Earnestly I Seek You

When you have a best friend, boyfriend, or close family member, someone you spend a lot of time with, you know them. 

You know the sound of their voice, their footsteps, even what their keys sound like as they walk around the corner. You can finish their sentences and you know exactly how they would react to certain situations. You can tell within seconds if their day was good or bad and with a glance you know exactly what occurred to put them in that good or bad mood. You know what their car looks like, what they are allergic too, or whether or not they like lemon in their water. I think you get the point that when you spend a lot of time with someone, you know them.


It's amazing to me that God knows every single detail of my life, and more. However, what is unfathomable to me is that he knows EVERY person's life to this great detail. He knows the distinct sound of every persons laugh and cry. (Psalm 18:6; 40:1) He knows our finger prints and how many hairs are on our head. (Luke 12:7) He counts every tear that falls and collects them in jars. (Psalm 56:8) He knows are coming in and going out. (Psalm 139:1-3) He delights in knowing us, and He has revealed Himself so that we might know Him!


This is extremely crazy to me because I don't know about you, but I definitely don't have anything to offer God. He has it all, yet he yearns to know me. That is ridiculously insane.


We have such reason to delight in him, to soak up his word and learn his thoughts. He has given us such a tool with the bible. He wants us to learn His thoughts, finish His sentences, to know His voice, His footsteps, and the sound His keys make when He walks. He wants us to be angry at what He is angry at, and be full of joy at what gives Him joy.


It is my life's desire to know God, and what an indescribable privilege it is that He has given us that opportunity. Don't take that for granted. I pray I won't.

"O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld you power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you." (Psalm 63:1-3)

"Yes Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you." (Isaiah 26:8)

"Then I will go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight. I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." (Psalm 43:4-5)

There is a time...

One of the most valuable lessons I have learned in life so far is to remember my deepest sorrow during times of joy and to praise God for both.


"There is a time for everything and...He has made everything beautiful in its time." -Ecclesiastes 3:1-11


God created a time for weeping and a time for laughing, a time to mourn and a time to dance.


And he made all of it beautiful.


I realized tonight as I was thinking through the things while playing vigorously at the piano in the back room, that God created sorrow to the glory of His name. He didn't create joy alone and then turn his face away from pain or sorrow.


He says He will comfort those who mourn (Isaiah 61:1-2), increase the power of the weak (2 Corinthians 12:9-10), and give us rest for our souls (Matt. 11:28). He will strengthen the feeble hands, and steady the knees that give way (Isaiah 35:3-4). When my flesh fails, He is the strength of my heart, (Psalm 73:21-28), He is able to keep me from falling (Jude 6:24).


Those who who look to Him are radiant, He is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:1-5; 18). The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit (Psalm 51:17). He has turned my wailing into dancing and clothed me with joy so that I may give Him thanks forever (Psalm 30).


I could go on and on. He does all this so that we may display His splendor (Isaiah 61:3).

We serve an amazingly creative God. A God who's glory and divine nature are not hidden from us.

"For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen." -Romans 1:20

Not only does He allow us to clearly see His glory, He allows us to take part. 

"My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long." -Psalm 71 (Read all of it)

When we are going through times of joy and gladness, God is glorified, but I am convinced that nothing warms His heart more than when we proclaim His goodness through the most difficult times of our lives. Our joy is to His glory. Our pain is to His glory. 

"We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and shield. In Him our hearts rejoice for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you." -Psalm 33

To Cherish like a Child

When I was a child, I didn't necessarily have to work for anything. I had food, water, shelter, and toys without me having anything to do with it. And when I think of being a child, I remember what was most important to me.


When I was about six or seven I went to my cousins house and she was going through her toys and decided on a pile of stuff animals she was going to throw away. In that pile there was a little brown bear with a little pink sleeping bag. I picked it up and asked her if she was going to throw it away and if I could have it. She said I could and from that moment on, "Holly" the bear never left my side.


I took her to the store and placed her in the shopping cart, Holly and I went to the library and I made sure to pick out a book her size, I read with her, I talked with her, I put her in her sleeping bag right next to me whenever I went to bed, and we had tea on many occasions. I think back to how much that precious bear meant to me, how much I cared for Holly, and what a big part of my life she was and I feel in awe. 


When I think back to Christ's words: "Have a childlike faith." I can't help but believe that He meant so much more than leaping with the fearlessness of a child. We are called to cherish Christ with everything we have. To spend every moment thinking about Him, to be eager to spend time with Him and he quick to give Him praise.


"From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger." Psalm 8:2 NIV


The Message puts it this way: "Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs that drown out enemy talk, and silence atheist babble."


In Matthew 11, Jesus is speaking to people somewhat out of frustration because they were ignoring his messages and miracles and in the middle of speaking with them, He interrupts Himself to speak with God and says: "I praise you Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes Father, for this was your good pleasure."


Of all the religious leaders and wise men, no one could understand Jesus' message. But God revealed it in the hearts of little children, and it was His pleasure.


Matthew 18:2-6 "He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me."


Mark 10:16 "And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them."


Matthew 21:12 "Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise?”

I didn't earn Holly. I didn't deserve Holly. I didn't pay for or trade for Holly. I never even looked or search for Holly, yet she was the most important thing to me as a child. I cherished that life-less beanie baby with all of my child heart.

How much more should I cherish Christ. 

How much more should I want Him to never leave my side. To go to the store with Him, to go to the library with Him, to read with Him, to talk with Him, to lie down with Him by my side at night, and to spend time in fellowship with Him over a cup of coffee.

We are called to be children of Christ in every aspect. To have the faith of a child, and to also have the gentleness, the loyalty, the compassion, and the boldness to cherish like that of a child.

1 John 3:1 "See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"

Unspeakable Joy.

Recently Christ has given me a whole new perspective on life.


He has given me so much pure joy in life, joy I have never experienced before. I have learned how important spending time with my God really is. My time with God is absolutely vital in my life, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Everything in life has so much more meaning, so much more color, when I am infatuated with the Spirit. I will do my best to explain what I have been experiencing, but please understand, this kind of joy is completely unspeakable, only truly understood through experience. How exciting.


Take worship for example. Going to church week to week, thinking I can just show up and "get something" out of worship is a complete lie from Hell. If everyday we spend time in God's love letter, pour ourselves into His hand, and learn about how worthy, holy, and just completely indescribable He is, then by the time Sunday comes around, we are so filled with awe and wonder and reverence that we can't help but completely lose our composure in worship. 


Worship means so so much more to me when I constantly point my thoughts and passion into Scripture and prayer during every hour of the day. My feelings toward God are so overwhelming that I am immediately thrust into a state of passionate life changing worship each week. 


Please do not take my word on this. I am begging you. Being saturated by the Spirit of God is an experience that no one should miss out on. I am in tears as I write to you because of how badly I want you to experience the joy that comes from being saturated in the Spirit. 


I am going to attempt the impossible task of trying to explain this joy to you. 


There are many different people that attend weddings. First, there are the acquaintance relatives and friend-of-a-friend's. These people probably have spent very little time with the couple getting married, they probably will go to the wedding only because they don't have any other plans that day. They will probably sit in the back, watch the ceremony, and then leave. They have no real emotional ties to the couple, the wedding might make them smile or feel a slight, short feeling of happiness, but it soon will disappear and they will go on with normal life like nothing ever happened. 


Then there is the wedding party and the parents of the couple. These people have invested time into this wedding and into the couples lives. They have prepared some, and made sacrifices, they have given some of their lives to make this day sweet. They look forward to the ceremony and will enjoy it and maybe their lives will be slightly affected after. 


Then. Then there is the bride and groom. This is the day they have waited for their entire lives. They have put everything into this relationship and everything into preparing themselves for this day. They have sacrificed everything they possibly could for this one day. When the moment finally comes to exchange vows, there is no hiding the joy and absolute passion the bride and groom have for each other. They both have completely abandoned life as they have always known it, to spend eternity with each other because they know that all their sacrifices are completely worth it. This day and moment will change them for the rest of their lives.


I think it is no accident that God chose to call us His bride. He wants that passion, sacrifice, and pure joy from us. Everyday when we sacrifice time to spend with Him, prepare our hearts to delve into His word, and tune our ears to His whisper, we are preparing ourselves to experience a reunion with God like no other. 


Every single time we come before the Lord in worship, it should be a reminder of that day that we first exchanged our vows with Christ. When we first decided to live with Christ instead of being alone. Every time we go to worship, we shouldn't come out the same person. 


I can't even express to you the excitement that this mental picture gives me. 


The Lord wants us to experience His joy like never before, every time we worship Him. It is so much more than singing, so much more than "gathering our thoughts" or saying hi to people we haven't seen in a whole week before the message comes. Worship is our time to remember our wedding day. 


Let us never be deceived into thinking that worship doesn't really matter, or that it is only for some people but not for me, or that we don't need to prepare for worship, it just "happens". No. Satan knows how life changing sacrificial worship is. He wants with his whole being to distract us and make us believe that we don't need to be saturated in the Spirit to experience true worship. This is a lie straight from Hell. I could not use stronger words. 


God is waiting on you to be completely intertwined with Him on a daily bases. He is waiting for you to lay your composure aside and give Him your everything in worship. He has called you by name and He wants you to remember your wedding day. 


"Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready." -Revelation 19:7

Don't Settle

In a previous blog I addressed the lie of thinking that being single is a negative thing.

There is one more myth I would like to address.

"You will never find someone if you stick to those standards. You need to settle. Everyone else does it. It's the only way you will ever find true love."

False. False. False.

I wanted to write a blog on this subject now mostly because I recently had a conversation with a friend about Christians dating non-Christians and a few things caught my attention.

First of all, dating is for marriage. Completely and solely to find the person you are to spend the rest of your life with.

If you disagree, honestly that is a whole other blog topic, but I'll leave you with this.
If you're not ready to get married (age wise or financially) you shouldn't be dating. (Trust me on this one. Don't factor in time. Things go faster than you would think.)
And secondly, if you don't date for marriage, you WILL get your heart broken or break someone else's heart. At that point dating goes from fulfilling God's plan for your life into a selfish form of temporary pleasure. If you still have questions over that one facebook me I'd be happy to talk with you. :)

With that out of the way, I think we need to realize the importance of this topic. This is the second BIGGEST decision of your life. (First being when you accepted Christ's forgiveness and became an adopted Son or Daughter - again, if you have any questions, facebook me. :) I honestly believe that Satan is slowly deceiving us into blending in with the world.

Flirting is no big deal. Dating is no big deal. Marriage is no big deal. Adultery is no big deal. Divorce is no big deal.

It. Is. A. Big. Deal. Don't be deceived. Satan is slowly winning this battle and we can't let it happen. We as believers are not of this world and we need to start acting like it! It is not okay to blend in because we don't belong here!

Before I get too excited, I need to address a statement I heard earlier. "The bible says to minister the Spiritually blind, and if you had a close enough relationship with a non-Believer that you would date them, then you'd be able to minister to them even better." Now, I absolutely love the person that sent this to me and I consider them a great friend, but I respectfully disagree.

By saying that we need to act like we don't belong here I am in no way saying that we need to hide our lights under bowls. (Matt. 5:14-16) We are specifically called to be a light to the non-Believers several times throughout the Bible, but we need to be on guard. Yes, we need to build friendships with the sons and daughters of the world so that we can shine in their lives and be Jesus to them, but dating them is completely crossing the line.

If dating is solely for marriage, which I believe it is, and when you are married, the two become one, which I believe is true, how can it be possible to be one with an unbeliever??

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 says it best. I can't imagine being in a union with a person who didn't share my foundation of life, passion behind my every move and breathe, purpose of my life, hope for the future, and faith in the unseen.

I honestly believe that if you are a sold-out, in love, desperate, Christ follower, than this would be repulsive to you. You would have absolutely nothing in common with a non-Believer, your entire world would be completely different. Even if it wasn't completely against the word of God, marriage, or dating, an unbeliever would be discouraging and just miserable to both parts.

Now I realize that may have been harsh and if you don't agree, again, talk to me. :) Also, I know I only addressed part of that statement, the other referring to the benefit of ministering to an unbelieving partner.

In short, God gives us specific instructions and examples of leading people to Christ and showing them Jesus love, and oddly enough, none of those stories including the yoking of a believer to a non-believer.

In closing, don't settle. God has everything already planned out for your life (Jer. 29:11), including your spouse. So be still, know that He is God (Psalm 46:10) and don't worry about what your Heavenly Father already has completely under control. (Matt. 6:34)

"I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." -John 6:33

Don't miss out on the amazing joys God has for you in marriage. Don't forfeit God's plan and settle for your own, because honestly? Our plans for our lives are laughable compared to His. How exciting. :)

We Declare War

Shrieks of terror fill the air. The clash of armor and weapons ring out. Blood covers sweat filled pores. One by one, men fall.


We are in a war.

A young man in a dirty uniform stood, rifle loosely held in his bandaged hands. The enemy was approaching fast. 

We can not afford to be distracted.

The boy  failed to be alert to his surroundings, he was completely unaware. He turned and met his foe face to face. But only for a moment. 

Putting our guard down is fatal. 

A shot fired. The boy fell to the ground.

We can not take this lightly any longer. The Devil and his demons are upon us and they are blood thirsty. We can not stand back and pretend this isn't real. No one would dare going into a war empty handed, why do we think that we can go about life without armor? Things are happening, God is on the move and Satan doesn't like it one bit.


We are children of the Living and Active God. Our Father gives us everything we need to completely abolish Satan in his tacks, yet we constantly forget that the same power that conquered the grave LIVES IN US. This is huge. We have the power to move mountains, scatter fears, and evaporate lies. 


"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." -2 Corinthians 10:3


"If our God is for us, then who could ever stop us? And if our God is for us, what could stand against?"


Answer: Nothing. Nothing. NOTHING. :)


I wish, with all my heart, that I could wrap my mind around that thought. That nothing can stand between us and God. Not. One. Thing. 


Twisted and bloody, lifeless bodies lie motionless on the dark, smoke covered ground. Night falls. The enemy retreats, their stomachs full of satisfaction, their teeth and claws dripping with blood.


Nothing can come between us and God.


Silently, a heavy and heavenly breath consumes the battle field like a relieving mist. What once were lifeless lungs, take in breath. Slowly the field starts to move. Bodies arise with the sunlight. Eyes are opened, ears are restored, wounds are healed. The dead have come to life. 


Through Christ, we are given a second chance to fight.

A young man in a newly clean uniform stood, rifle tightly held in his strong hands. The enemy was approaching fast. 

The boy was completely alert to his surroundings, entirely aware. He turned and met his foe face to face. But only for a moment. 

A shot fired. The enemy fell to the ground.

Let's fight.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." -Ephesians 6:12

Two Isn't Always Better Than One...

"Look at you. You are such a failure. You've been single for almost a year now. No one wants to date you and no one ever will, especially if you keep your standards so high. What are you expecting, Mr. (or Mrs.) Perfect? Get real. You're going to have to settle. Everyone else does. And you better settle fast because you are the only one who isn't dating right now. Such a failure..."


Lies. Lies. Lies. 


Yet we are so quick to believe every word. We live in a culture that says you are a reject if you aren't in a relationship. Every movie, song, commercial is about "love" and being with the opposite sex. But is this really what life is all about?


Obviously not. But it's easy to get sucked into isn't it?


We treat dating like a game of Duck, Duck, Goose. Everyone sits in a circle and if your desperate enough, and loud enough, or popular enough, then you just might get tagged and chased. The same people get tagged and chased and tagged and chased and you just sit on the side lines wishing someone would tag you. Finally, someone touches your head. You don't think twice about whether or not your going to marry the person or whether their standards match up with yours, they tagged you! That's what you've been waiting for and it finally happened to you! So you run full speed ahead with very little thought and you're in the game. 


Being single is not the "mush pot" that we get stuck in every once and a while and we just have to wait it out until we can get back into the real game of boy chases girl. This is a lie from Hell. 


But why in the world would Satan lie about that? Because he knows how valuable our single years are. He knows that God has a special plan and special tasks for us to do in our single years that we can't accomplish at any other time in our life. Once those years are gone, they're gone. And Satan wants with all his heart to distract us and brainwash us into thinking those years are a curse. Because in reality? The thought of us actually believing that our single years are a gift, and following God's plan for us in our single lives scares the Devil to death. 


This is a time in our lives that we can't afford to lose. God has a list of things we need to do for Him at this point in our lives that we just can't do when we are married. It's a big deal how we choose to spend this time. This is a God given opportunity. 


You have the whole rest of your life to be with the person of your dreams. Why rush it now and impose on the few precious single years God's given you? 


We've all heard the expression, "This is your life, you only get one, spend it wisely." Or something to that extent. Well I want to change it up a bit.


This is your single life. You only get one. Spend it wisely.


"What can I say? And what can I do? But offer this heart, oh God. Completely to You."