Don't starve yourself... Day 24 of 40

Lets be real... please? 

Most people aren't. 

But that's not the point I want to bring out... 

I'm gonna be real. 

Last week I was in Saskatchewan... I didn't have time, and didn't make time, to read The Purpose Driven Life, or even my Bible! 

Since being home I've been having a hard time cultivating the habit God has been calling me to form... a habit of pursuit. 

Pursuit of my relationship with Him. 

It's true He's always there... and when the Prodigal son decided to return home to father - even if just to be a slave in his father's house - his father RAN to meet him! 

But we must first decide. 

Who do you serve? 

You can't serve God and **insert-weakness-here** at the same time. 

That's not the way it works. 

So let me be real... 

Finally yesterday I picked up my Purpose Driven Life book and attempted to read where I'd left off - Day 24. 

And guess God is trying to get a point across cuz it's all about reading your bible. 

The truth of the Bible transforms us into who God wants us to be. 

It's like food. 

You wouldn't just skip a day without food, would you? Even if you didn't feel like eating? 

I know... it took me a long time to realize that the bible is my spiritual sustenance. 

I can't live without it... can't live without HIM. 

His words, His presence... Everything about Him penetrating my very core. 

The other night I cried out to God cuz I wasn't sure what was going on in my life anymore (this is just me being real... but the details are between me and Him.)... 

I cried out and He just simply asked: WHY are you starving yourself?? 

It's a pursuit... one that begins with me. 

Once I pursue His presence, He is faithful to show up in more ways than I can imagine. 

But it begins with a heart change. 

A heart that no matter what, I will pursue His presence daily. 

Let me encourage you to keep pursuing Him. 

It sometimes takes a little bit at a time, or even a REALLY good accountability partner to kick you in the rear once in a while  (God gave me an accountability friend. You can read her 40-day blog here: Made for a Mission ) 

But I hope you turn fully back to Him. And just like the Prodigal, find that Father-God has been running to meet you all this time. 

In conclusion I'd like to leave you with tonight's "song-on-repeat" that sums up my heart right now. 

And no matter where you are in the world, may it bring a new realization of His love for you... and how you (and I) truly can't live without His presence. 

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 

John 8:31-32 

At a moment's notice... (written on the plane yesterday)

Sometimes life is just so surpising you don’t really know what to do with yourself.

3 days ago I woke up to a normal Wednesday not knowing how drastically life could change with the arrival of one small baby girl.

As I write this I am somewhere above Lake Michigan on a plane to go see her.

Her parents have always been some of my favourite people in the world. I must say tho, when I was a bridesmaid in their wedding… or even further back when we 3 were best friends with a ton of dreams, not knowing the future would hold love for them. I never ever expected this trip. This journey into bringing tiny baby Katrina Charis into this world to meet us.

Her name is regal and important. Not just because this auntie would drop everything to go be by her side in a Regina hospital, but also because her name means something very significant to my heart.

Katrina means “Pure”.

Think of this baby… more pure than any other with her early entry into this world.

Think of how pure the Father’s love for us.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

Her middle name: Charis.

Charis is the Greek word for “grace”.

His grace is sufficient for me.

This beautiful baby girl’s name has significant meaning to me… I seem to be running a theme this winter with my 40 day challenge.

A theme of love vase as the ocean.

A message of PURE GRACE sent out to any who believe in the greatness of our God.

So as I look out of this airplane window to a sight so vast, I remember his love.

His pure grace.

A love that no scroll could contain the whole, tho it stretched from sky to sky.

May pure grace penetrate your heart and even at a moments notice change your world around completely… even as tiny Katrina Charis has changed mine this week. J

(40 days of purpose/blogging will resume when I get home this weekend as there is no internet access at the hospital.) 

Grow up, little baby...

Day 23 of 40

Growing up…

Here’s how it starts.

You’re a baby, totally dependent.

Last night we welcomed a brand new baby girl into my family – my tiny niece came 6 weeks early due to complications with my sister-in-law. Praising God today that new Mummy and tiny 4lb 2oz baby girl (who is yet, un-named) are both doing well. J

This tiny baby girl has a piece of this Auntie’s heart already.

Because she is premature and so small, she is in an incubator with a few things to help her breathe etc… as she is not even fully developed!

This is what we are like when we first become Christians.

Everything is so new in the world that any adventure could happen, though we don’t even realize what all life may hold. We are dependent on people to feed us and help us develop.

As a precious, beautiful newborn we are completely pure without anything weighing us down. We have completely discarded all the waste of our old life in the womb and come into a bright new world of possibility with a very capable God in control.

1 Peter 2:1-3 (NLT)

So get rid of all evil behaviour. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech. 2 Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

But God doesn’t want us to stay in the newborn stage. He wants to see us grow up and become mature functioning people in the Kingdom.

So often we stay there… hooked up to oxygen to help us breathe… depending on people for nourishment and whining when something is wrong… letting others clean up our gross messes… crying all the time.

This is not God’s idea of a functioning church body.

It’s time to grow up.

As with anything else, we can’t do this on our own.

That’s why God appointed spiritual authority to help us grow up.

But we must let them.

See, the difference is that my beautiful baby niece has no choice but to grow. (in fact, she will have grown a lot without even thinking about it by the time her Auntie Chelle even gets to see her in person!)

But as Christians, we have to make the choice to grow up.

If we just stay dependent on others and crying and whining and pooping our spiritual pants about everything in our lives, we will stay there and eventually become such an annoyance to the rest of our local church.

I mean, think about that for a second. Would you want a baby that always stays a baby?

I have 2 nephews and a niece who are turning 1, 2 and 3 this spring/summer and they are SO much fun!

They are learning so much everyday and Carter – the oldest – is already learning bible stories and understanding that the snake in his “Adam & Eve” story is VERY very bad snake. He also recently learned that commandment #5 (in his 10 commandments story) is obey mommy and daddy! All his parents have to say is “number five”, and Carter will do exactly what they tell him.

See! This is what growing up is all about!

As mature Christians we need to get past the newborn stage and grow up into all the things God has for us.

God wants us to grow up into the person He created us to be like… Jesus.

Larissa & Carter 

Building the C-Word... *whisper*CHARACTER*whisper*

Day 22 of 40! J

Purpose #3: You were created to become like Christ.

Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world.                      1 Peter 4:12-13 (NLT)

3-5All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort—we get a full measure of that, too.

 6-7When we suffer for Jesus, it works out for your healing and salvation. If we are treated well, given a helping hand and encouraging word, that also works to your benefit, spurring you on, face forward, unflinching. Your hard times are also our hard times. When we see that you're just as willing to endure the hard times as to enjoy the good times, we know you're going to make it, no doubt about it.                       2 Corinthians 1:3-7 (MSG)

Sometimes life just throws a curveball your way.

You think to yourself, wait… I don’t get it. God, this wasn’t supposed to happen this way!

But did He ever say life was gonna be easy?

No.

Did he say he’d never leave you or forsake you?

YES! Never ever will he leave your side.

Sometimes it may not feel like he’s there… but like I said last night, don’t base life on feelings.

One time I was going through something and God felt so entirely distant that I couldn’t see how he was working things out for good AT all.

I was so discouraged that I looked up at the sky and complained, “Even the stars aren’t out!” (stars are my favourite things… the Bible says God just “made the stars also”. As if something so magnificent were an afterthought to the sky. I like to think he made them just to astound us.)

My best friend, Annette, was there at the time – just being the beautiful, encouraging person that she is. She leaned over and said, “The stars are still there… it just takes more faith!”

It’s the same way with God.

We can’t see him… can’t even see him working a lot of times.

During the hardest times in life we can’t even feel his presence.

But He promises never to leave us.

Anything hard that happens in life is a result of his love for us.

He doesn’t want us to stay the same miserable people, so he keeps bringing us hard times to work out all the sinful nature, to trust Him more, and to ultimately become more like Jesus.

Like anything else in life, we can’t do this on our own strength.

We need the Holy Spirit living and vibrant inside of us to be able to get through these trials.

The trials aren’t meant to burn us and make us useless, but instead God intends to refine us, like gold.

When gold is refined in the fire, all the impurities float to the surface and are then able to be taken out. This is the only way to achieve the result of pure gold. And trials are the only way to achieve the pure image of Christ we are called to carry.

Why would we complain about trials as if something strange were happening to us?

All God wants to do is purify us into the beautiful people He has created us to be.

So many times we try to avoid hardships, but it is in that moment of desperation that we find we have nowhere else to turn to except our Heavenly Father.

No matter what you’re going through right now, remember – God has a reason for everything.

Building character is part of the journey.

And we are never alone.

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.                      James 1:2-4 (MSG)

In closing… a thought on trials and building character from a beautiful young woman: Ginny Owens.

“It’s never the trial that makes us stronger… it’s what we choose to do with that trial. If we choose to lay that at the foot of the cross and say, ‘Lord, I give this to you.’ And also if you choose to know that He has us exactly where we’re supposed to be.”

                                                                                    - Ginny Owens. 

Where is the Love??

Where is the love?

Day 21 of 40 (they say it takes 21 days to form a habit… I think I’m addicted. J )

So tonight I am ending our section on being part of the church.

But … I am NOT ending the part of living it out, merely the reading about it.

Let me ask you a personal question… how do you feel?

Not the “how are you?” that we so flippantly throw around and don’t really expect a genuine answer.

In fact, when we get a genuine answer we’re often shocked and don’t really know how to handle the “situation”… so we quickly change the subject to sunnier skies.

That is, this is the case if you were feeling rotten that day… as most of us do, on most days.

If, on the off chance, you come across someone who is AMAZING! You immediately ask why and they are delighted to tell you. This usually makes you feel equally as uncomfortable as the first!

Why are we so consumed by our emotions?

God created us this way… even Jesus wept on several occasions. His life mirrors perfection, and yet he still knew the grief of losing a loved one. He had to endure hardships of family responsibility – being the oldest and expected to take care of his mother. He saw one of his best friends die.

And later in life, he experienced probably the harshest betrayal of friendship ever known – betrayal unto the most horrible type of execution.

Imagine all of the emotions that consumed him as he hung on that cross to die for you and me.

However, He loved us THAT much that he knew it was the only way… so he gave up how he felt about the matter and turned his heart towards God once again and lived – and died – in obeidience to his Father.

So… let me ask you a personal question.

How do you feel?

What emotions are dragging you down?

Is there something over the last 3 weeks – since I’ve started speaking out and writing on these topics from The Purpose Driven Life – or perhaps even further back, the Holy Spirit has been nudging you to deal with emotionally.

To pick yourself back up.

Say to yourself, yes… I will follow Jesus.

Yes, I will.

I can’t live without him.

Perhaps there’s a person you need to talk to… but you don’t feel like it.

Perhaps there’s something God is asking you to DO… or something you need to deal with personally. Or a habit you finally need to kick.

But you don’t FEEL like it!

Do you think Jesus FELT like being tortured?

What if he had – and we know he had the power to do so – what if he had actually asked to be taken off that cross. To not endure the torture and the ridicule and all the pain and emotional trauma.

What if he had simply – not felt like it.

And yet, his love kept him.

For some reason, He passionately loved us in spite of our imperfections.

He LOVES us!

His obedience made him turn aside from his feelings and go through with everything God had planned for him.

Let me ask you another personal question…

How do you feel about your church?

Do you only go when you feel like it?

There are so many things God asks us to be obedient in – out of love, not legalism.

And one extremely important one is this: Loving his bride – the Church.

Will you focus on unity in your church that God has chosen for you to be planted in?

Will you passionately love the church – in spite of her imperfections?

Will you honour your Pastors as the God-appointed spiritual leaders in your life?

Will you be obedient in this small way and love your church the way the bible says?

Or do you simply – not feel like it today.

Perhaps Love is not a feeling…

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

1 John 4:7-8 

3 R's - Relationship Restoration and Reconciliation...

Day 20 of 40! (halfway mark! J ) 

Relationships are always worth restoring.

Ok. So we’ve established the importance of church family, how much we need community, and how we need to be an example to people of God’s true love in human form here on earth.

But that still leaves us wondering… what about the days we drive eachother crazy?

What about those times when our relationships with our church family are put in jeopardy. Those days when we’d rather be anywhere and with anyone else…

Those are the days when God steps in with Paul’s words to the Philippians…

If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

 5-8Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

 9-11Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.

(Philippians 2:1-11 MSG)

(I know, that was a lot of Bible … but I literally couldn’t leave any of it out!)

Putting yourself aside isn’t easy.

Like Rick Warren talks about in today’s chapter, it takes a LOT of spiritual maturity.

But by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do this.

We can live in unity with the entire Body of Christ!

No more silly fights… be slow to speak and slow to become angry.

No more offenses… live harmoniously, always esteeming others as better than yourself.

Live like Jesus… in complete obedience to what the Father wanted Him to do.

You know, sometimes we get so caught up in the “who said what” of a situation and how we can fix this on our own strength. And we forget that all we simply have to do is let the Holy Spirit change our hearts in the situation.

What does Jesus have to say about restoring friendships?

This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God. (Matthew 5:23-24)

Pretty straight forward.

And believe me, I’ve tried it.

The biggest blessings in my life happened right after I went to a friend and made things right with him/her… it’s not just a suggestion.

God loves when His kids take the initiative and go make things right with someone.

It’s a picture of Jesus’ love for us, really.

If He loved us and forgave us, the least we can do is love and forgive our family, friends, enemies, etc.

It’s not a suggestion… it’s a requirement.   

Jesus said:
“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. 15 But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15)

He loves when we seek restoration and unity in His church.

So… where should we start?

Don’t wait… life’s too short to wait. J

They'll know we are Christians by... L-O-V-E!

Day 19 of 40…

I love how this 40 days of purpose/blogging has taken me through the chapters on Church Family right smack on top of the week my beloved churchy celebrated our 27^th anniversary! J

No such things as coincidence when God is involved, that’s for sure.

Today’s chapter was on cultivating community.

Community is a wonderful thing. Having people that do life along with you is beautiful and a great source of accountability. People who care about your life and where you’re headed.

James 3:18

The Message (MSG)

Real wisdom, God's wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honour.

You see, it ain’t all fun and games.

God knew we’d have to work hard and trust Him to stay true to each other.

But let me ask you this… when you go to work, what do the people you work with say about churches?

Do they say people are always fighting… They say it’s just a bunch of rules and regulations... A breeding ground for hypocrites?  

See, the reason we need to live out our purpose of living as people formed for God’s family is because every other person in the world NEEDS to know what exactly that looks like!

How will they know without our example?

1 John 3:16

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Our society is based around unfaithfulness.

We see it everyday.

I’ll spare you details, but I’m sure you can come up with a few.

We’re all guilty – that’s why Jesus had to die.

We can’t point fingers without feeling that twinge of guilt.

If we truly Love each other as brothers and sisters in the church, we should make an effort to consciously stand up for each other and build each other up daily.

Think of that one person who drives you up the wall… or maybe it’s two or three.

Does God love them? Did He make them in His own image? Did Jesus give His life’s blood for them too?

Then who are you to judge?

It’s only by His grace that we are saved, loved, and restored into relationship with Him.

Grace… think about it. J

How can we love them though?

On my own strength it’s impossible.

Only by His strength.

Only by the Spirit of God indwelling us and working through us, can I love people the way God loves them.

This is my purpose in life, to bring glory to God by loving people.

Everyday I have to ask Him for strength.

Paul knew what he was saying when he wrote to the many churches. Encouraging them to rise up and change things so the world would know they were Christians by their love for each other.

Through the power of the Holy Spirit, this and so much more is possible.

Real fellowship with our church family comes through a right relationship with God and the Holy Spirit empowering us to love each other!

Today my love for my church family is renewed because of a reminder of who we are as a church and the firm foundation we’ve been building the last 27 years. J

God’s church is meant to be a beautiful reflection of his love for his people… and my prayer is that wherever you find yourself tonight, your love for the church will be recommitted and that the Holy Spirit living in you will empower you to love them for the rest of your life.

Colossians 3:12-15 (NLT)

Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tender-hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. 13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. 14 Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.