillsong ends the song Good Grace this way: "Jesus, Our redemption, Our salvation Is in His blood. Jesus, Light of heaven. Friend forever, His kingdom come." 

Such good, good, good grace!
May God's amazing grace shock you anew and fill you with great joy.

10 Steps When Dreaming Big

Over and over in the Scriptures, God calls men and women who think very little of themselves to accomplish great things. God takes men and women who felt too small for a big life and challenged them to dream big and to live big.

"I believe God wants us to dream, and to dream big because He’s a big God who wants to do big things and He wants to do them through us. The real difference between a dream and wishful thinking is what you do day today."  John Maxwell, Put Your Dream to the Test.


Here are his questions below.

1. The Ownership Question: Is my dream really my dream?

2. The Clarity Question: Do I clearly see my dream? "


3. The Reality Question: Am I depending on factors in my control to achieve my dream? 

4. The Passion Question: Does my dream compel me to follow it?

5. The Pathway Question: Do I have a strategy to reach my dream?

6. The People Question: Have I included the people I need to realize my dream?

7. The Cost Question: Am I willing to pay the price for my dream?

8. The Tenacity Question: Am I moving closer to my dream?

9. The Fulfillment Question: Does working toward my dream bring satisfaction?

10. The Significance Question: Does my dream benefit others?

These questions were taken from John Maxwell’s book Put Your Dream to the Test. 


Pray about your dreams. Pray about the next step. It shifts things between Heaven and Earth. Maybe it is hard to pray because you feel like prayers are not answered. That they hit the floor of heaven and bounce back down to you or that you are talking into the Grand Canyon.

 It is important to partner with God when you dream big because he is the author of your dreams. It's also vital to have a small tribe to support you and to encourage you when you want to walk away from your dream when the manifestation process gets hard & frustrating, as well as celebrate the successes & small forward steps and finally to pray for you for wisdom & clarity. Dream big & then dream even bigger!


I like what Annie F Downs has to say in her devotional 100 Days to Be Brave. She writes: I think that's where courage comes in. Are you brave enough to pray & to believe that God hears you and changes things? Are you brave enough to believe with your whole heart that God will do something miraculous? Are you brave enough to say the first words to him after you've been silent for a while? Prayer isn't about us, really. Prayer is this amazing opportunity to connect directly with the greatest BEING who has always been. And it takes courage to know that for yourself. 


So friend, to dream big, soak each step in prayer.

Mark 9:23 "What do you mean, 'If I can'?" Jesus asked. "Anything is possible if a person believes."
Psalm 18:29 In your (God's) strength I can crush an army; with my God, I can scale any wall. 

Thank you, Lord, for the dreams you have placed in our hearts. Lord, help us to have faith enough to have God-sized dreams. Help us to not give up in the middle before the dreams are manifested. Help us to soak all our dreams in prayer. Thank you that you are the author and creator of our dreams. Help us to align our dreams for our lives with your dreams for our lives.

Uniquely So

Have you ever come across a person that is so unique that you have millions of thoughts of wonderment in your head about them? For me, it is someone age 10. This is my first year meeting her. She pushes snow on the ground with her head while crawling on her hands and knees. She wears the most interesting outfits. She sometimes looks put together, other time looks disheveled. She believes in unicorns and fairies. She has few friends and is often alone.

You should see her stories. She has the most imaginative stories. Her most recent class project was incredible. Due to the fact that I don't have Apple TV, she could not showcase her project on my SmartBoard which she did on Book Creator instead of Google Slides. That didn't phase her one bit. She walked around with her project on the Yellow Fever reading her project upside down so that we all could see it right side up and with a voice level appropriate for classroom presentations.

She is so unique and a delight to teach.  Whereas her mother in many conferences has been confronted with her daughter's erratic behavior seen as a disability, I showed the mother how her daughter's strengths were the exact thing she was born for. She was born for more.


She was born for something so profoundly unusual that only she will be equipped to knock it out of the ballpark.

Whatever it is.

It is easy in a world that wants us to morph into what it offers, to feel like we are not enough. The limits from believing what the world has to offer not only to erase our confidence but our boldness here on Earth and eternally as well. 

So here's to you, the girl in my class and to you my friend and reader. You are enough. Every little part of you was created perfectly wonderful by the Creator of the Universe who says you are more than enough. Be boldly courageous and uniquely you. You were born with such a magnificent blueprint that is so unique to you that it could not be ever recreated. Learn to embrace how you were created and designed because you were designed for a purpose.


Hebrews 10:35-36 So do not lose [throw away] the courage you had in the past [or your confident trust in God; or your boldness], which has a great reward. You must hold on [persevere & endure], so you can do what God wants [his will] and receive what he has promised.

Waiting In Peace

In the book Oh, the Places You'll Go by Dr. Suess, he leads the reader through the ins and outs struggles of life. He highlights high points and low points. One of the low points he writes about is the Waiting Place.

The Waiting Place...


You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or the waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.


Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for the wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.


NO!
That's not for you!


Well, yes it is for us. We are always waiting! We cannot escape it no matter how hard we try. It is easy as well to have the mentality that waiting is a useless place. However, to God is not. Yes, we are all waiting for something. It is hard. The Bible is full of people who were waiting for something, but most of all, they were waiting on God to move mightily on their behalf.

Noah was waiting for the flood

Abraham was waiting for a son

Joseph was waiting for the fulfillment of the dreams.

Leah was waiting to be loved.

The whole nation of Israel waiting to be free from slavery.

Hannah was waiting for a baby.

Esther was waiting to trap Hamman in his evil plan.

The whole nation of Israel waiting for the Messiah to be born.

All the ill/sick/handicapped people in the Bible waiting for healing.

Mary and Martha waiting for Jesus.

Paul and Silas waiting in jail.

We are told to wait for Jesus to return again.

From page to page and cover to cover of our Bibles, people are waiting. Even now, waiting is something that is never going to escape us. We want God to hurry up. We want an answer quick. We want to move on, instead, we are on hold and the situation feels like it is taking forever to be all sorted out. I believe it is more challenging now in a world that seeks immediate gratification to hear the call to wait, because of that, we become so restless and restlessness is a lack of peace.

Carl Lentz, the pastor of Hillsong, NYC said this on Sunday in his sermon he was peaching at Elevation, "If we are not careful, we will forget that Jesus said he would give us peace." We need to find peace in Jesus on a day to day basis. We need to have the scriptures in our heart and know what God says about the situation. We need to not reach for the panic button and instead pray.  The Bible says that God gives us his supernatural peace, the kind of peace that can surpass all understanding. That means you might not really be able to put it into words, except that you know that you know. God spoke on this matter. It will be done.


People will try to make it complicated, but it doesn't need to be. Pastor Lentz said it so simply.

Control what you can control.

Pray about the rest.

Maybe God wants us to learn to recognize the holy moments that waiting involves as he gently whispers and waits for us to be still so that we can hear him. If we are restlessly waiting, we cannot hear God. Waiting doesn't mean you are not loved by God or that he doesn't see your heart or hear your prayers. It means that we are loved so much so that God is arranging the best situation for us and that means that other things might need to settle into place first. There is something holy and sacred in the waiting place, and if we fling ourselves around as we wait, we will never find peace. Our blessing hinges on the waiting. Our character hinges on the waiting, Our knowing more about God hinges on the waiting.

The Bible has a lot to say about waiting, patience and peace. There are so many places that you could look for a word of encouragement. I'll point you to one that may be familiar to you and I love this translation from The Message.

Romans 8:24-25

We are saved by trusting. And trusting means looking forward to getting something we don’t yet have—for a man who already has something doesn’t need to hope and trust that he will get it. But if we must keep trusting God for something that hasn’t happened yet, it teaches us to wait patiently and confidently.

Whatever you are waiting for, you are not alone, at least you don't have to be. Reach out to others in your close circle of five to seven people you know and ask them to pray expectantly that God will move on your behalf and in the meanwhile, encourage you to trust God, his perfect plan for your life and that above all, that his will be done. Worship while you wait. Pour out your thoughts and voice in prayer and journaling before God. Not because he doesn't know already what is on your heart, but because in doing so, God will meet you there and in the sacred and holy space of waiting, you will have perfect peace.

Lord, learning to wait on you is never something we perfectly achieve, but we do know that you are good and you are constantly moving us from glory to glory as we trust in you. While we wait, help us to learn more about you, more about ourselves and to not panic, but pray. Help us to remember that your word has already been spoken about this, and as we ask for your will above all other things, help us to be still enough in our spirits and in our lives to hear your gentle whispers. Lord you know us, your plan is for us not against us. You are our portion. In you Lord, we have more than enough. Send your Holy Spirit to us as we wait to speak peace over us in whatever situation we are faced with. Lord, you have never failed us and you never will. 

God of Suddenly

God's timetable is Suddenly.



In the books by Lois Lowry, she has a particular series paints a character that everyone falls in love with called Gooney Bird Green. Gooney Bird helps her second grade class learn how to write. I love using her to help the students I teach because it is told in a clear and excellent way for littles. It is entertaining as it weaves writing skills throughout the stories. One of my favorite things that Gooney Bird Green teaches is to put a suddenly in a story.  This simple addition creates a suspenseful shift to the reader. Things were going on, a plot was happening, it was business as usual when suddenly, something unexpected happened to the characters that the reader and the character did not expect.

God does that as well. God suddenly intervenes in our lives because God has no timetable and he is not limited Earth and time limitations because he is the creator of Earth and of time.  Often in my prayer life, there is a time delay whether it be weeks, months, seasons or years. We are called to continue to pray and believe it to be manifested and to have faith in what is not seen that it will day be seen.

 "I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.' Psalm 27:13

God's delay is for our benefit. God's delay is our middle. How we wait in the middle space of time is what God is looking for.  This middle space is the very space exact space that God is asking us to keep our faith strong and trust in his promises. We are not God and we must believe that God is working it out on our behalf. It is not a wasteland. God will come. Suddenly. In the Bible we see that God has a never-ending supply of sudden moments that involved people seeking the Lord, praying and trusting the Lord through the waiting period until the suddenly arrived.

One of my favorites is the one where God caused the sun to stand still so that Joshua could win the battle. (Joshua 10) It was not by the strength of Joshua or his men in battle. They were completely dependent on God. God came suddenly. In 1 Kings 18 we see Elijah praying, worshiping and waiting in expectation for God to move suddenly and when he did, all around knew that the presence of the Lord was upon them. 

1 Kings 18: 38-39

Then fire from the Lord came down and burned the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the ground around the altar. It also dried up the water in the ditch. When all the people saw this, they fell down to the ground, crying, “The Lord is God! The Lord is God!”

It happened Suddenly.


Let's not despair. God is not ignoring us, but he is looking at our hearts and how we wait for something. From both these scriptures as well as many more, we see that we need to worship while we wait, pray while we wait and to wait with expectation that God will move on our behalf at the right moment suddenly.

Lord, help us to wait, knowing that you are the author of time and the moments in time. Help us to pray and worship while we wait and have a heart of expectation that you will come and do what only you can do. Thank you that you do not ignore us, that you hear us when we call and that you do answer. Thank you that you see the big picture of our lives. Help us to trust you while we wait for your suddenly.

Released By Faith

This entire month of January I have been studying the process of vision casting as well as digging into what faith really is and looking at it through the lens of creativity. It has been impactful. The opposite of this whole process the month of January is complacency and being comfortable. I tried to be more vulnerable and intentionally do things outside my comfort zone to see God in a whole new light. It started with the Flip the Flow sermon from Pastor Steven Furtick from Elevation Church, a Bible Study and devotional group about being Courageous Creatives and various sermons about faith as well as reading through the Psalms.

Here is what I know. Faith is a muscle and you need to exercise it. It is exercised with pressure. You don't need faith when you are not under pressure, yet being under pressure is uncomfortable. It makes us vulnerable. Some people cave under. Other people rise above. Why? What happens in the middle?

 The middle matters. I teach fifth grade and we have finished two books one called A Long Walk to Water and the other called Fever 1793. In both books, the main character wrestled with unforeseen circumstances, things like a village burning down, an epidemic, multiple deaths before their very eyes. Yet, in both books, the character in the middle of the story plot decides not to pitch a fit, throw a pity party table for one and digs deep down and believes that tomorrow will be better. Our new book, Out of the Dust has the same theme. Each of the characters in each of our stories had to fight through the fear. There was fear. It was not imaginary and it took faith to rise above. The situations each character fought though positioned them for a significant wonderful change in the end.


Tomorrow will be better, but that is because I have faith. There is a boatload of things I fear but instead of letting fear be the reason I don't do something, I am learning to let fear propel me to fight through and do it. I like how Bishop Kevin Foreman described it, "Faith will give you stretch marks. Those stretch marks are proof you can carry big things. Often the fears we fight though, the situations we fight through position us for God's best in our lives."

So, my challenge is this, where is it that you need to be vulnerable, overcome some fears, be filled with faith so that you can be closer to God's plan as well as walk towards creativity?  Where is it that you need to say no so that you can give to God your greater yes? Where is it that you need to toss away the old wineskin, one that will fall apart when something new is added because it can't expand and instead pour new wine into a new wineskin that will correctly expand with fermentation while it ages correctly? Where is it that you need to have a fresh perspective, a new mindset?

Lord, I put limits on you, a limitless God and I tell you how to use me but I only give you so much of me that you can use. Help me to not waste anything, not miss a step and instead give you access and complete freedom to do what only you can do creatively through me for your glory and for your name. Be released in my life. Amen

Faith Helps Us Be Creative

I was watching a sermon by Bishop Kevin Foreman who pastors a church out of Colorado and Texas called Harvest Church. In his message called The Fruit My Faith Produced, he talked about walking in faith and how faith produces fruit. "Faith," he says, "Grabs something from the supernatural and brings it into the natural." Bishop Foreman said, "We need to fuel our faith". We can do this in three ways.

In the devotional by Jenny Randall called Courageous Creative, she talks about the teeny tiny dot of life. Our life is tiny in the full spectrum of time. What will fill up space between me and my tiny dreams for my life? Obedience to God and his will.  Jenny writes, "God fills this tiny dot space in my life with people, resources, tools, training, love and encouragement. He fills it with ideas, songs, movies and art."


I love fueling my faith! When I do that, I am building up my faith muscles. I enjoy watching various pastors around the country preach and lean into their teaching. When I do that, it connects to my creativity.

I was watching a sermon by Bishop Kevin Foreman who pastors a church out of Colorado and Texas called Harvest Church. In his message called The Fruit My Faith Produced, he talked about walking in faith and how faith produces fruit. "Faith," he says, "Grabs something from the supernatural and brings it into the natural." Bishop Foreman said, "We need to fuel our faith". We can do this in three ways.




1) "Consuming life-giving messages". In my previous posts, you can find here and here, I offered you some pastors to consider watching throughout the week and find encouragement and strengthen your faith muscle.


2) "Doing things even though it involves fear and risk." The opposite of faith, he said is not fear.  "The opposite is being certain". He made a very good point. Walking in in complacency to me is very similar to being certain. We lack faith because we want to be sure of the outcome. We want to be certain it will all work out okay. That is not faith. Faith is walking even though we have fears and knowing risks and trusting God when we have to do something while being scared.


3) "Walk forward while being scared", asking God to help us in our unbelief, trusting in his promises and trusting in his word. There are things that God asks us do and to trust him on even though we are scared. You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Psalm 139:5


Faith also can feel like this little section from the Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

 “It can't beat us!" Pa said. "Can't it, Pa?" Laura asked stupidly. "No," said Pa. "It's got to quit sometime and we don't. It can't lick us. We won't give up." Then Laura felt a warmth inside her. It was very small but it was strong. It was steady, like a tiny light in the dark, and it burned very low but no winds could make it flicker because it would not give up.”  
So that is my challenge for you today. How are you walking in faith? How can you get off the complacency cycle that we easily get trapped in? When we trap ourselves because of lack of faith, it somehow traps our creativity. Think bigger. We serve and worship a BIG God.


Lord, help us to walk in faith. Help us to know where we need to let go of being certain, let go of walking in certainty. Lean into your promises and trust God, that you are walking in front of us and behind us. You are our cloud by day and our pillar of fire by night. Help us to see you leading us and walk that way. Help us to strengthen our faith muscles so that we can walk forward in creativity as well.

Church Is Not Just For Sundays Part Dos

Though "going to church" looks different for me now, I still love the stained glass windows in an old church.

In my previous post, I wrote about some great churches around the country and in England that I personally use to learn from throughout the week. Have you tapped into their social media? It is worth a look! It will re-energize your faith walk because faith must be fueled. We need to listen to life-giving messages, but not just on Sundays. Especially when the world is getting you done. Especially because what we feed to our souls, will grow. We have to develop it.  I deeply crave the need to hear and learn from good solid teaching all week long. Following the churches and their pastors on social media is both inspirational and funny. It is fantastic to meet pastors who have a sense of humor and see the world through the eyes of hope.  Below are some other churches and pastors you might want to check out and of course, don't forget to attend them when you are nearby their area. Do you have any churches that you enjoy watching?

Journey Church: Jim & Jennifer Wilkes   Instagram  Facebook Youtube
Living Word, St Paul: Jamey & Taylor Hammond  Instagram Facebook Youtube

Union Church Houston: Rodrigo & Sara Vargas  Facebook Instagram Youtube
The Father's House OC: Matt & Bianca Juarez Olthoff  Instagram Facebook Youtube

Church Is Not Just For Sundays

Church is not just for Sundays!

I have always been a church girl. My parents were church kids and their parents were church kids. From what I know about the generations before them, everyone went to church. Always. Probably twice a day for morning church and evening church. That was then. This is now.  The difference between them and myself is how I go to church and when I go to church (not to mention the style of worship!) The difference is that church is not just a Sunday thing for one hour. It is a daily action of our hearts and mindset focus.

Any given Sunday you can open up your social media feed and find churches going live with their service. BUT KIMBERLY, I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO WATCH THEM ON A SUNDAY.  I know, and that is the grand thing of it all. You can go to their church webpage or most likely their YouTube channel and it will be live. On Sundays, I will always watch Elevation Church and go to my own throughout the week and I will watch church again from some of the best pastors around the country and one in England as part of my devotions or just to keep my mind focused on God and not the world at the end of the day.

Here are some of the greatest men and women pastors I have the honor to learn from week by week. Maybe it will be a spark for you too. Below are some churches and their lead pastors. If you are ever in the area of these churches you should go! Are there more? Of course, and their omission is only to add them in a later post.

Elevation Church: Pastors Steven & Holly Furtick
Hope City Church: Pastors Jeremy & Jennifer Foster

Harvest Church: Bishop Kevin Foreman
Life Church: Pastors Steve &Charlotte Gambill

Potters House: Pastors Toure & Sarah Jakes Roberts
Substance Church: Pastors Peter & Carolyn Haas

Together Church: Pastors Micahn & April Carter
Transformation Church: Michael & Natalie Todd

 Lord, thank you that you call us to worship you and that you are worthy of our worship. Help us to understand what it means to fully worship you and to set our minds on you. Help us to understand that it is not just a thing we do to check off the list on a Sunday, but it is an action of our heart and training our mind to focus on you throughout the week. Thank you that you have designed so many wonderful people to preach the good news of your Word across the world. Most of all Lord, help us to remember that we are the church, your church and you call us your bride.

Sermon Notes

On any given Sunday, the TV is on and I am going to church. We call it EFAM, extended family. It is a way to open up the doors of your home to the idea of a home church, or cell churches similar to the beginning churches in the Bible. That doesn't mean I don't attend worship locally, it means that I know that worship is not just on Sundays for an hour with four songs and a sermon.

When I am not at my own church, I am with my EFAM on a Sunday, sharing food, praying, worshipping, encouraging, laughing and getting fired up for the busy work week. What I like about it is that there are like-minded people who have a passion for Christ and a heart for the city as well as really enjoy worshipping together in a small group and leaning into the teaching from Pastor Steven.

This sermon series is called Flow and the first in the series was called Flip the Flow. It comes from the New Year's Eve Praise Party sermon, Comin In Drippin. Pastor Steven shared that when you flip the flow in your life you are standing at the threshold of possibilities. When you flip the flow you are going to allow your faith and the choices you make in your life to flow from your faith in Christ or from tradition. When you flip the flow you are starting at the Word of God and not with what you see. When you flip the flow, you have an advantage already in life because you know how it is all going to work out. God wins EVERY TIME! I hope you have a church home and I also hope that you will take time with the week to lean into the Word of God in other ways. Below are the two last recent sermons from church at Elevation and if you are interested in going with me to a Watch Party, let me know! We'd love to have you. Next time I'll share with you some of my other favorite pastors across the US and also my own home church here in Minnesota.

Dear Lord, help me to not live by a belief system that is based on traditions and have a surface level faith. Help me to pay more attention to your truth from your Word. Help me to not read scripts that you are not the author of and give me discernment and wisdom to both know and understand what you are saying.

Miracle In the Making

All Posts
Miracle in the making
Updated: Jan 6



It was December 2, 2017. I had other plans that went a whole different direction that night, but it was that night that God chose to redeem a 46 year moment in waiting with his in due time grace.

But let me backtrack, backtrack to a song by my home church, Substance that our pastor had written called Sun Stand Still. In that song there is a line that goes, "You caused the sun to stand still, my enemies can't last forever. You made a place for me, and I will dwell with you." It was about the miracle in Joshua 10 when the Israelites were surrounded and Joshua prayed for a miracle. God caused the sun to stand still and did the impossible. It led me to a book by Steven Furtick called Sun Stand Still: What Happens When God Does the Impossible. That led me to Elevation Church and Pastor Steven was just getting started in the Waymaker series. That is how I settled into my late October of 2107 when I did my Ancestry test. That is how I waited all of November with excitement to see what the test would offer for information.

December 2, was a mixed bag of nuts. There was bad news, but the grace of God took over the bad news with good news. My results came back from Ancestry and I learned more about my biological history that night than I had in all my previous 46 years.

It is not that I didn't look for my birth family. I had several times but always ended up at a dead end. The results told me about the DNA migration and pointed me toward 3rd and 4th close cousins but that was as close as I could get. I was happy to find a 4th cousin here in my state and have enjoyed doing things with him. I know people are apprehensive about giving out DNA, but by this point, I had the why, not mentality.

2018 was going to be my year of Intention. I started going to Elevation Church by joining the EFAM and began a book by Steven Furtick called Greater: Dream Bigger. Start Smaller. Ignite God's Vision for Your Life.  My Be Brave, Be You journal was fresh as well as my hope. I was expecting the impossible this year. I knew that I needed to increase my faith and increase my dreams. I knew I needed that game-changing kind of faith. I needed to stop having limits on God and I needed to stick with God on this journey. God was inviting me to do something with him this year that would be remarkable.  My heart like Joshua's made sun stands still prayers. I believed with full certainty that God was a God of miracles. I knew he had a plan and I would need to stay in sync with that plan by shifting my focus and let the invisible hand of God frame my life as I fixed my focus.  There is always a delay between the promise and the fulfillment of the promise. You see this throughout the entire scripture and of course, it was true in my life.

February came and with that came a great surprise that exceeded my expectations. I logged on to Ancestry and there was for the first time, someone listed as my first cousin. Not a second. Not a third or even farther distant. First. I remember the excitement as I quickly emailed him. and gushed.

Me
Feb07, 2018…
Saludos,
Estoy llegando a ti porque en Ancestry, aprendí que de alguna manera estamos conectados. Estoy buscando juntar las piezas que faltan de mi historia cuando sea adoptado. Nací en diciembre de 1971 en Alajuela de una mujer llamada Ester. que puede o no haber sido su verdadero nombre. Mi nombre de nacimiento es Maria de los Angeles Roman Ramirez.
He tenido una vida maravillosa y maravillosa y estoy muy contenta de haber sido adoptada, estoy ansiosa por aprender más. Mi mama biológica me dio la adopción 7 semanas después de que nací. Al menos eso es lo que todos pensamos, pero ella no debe haber usado su nombre legal o uno de los apellidos estaba mal a propósito. Entonces, ahora mismo es un poco confuso........

*Luis
Feb 08, 2018
Hola prima cómo estás? Y digo prima porqué así lo creo, mi mamá me contaba cuándo estaba yo pequeño que mi tía había dado a una niña para que la adocptaran. Yo tenía como 5 años. Nadie lo creía y yo muy pequeño para entender lo que habia pasado, Román es el segundo apellido de mi tía. Me da mucha alegría que te allas comunicado conmigo. Tengo mucho tiempo de vivir en USA y cuando me veni mi mamá me dijo queditito, “ talves Te encuentres a tu prima en USA “ porque ella fue adoptada por una pareja de Norteamericanos. Buenas noches prima me tengo que ir a dormir.

*Me
Feb 08, 2018
That is me. I am that girl. I was adopted.

This window that God opened up for me after that time 46 years, Heaven had come to me. God had come to me. Heaven reached Earth. A miracle had happened. I was a miracle in the making. What miracle are you waiting for? I am here to tell you and bear witness to the fact that God has amazing things in store for you, for us. God has a greater yes in store for us as we wait. God is not a fairy godmother, he wants a relationship with us that starts with forgiveness of sins, being vulnerable through honesty and having courage.

"Your promise still stands, Great is your faithfulness. I'm still in your hands, this is my confidence you've never failed me yet. I never will forget. You never fail me yet."

Just Breathe

Just breathe 2019


I remember well the first two times my easy flowing breath was caught in fear. It felt like I was going under a big dark wave and I could feel the power of the wave push me down with such a force that struggling to get back up both times and take a deep breath was very hard to do. It felt like rapid short breaths. Pulse racing. Mind boggled. Hurt heart. Many questions. The third time it happened, when the wave of fear and unknown and undesired circumstances happened, I didn't come back up for air. I was ready.

I have lived my life that way for going on 15 years. It has not been about thriving. It has been about surviving. Sometimes surviving well, sometimes barely holding on. I have lost sight of things that I used to hold dear and they floated away. I exchanged it for a life of holding my breath underwater.

Fear does that. It makes me hold my breath and the unknown and the puzzle pieces that go into the unknown in my experience have had paralyzing effects. I learned to shut down, push people away, build up walls, and do all that I could to protect myself and my kids.

It has gotten me this far. I am doing well. If you saw me, if you worked with me, if you went to church with me, you'd say, "Oh, surely not her. She looks like she has it all together."

I don't. It is a facade. I am not breathing. I am about to explode because holding in my breath has hurt me. I have let those situations that cause me fear have more power over me.

Even though I went to church. Even though I sang in choir. Even though I did my best to volunteer. Even though I did my job well. Even though I was a good mom. I did it underwater holding my breath.

There is a song I like, called Breathe by Jonny Diaz which I have heard many times and I thought it was all about being busy, but the words that caught me in the car after Christmas was to just breathe. That has been my prayer in my prayer journal for a few weeks. That is why I heard it and the lyrics whispered to my heart, Dear sweet girl, you've been striving and not thriving. It is time to thrive.



"Breathe, just breathe Come and rest at my feet And be, just be Chaos calls but all you really need is to take it in, fill your lungs The peace of God that overcomes Just breathe (just breathe) let your weary spirit rest Lay down what’s good and find what’s best Just breathe."

Here we are on the first day of 2019 and I am going to declare that I will be breathing on my own by the grace of fresh and new air from God in my lungs that makes me whole, complete and a chosen daughter of the most high God.

Maybe you too need to breathe. I will be praying for you.

God, I exchange the robes of fear that I have worn over me like sackcloth for your robes of righteousness and for the full armor of God. No weapon formed against me will prosper and I will be full of peace that is found in you only. God, I am done holding my breath and trying to do this victorious life. There is no victory when I can't thrive in you. For me, thriving means breathing fresh and new day by day knowing that you are God, I am not and you are my full portion and you fill me with air to breathe. I love you, Lord.