Love...

If I give everything I own to the poor 

and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, 

but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. 

So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, 

I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up. 

Love cares more for others than for self. 

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. 

Love doesn’t strut,

 Doesn’t have a swelled head, 

Doesn’t force itself on others, 

Isn’t always “me first,” 

Doesn’t fly off the handle, 

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, 

 Doesn’t revel when others grovel, 

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, 

Puts up with anything, 

Trusts God always, 

Always looks for the best, 

Never looks back, But keeps going to the end. 

 1 Corinthians 13: 6-7 MSG

I read these verses today and just love The Message version of it. It is easy to read these verses and immediately think about the people around us..."Yeah, yeah...he should do this more, or she should react this way more." 

But then, God does this little thing called "CONVICT". If we spend time with Him and we read these verses with an open heart and mind, He convicts! 

I can do all the work in the world to save the orphans in Africa. I can travel there. I can take others. I can fundraise and quote scripture, but if I come home and don't tend to my family, if I use words that are not uplifting, if I ignore the needs of my husband...I HAVE NOTHING. It is all filthy rags.

I can share Jesus with the community, I can open my home for Bible study, I can talk with my friends about Christ, but if I fly off the handle with my children, or I don't trust God to provide for me, or I strut aound with pride and arrogance...well then...filthy rags! 

You see the kind of love God wants is pure. It is free of pride. Free of self. Free of doing because I want to be seen as the one in the limelight. God's kind of love is WHITE AS THE FIRST SNOWFALL. There is no self-serving, no hopeful recognition, no personal reason to His kind of love. 

And oh dear Lord how I fail at that. How I make the story about me. How I put myself into stories where I don't belong. How I allow others to puff me up and lack the trust in you I so desire. Dear Lord, cleanse me. Give me the love you describe in these verses. Help me to give not to get. Help me to share just to share. Help me to deflate myself and inflate you. Help me to trust when I don't see.      

Happy Tuesday!

Jen 

HOUSE PAAAARRRTTTYYY!!!!

I looked out the door and wasn't quite sure what to do. Here I was standing in my best friend's living room, having a great time. Kids were every where. Boys. Girls. Kids who loved music. Kids who played basketball. Kids who played football. Kids who played baseball and volleyball. Cheerleaders and glee members. 

Wayne and Connie were out of town. They had been gone all weekend and most of the time their home had been calm, but tonight the house was full. Full of teenagers being teenagers. Teenagers who didn't know the Lord. Teenagers playing loud music and drinking alcohol and using words they probably should not have been using. Beer pong. Tequila shots. Poker. Dance music.

It was a full blown house P-AAAAA-RRR-TTT-YYY!!!!!. 

And now, now...the house became a quiet. 

There was a knock on the door and standing there, in the breezeway, was my dad. 

He had come to take charge of his daughter. She must have lost her mind. She must be crazy to think she can get away with this. Drinking. As an athlete. After being told over and over not to do it. So here he was...at the door of the house party. Here, tonight, the only parent, but here to pull her from the sin he knew was not good for her. To remove her from the temptation. To have a "come to Jesus meeting" with her. To take charge of his daughter.

Mark 3:21

"When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, 'He is out of his mind'".   

His family thought he was out of his mind. They had heard about what he was doing in Galilee and on the mountainside and they packed up their bags, saddled the camels, grabbed the water jugs and set out to "TAKE CHARGE OF HIM." 

For some reason, it sortof makes me giggle today. To think that I am not alone in having had to have my family member, "Come and Take Charge of me".  Even Jesus has had such happen! 

But you see...there is a difference in our scenarios. A big difference...and one I am not proud of. 

I was sinning. 
I was "out of my mind".
I was in need of being "taken charge of".

Jesus...well you know the rest...Jesus was not.

Jesus was out healing people. He was preaching a gospel of repentance. He was putting the Pharisees in a tizzy as he healed on Sunday, read their minds, and ate and drank with the sinners, while never sinning himself.

I don't remember everything that was said that night, at my friend's house, but I do remember my dad saying, "Jenny. Get-in-the-car!" . I remember it being awfully quiet for the two block car ride to our home. I remember my father's face as he drove me home, wondering how I could disgrace our family so. 

In verse 31 we see that Jesus' family arrives. They send someone in to get him. They are ticked. They have traveled this far to get him. They have been disgraced. They would like a word with him. 

But...
      that word doesn't come. 
Jesus won't have it. 
He knows he is doing God's work and he knows that whatever it is his family has to say is not going to stop his work here on earth.
      His mission is too great. 
         His path has already been set. 
             Not even his family will get in the way...or get a word in. 

For in this moment, Jesus reminds us....that the only family he has are those who do his will. 

AND THANK GOD FOR THAT!!!

Because Jesus is the reason I can write this today. His lack of accepting the knock on the door from his family, is what opened the door for me. He stayed true to the mission. He stood his ground, knowing he would eventually save us all. 

Jesus took my hand, "lifted me out of the mud and mire, and placed my feet on a solid rock."  which really, really is all my dad was trying to do that night in Breda!

Dear Lord,
 Thank you today for refusing the ways of this world and providing a way to your eternal, heavenly world. Thank you for the invitation to walk with you. Thank you for the knock on the door. Thank you for calling me family.

Pin It

So I have this little addiction. It's not necessarily a bad, bad addiction...nothing like drugs or even alcohol (although at one point in my life that may have been true...thank God for salvation and transformation through His son, Jesus Christ!)...but none-the-less it is an addiction.

I can't get enough of it. If I have a free moment I find myself surrounded with it. I think of it when I am not engaged in it and I just constantly want more of it.

Yep...addiction!

You see it's this little 'ol website some of you have probably heard of:

P-I-N-T-E-R-E-S-T

People post pictures of all kinds of everything...
         from recipes
             to room ideas
                to clothing options
                   to Bible verses
                      and much much more.

And you can steal that picture and "pin it" to your board.

Now, you see I rarely go back to my pins. I mean once in awhile I will try a new recipe and my kids will say, "Mom, was this a Pinterest find?"  But other than that, it's not like my wardrobe has magically changed into what the pins look like (or my hair) (or my house).

So in some sense it is like a little fantasy world.

Some people even have boards that allude to that...called "some day" or "one day when I am rich" or "when I have my own place".

It's a world we would LOVE to have, but don't quite yet.
     Perfectly curled hair with the simplest little highlights,
                 a wonderfully painted sign on pallet boards above the bed that says,
                                 "all because two people fell in love",
                 and a pair of camel colored boots with just a bit of sock showing
                  flanking our tight fitting blue jeans and off white sweater.

It's a fantasy world really.

So I started thinking about Pinterest and for some reason I made a connection to what my prayer world can look like sometimes.

"God, please remove this problem I have at work."
"God please heal my cold."
"God please bless our efforts at the fundraiser today."
"God please let my children become perfect little beings who never disobey and always tell their mother they love her and go on to be amazing missionaries for you."
"God please let the 10 pounds of Christmas candy miraculously fall off my body despite this extremely non-healthy, 1 stick of butter and a packet of ranch dressing chicken from Pinterest I am about to eat."

It's my little fanstasy world playing out to my God. To the creator of the universe I am asking for a fantasy world. Not HIS WILL. Not what will help extend His kingdom. Not what He wants or desires or knows will bring my co-workers, my neighbors, my friends, my family, the lady in the convenience store, or myself closer to HIM....but my little fantasy world of help me be comfortable and be able to eat what I want and oh yeah, look adorable while doing it.... prayer life!

YIKES!
Can anyone taste the conviction alongside my cup of peppermint mocha this morning?

So today, today I will try to stop "Pinning" to my God. Today I will try to start praising Him. In the good and the bad. In the hard and the easy. In the known and the unknown. I will praise Him!

"Our father who art in Heaven, HALLOWED BE THY NAME!"
__________________________________________________________

Today I will try to focus on His will. On His plan. On His desires. And rest in knowing that the creator of the universe probably has more in mind for me than brownies with a strawberry on top that looks like a Santa Claus hat (Yes, one of the top "Pins" of 2012!)

"Thy kingdom come, THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven."
___________________________________________________________


Today, I will ask for what I need. What God believes I need. I will accept what I am given, whether in abundance of simple contentment.

"Give us this day our daily bread"
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Today I will remember I am a sinner in front of a HOLY GOD. I will remember that I need forgiveness daily but that my sins are blotted out and become white as snow when I approach the throne of my father in heaven with the blood shed by his son! And I will remember to forgive others as he has forgiven me...if the recipe doesn't work, if the laundry isn't done, if the words are not kind...

"and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us"
 ___________________________________________________________

Today Lord I will remember that not all things that look good are truly good. I will remember that I am easily led astray by the fantasy world of Pinterest or other online sites or the lives of my friends and families that I may covet. I will remember that Satan is real and alive and hates the Christian faith. He prowls around waiting to devour us and others. I am in need of a leader in you  Lord....let me remember to simply follow.

"and lead us not into temptation but deliver from the evil one"
_____________________________________________________________

Today Lord...let me take my life, the life you give me, the breath you provide every second and just live it for you...right now. Not a fantasy, not a dream, but a reality of the wonderful works you have and are about to do in my world!

Jen