Category Archives: Blog

From Broken to Beauty

Posted on Jul 1, 2016 | Download

Have you ever experienced a time in your life when you feel shattered? When everything in your life seemed to be broken and scattered on the floor in a million pieces? In these times, I find myself looking from my finite perspective and starting to feel hopeless, anxious, distraught, and clueless about how to move forward. How did this happen? Why did this happen? How do I move forward? It is so easy to become overwhelmed about our current state that we forget to fully surrender to God. In those times, we must rise above our circumstances and remember we are living not for ourselves, but for Christ. God reminds us of His infinite perspective. I am thankful for a God who looks at our mess, our chaos, our despair, and our brokenness and sees a future, a foundation, and a restoration in the making. When we are at the bottom, God is waiting for us to call out for Him so He can pour out His grace and mercy. He longs to personally meet us in the middle of our brokenness in a tender and loving way that only a Father can do. He crouches down to us and cradles us in His arms. It is here that we finally can exhale and restoration begins. He fills us with His peace even when we are in the middle of the storm. “He brought me up from a desolate pit, out of the muddy clay, and set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure.” Psalms 40:2 “Praise be to the lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Our God is a God that saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death.” Psalms 68:19-20 “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 How comforting it is to know we have a God who can empathize in all of our pain and weakness for He Himself experienced it. There is no pain, no weakness, no betrayal, and no struggle that He does not know. He experienced all of these and more. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-26 When we finally surrender to God’s sovereignty and give up control, we must surrender to His plan and His will. During times of pain we must remember to keep our focus on Him and He will begin to restore and rebuild. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isiah 55:8-9 “This is what the Lord says: ‘The people who survive the sword will find favor in the wilderness; I will come to give rest to Israel.’ The Lord appeared to us from far away saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt. Again you will take up your timbrels and go out to dance with the joyful.” Jeremiah 31:2-4 Our God rebuilds again and again. He restores over and over again. He gives us joy for mourning. There is beauty when He breaks us down to nothing so that He can begin to form new desires and fill our soul with new passions and new joy – joy that is greater than we could have ever imagined. He teaches us how dependent we are on Him during times in the valley. He shows us through the refining process that we are useless on our own and we must fully rely on Him for everything in all situations. He teaches us to always praise and worship Him, giving Him all the glory. When you are going through hard times, remember that God never promises us that life will be easy. Actually, He tells us our lives will be the opposite of easy. He tells us we will experience troubles and trials. “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 16:33 The beauty is that even though we experience pain and trials, we do not have to experience despair and hopelessness. Christ gives us a hope and a future. The hope we are given is our anchor during the storms of this life. Out of the storm comes beauty and rebirth.

Chasing the Red Dot

Posted on May 18, 2016 | Download

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2 The Red Dot If you’ve never owned a cat, I’m sure you have at least seen funny cat videos online. If you haven’t, you’re in for a treat, but be sure to set a timer – the next time you look up, hours will have passed. I saw a video recently of cat after cat, time and time again dropping everything to chase a red laser-pointer dot. Anytime the dot appears, it’s game over and their attention is immediately redirected. There’s no stopping to think about it, it’s immediate. The cat could have been eating, playing with something else, or sitting and relaxing, and then all of a sudden – PING! WHOOSH! All you see is a streak of fur dashing down the hall to chase this red dot. Cats will try to run up walls, jump onto counters, off of couches, and into boxes that are ever so slightly and deliberately balanced just at the top of the stairs. All of this to try to catch this little red dot. Watching these cats made me think about all of the many things in life we chase. We chase after money, we chase after careers, we chase after people, we chase after ideas, we chase after knowledge…and if there’s enough time at the end of the day, we might chase after God. We each need to refocus on God because we get so easily distracted.   Listening to Jesus Jesus is straightforward. Yes, Jesus taught in parables, but when it came to the really important stuff, he was candid. “Follow me”, “love each other”, “seek me and you will find me”, “ask me and you will receive”, “put me first”, and “remember me.” These are all clear and concise commands. This is a blessing for my analytical brain because I tend to over-think and complicate everything. In a world full of confusion it's so good to have a Messiah who is straightforward!   Focus on Jesus With all of the “red dots” in our lives, it is so important to keep our focus on Jesus. For some people the red dot is Facebook, for some it may be inappropriate humor, for others, the red dot is ditching responsibility to ‘have fun’. The red dot can be anything that takes our focus away from God. The enemy is fixing traps for us and baiting us with these little red dots. The enemy knows that we may not jump into a trap willingly, but we might if we are distracted by chasing after something. What will it mean for you if you finally catch this red dot? You have to count it as loss. You may argue that what you’re dreaming and chasing after is not inherently a bad thing, but despite any good intentions we may have, if anything is taking God’s place in the center of our lives, it has to go. We can’t want that dream or goal or project more than we want Jesus.   “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ” -Philippians 3:7-8  

Do You Like God?

Posted on May 11, 2016 | Download

Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. -1 John 2:15   Have you ever liked a photo on Instagram or a post on Facebook? Chances are you have. Now you might be wondering why I would bring this up, and I wouldn’t blame you. It seems out of place to talk about something other than Jesus on the church blog, right? Actually, Jesus himself always taught in parables, which are still relevant today. Our Messiah gave people bits of information that they could understand and relate to in the stories He told them – then He went a step further and explained what the stories meant and represented spiritually. Since the answer is probably yes to whether you have tapped that thumbs up icon on your well-used Smartphone, I’ll ask this question: do you “like” God?  The question is really asking do you have a close relationship with God that people envy? One that gives you an unbreakable bond to Him in everything you do? Or do you passively interact with Him? Do you just tap the thumbs-up on the Christian icons and like or favorite God every now and then? Imagine a phone with a bunch of text notifications – some are from God, some are from the world, and some are from Satan. Which ones do you answer the most? For me, the worldly ones, as well as Satan’s personal texts seem the most appealing at times. They appear as shiny and flashy ads and they seem like they will solve all your problems, but if you click on the ads they just lead you away from what you were focused on, cause viruses, and lie to you. Just like notifications on our phones, we can choose which messages to listen to in our lives. Do we listen to the voice of hope and peace and love? Or do we let whispers of ambition and pride and jealousy into our hearts and minds? We choose which messages to receive and in turn, it is our responsibility to answer them. What if the reason we don’t get more spiritual “texts” from God is that we don’t text Him back? If we don’t actively seek God’s word and character, we are left to piece together an incomplete picture of God and His plan for our world and for us. What if you just “like” what He posts and favorite all His tweets, but you don’t ever connect to Him personally? For us as Christians, if we don’t have a personal relationship with God through prayer and striving to follow his ways, we are just His metaphorical Facebook friends. We wrongly use the word “friends” and only know the easy-to-digest outer things about God because we refuse to engage on a deeper level. We as believers tend to just tap that thumbs up icon all day instead of actually connecting to our Savior and having a real relationship with Him. As followers of Christ we need to get off our spiritual cell phones and see that God is right here in the room from us – all we have to do is take a few steps off the couch and he will be waiting with arms open wide, ready to receive us.

Lessons from an Oven for My Heart

Posted on Apr 27, 2016 | Download

I was inside the oven. Just like Hansel and Gretel, except that I'd put myself there rather than being shoved inside by a witch. There I was, being overwhelmed by fumes from the chemicals of the oven cleaner I'd sprayed on because my oven is ancient and has no self-cleaning cycle. It was nasty. I tend to procrastinate when it comes to oven cleaning, which makes the task I avoid because it's gross even more disgusting by the time I get around to spraying it, waiting, and then wiping out the toxic greasy mess. Even though it’s unpleasant, it's something I do before Passover every year. God commanded the leaven to be removed from homes in ancient days, and declared it to be a command forever. While I'm not Jewish, I observe God's feasts. I’ve decided to follow the God of Israel and for our family, that includes (as it did for the mixed multitude that left Egypt and observed that very first season of bread with no leaven) the instructions for His Holy Days. We eat the frozen pizzas and cookies and use up the baking mixes in the days leading up to Passover. I lament the almost-full jar of yeast that gets thrown away because I should've planned better...again. Still, we get rid of it - because God told us to. Most scholars agree that in the Bible leaven is usually used as a metaphor for sin. The examples of leaven in Scripture paint a picture for us of staying away from behaviors that are contrary to God's word and God's will for our lives. We go through Passover avoiding all the yummy bread, instead eating the flat, yeast-less variety to remind us of the sin that we are also commanded to avoid. I wasn't thinking about this while I was cleaning out the oven, though. All my efforts were focused on the task at hand. Until something pressed so deeply into my heart and thoughts I couldn't escape it. Why don't I approach the "leaven" in my own life as diligently as I do the oven cleaning? Why am I so determined to rid that oven of every crumb, every spill, every bit of burnt-on cheese, and every trace of cleaner yet when it comes to my own life, I have a very different approach? I am willing to stretch and strain and end up with greasy black marks on my arms and brown chemical sludge on the front of my shirt to prepare my home for Passover. Why am I not willing to do the work, to endure the effort it takes, to dig deeper and reach farther when it comes to my own mess? I would rather do a bit of light duty cleaning on the outside. But real cleaning that requires elbow grease? No, thank you. We all come to a season where God says, "It's time. Time to get the leaven out. Time to clean house." We have to be willing to take an honest look at our messes and do the work to rid ourselves of the sin in our hearts. We have to want the leaven to be gone. We have to determine that whatever it takes, it's time to rid ourselves of what's built up, stuck on, and burnt on. If we're serious about walking with God, we have to be serious about reaching into the corners, however dirty they've become, and using heavy-duty cleaners until the job is done and all that's left is what God made us to be. It's not pleasant; it's messy and difficult but it's what we need to do. May this season of Unleavened Bread prompt us to clean out more than the leaven in our pantries and may we work as hard to be like our Messiah as we do to ready our homes for His feast.   Get rid of the old hametz (leaven), so you may be a new batch, just as you are unleavened—for Messiah, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed.   1 Corinthians 5:7

God’s Seamless Workmanship

Posted on Apr 20, 2016 | Download

  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. -Romans 8:28 Was that really God’s plan? I’ve seen this verse used so many times to support statements like, “you were running late because God saved you from getting in a car accident.” But I think this Bible verse is misapplied in many ways. When people go through hard times they turn to this verse and say that “it will all work out because it was all part of God’s plan.” I don’t see this verse that way. That way of thinking can be a crutch that allows people to cope with poor decisions made by humans because it puts the blame and responsibility off of them and onto God. Applying this mentality to my own past, I could say that it was God’s plan that I married the wrong man, and all of the pain I went through was worth it to finally find the person I’m with now. And while I do have a beautiful marriage now, I would be wrong to think this way. It wasn’t God’s plan that I divorced. I didn’t have God at the center of my first marriage. To be frank, I didn’t have God at the center of anything in my life at that time. But I do believe that if God was in the center of that marriage, that marriage could have been saved. At that time in my life I would say “I must be doing something right, because God keeps blessing me.” I said this all the time, while continuing to live in sin. Looking back, I even said this after the Holy Spirit tried to convict me and lead me back to Him. He was telling me, “I’m fixing this for you, but I’m letting you know that this isn’t the way it was supposed to be.” God will never approve of you sinning and living a life in opposition to Him. I don’t believe that it was God’s plan for me to go through the things I put myself through. God is not the one responsible – it was my choice to marry the person I married, and it was my choice to do the things I did and take the path I took. God, with His abundant grace, and mercy, and love, took my bad decisions and worked them for my good and His glory. When God Saves Our Supper I was making dinner with Kora, my 11-year-old daughter, when she decided she wanted to cook a box of Mac ’n’ Cheese. The instructions said to boil and drain the noodles, and then to add the milk and sauce mix. She didn’t fully read the directions and added the sauce mix and the milk into the pot when it was still full of the water used to boil the noodles. I didn’t get upset with her, but had her step aside for me to finish. I was able to save the pasta and it tasted just as good as if she had followed the directions correctly. But just because I was able to save it doesn’t mean that it was ever my plan for her to “mess it up.” That’s how I see Romans 8:28. We need to be aware of when He steps in and “saves our supper” so that we can avoid some of the mistakes we keep making. His way is perfect and He works all things for our good. But it’s not His plan for us to ignore His instructions. It all works out perfectly and seamlessly because God is awesome in power. He makes it so seamless that it’s sometimes hard to imagine that it could ever have been any different. And just like me fixing Kora’s misstep, just because He fixes our messes doesn’t mean that it was His plan to have us mess it up all along. Sometimes horrible things happen to us and sometimes we make mistakes. The goodness of God is that He takes all of those things and makes them into something that will be for good. God wastes nothing. That is an awesome God!

Letting God Heal Deeper

Posted on Apr 13, 2016 | Download

The last year has been a time of immense changes. My husband and I returned from a year living abroad, hoping to find jobs somewhere on the East Coast where I could use my newly acquired degree. After searching and applying and interviewing for months, I got a temp job instead. I was frustrated and full of despair – I constantly expressed fears to my family that I would end up getting “stuck in Texas.” The temp job became a permanent job and my husband and I moved into our own apartment in town. I resigned myself to the fact that we would probably be “stuck” for about a year, but then we could get out as fast as possible.   But God has changed my heart. My husband and I joined an amazing Life Group and found a community that encourages us “to live a life worthy of the calling [we] have received” (Ephesians 4:1). We began to pursue the Lord as a couple, praying and reading His Word together. God has lovingly convicted me and encouraged me in different seasons, but throughout it all, I can see that Tyler, Texas was His plan for us. God placed us in the exact right place at the exact right time to bring the most glory to Him. And now I have the opportunity to be a part of the message of hope that Soma has the privilege of delivering.   Throughout this year, Pastor Tony has reminded us of the words he received from the Lord for Soma for 2016: “Further and Deeper.” These words have served as an encouragement and rallying cry for me in the last few months. Last weekend, I attended a conference in Dallas that was focused on being rooted in the Gospel. I was excited to learn more about how to engage with the Bible, but didn’t really know what God wanted to do with me there. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I prayed that God would take me further and deeper in new ways.   In the first session, when the speaker gave a word about making Jesus the very center and core of one’s life, the Lord convicted me; further and deeper is not only about spending more time with and learning more about God and the Bible. Going further and deeper is about letting God have access to the deepest parts of you. The Holy Spirit brought to my mind a sin from my past for which I refused to accept God’s forgiveness. He asked me, “How can I be the center of your life when you are holding onto that secret sin so tightly?” I felt compelled to confess it out loud and let God into that part of my life. A tremendous weight was lifted off me and I felt real freedom from a heaviness that had plagued me for several years. The next day, the Holy Spirit dug deep again and reminded me of someone whom I had refused to forgive. I always felt justified in hating the person because they had done incomprehensible harm to someone I love. God broke the spirit of hatred in me and showed me that I cannot go deeper if I refuse to forgive. I am now working through this hurt with the Lord and hope that by His grace I will be able to forgive fully. As it says in Ephesians 4:31-32, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.”   God has responded to my prayer that He would draw me into a closer relationship with Him. He has begun to excavate the sensitive space inside my heart and is healing it with His love. My prayer for you is that wherever you are, you would go deeper and that your heart would be open to the amazing work of our God who wants to see His people set free.

Husband Love Your Wife

Posted on Apr 5, 2016 | Download

  The apostle Paul writes this word to both the church in Ephesus (Eph 5:25) and the church at Colossae (Col 5:19). How many married Christian men will read this scripture, nod their heads and smile, affirming in their hearts that they do love their wives? After all, as a husband they work hard to provide for the family, they are home most evenings to be with the family, they maintain the yard on the weekends, attend a church service with their family, and complete a list of “honey-do’s” on a regular basis.  If this were enough, why is divorce in the church at an all-time high?   Paul gives all husbands a command, not a suggestion, regarding their spouses. It is a behavior pattern based on faith that should be practiced at all times. It is not an easy task. In fact, for any married man this will be one of the most challenging scriptures in their walk with the Lord. So what does this command really mean? A Christian author and psychologist, Dr. Larry Crabb, in his book “The Marriage Builder” talks about loving wives through ministry. He says, “Men should serve their wives selflessly, in such a manner that they would have a greater revelation of the person of Jesus Christ.” So the journey begins. How do I serve my wife in ministry? The answer will be different for each man, but the joy is the journey of discovery. Treat your wife as you would treat yourself. Think of the eternal consequences: in ministry you have a chance to disciple your wife and bring her closer to the Lord. No man has greater love than this, than he lay down his life for his friend (wife). Can you think of anything more rewarding?   In his book, “The Marriage You’ve Always Wanted,” Dr. Gary Chapman also discusses the concept of loving your spouse. His foundation goes back to 1 Corinthians 13 and the principles of Christian charity. With our wives, we should be patient and kind (helpful) in all matters. How many times have we failed in this area? And we will fail again, but without despair let us seek the Lord and ask Him to guide us and teach us on a daily basis. We should not demand our way in a controlling spirit as we men are prone to do. How nice it would be if we displayed a positive attitude toward problems. Has any woman been edified by foul language and critical attitudes? We can practice humility, confessing mistakes and errors we make, avoiding the arrogance and pride of the secular man. Be slow to anger as the apostle James admonishes. If any of us have a vault in our heart that contains the hurts our spouses have inflicted on us, let us empty that vault (and keep it empty!). Give all of these hurts to the Lord or else a cancer of bitterness will begin to grow. Love our wives when they are their worst. Love our wives when they cheat on us. Love our wives when they desert us. Love our wives when they are unlovable. Any man can love a woman who loves him. Did not Christ love us when we were yet sinners? Husbands, are we not to be the representation of Christ to our wives? Fulfill the Great Commission in your home first and know that you have made a difference in eternity.    

What To Do When You Lose Focus

Posted on Feb 25, 2016 | Download

Philippians 4:1-8 has been a passage of scripture I’ve clung to for as many years as I can remember.  The reason is simple. I can’t stay focused. Not in an ADHD sort of way, but in a way where I let life overwhelm me and dictate my focus instead of keeping my thoughts and heart turned toward the One who can give me what I truly need no matter the circumstance. Recently, because life is good at giving us challenging situations, I turned to these verses again.  There are instructions in these verses that are almost like a blueprint for how to find God’s sweet spot of Shalom. Stand firm in the Lord (vs. 1) Standing firm could also be translated as persevere. In the Greek, the word literally means ‘to be stationary, unmoving.’ We are to persist, unwavering, in godliness. Be in harmony (with others) in the Lord (vs. 2) It’s almost a sense of sharing one mind, rather than creating discord. This doesn’t mean that you have to agree with everything everyone else thinks, but rather, intentionally choosing to live at peace with others, remembering that we are part of one Body. Rejoice in the Lord always (vs. 4) Be cheerful! Reflect happiness! The hard part comes with the “always.” At all times. Every time. The Apostle Paul repeats this instruction, which tells us it is vital! We need to remember that the joy of the Lord is our strength, no matter what we’re facing, and know that we can reflect that joy with God’s help. This is the third instruction given that is coupled with “in the Lord.” Our own strength isn’t enough. To stand firm, to be in harmony with others, to rejoice in whatever circumstances surround us, we must take up a fixed position with our God. Let your gentleness be known to all people (vs. 5) Gentleness can also imply patience, mildness, and fairness. This is so difficult when we’re stressed, annoyed, frustrated, and tired of dealing with difficulty, but it is so important. Be gentle with others, be gentle with yourself, just as God is being gentle with you. Do not be anxious about anything (vs. 6) Another way to say this is to “take thought of nothing.” Do not let things trouble your mind. Empty your mind of your own troubling thoughts and let God replace them! The next verses even tell us what God would have us think about instead of the broken record of our own defeating thoughts. Finally, dwell on these things AND put them into practice (vs. 8): Whatever is true (accurate, exact) Whatever is honorable (worthy of respect, with high morals) Whatever is just (based on what is morally right and fair) Whatever is pure (unadulterated, free of contamination) Whatever is lovely (having a beauty that appeals to the heart or mind as well as to the eye) Whatever is commendable (deserving of praise) These verses are packed with guidance! What does Paul tell us in verse seven will be the result of our decision to put these things into practice? “The peace of God, which passes all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Messiah Yeshua our Lord!” That word “guard,” or “keep,” is worth looking at. At its simplest, it means that He will protect. The Greek word used indicates protection by a mounted military guard posted to keep watch. How amazing that God would do that for us! We are not alone! All it takes from us is a little re-focusing.

Too Busy For Church

Posted on Feb 16, 2016 | Download

 Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.” Too Busy for Life My weekends used to be filled with a long to-do list that I did not have time for during the week. At one point I was working and going to school and taking care of three kids. It was one of the hardest seasons I have faced. I was stretched to the max and felt like I had no time for anything other than “To Dos.” I had a love-hate relationship with the weekend. It was my time to get caught up on household chores and homework, and then squeeze in as much family time as I could. Life was too busy for church. Too Busy for Church Church always seemed to fall under the list of things I wanted to do, and things that I needed to do often took precedence. After writing out my schedule in detail I could tell you that there literally was no time for church. Any weekend that seemed to have a break coming would inevitably be filled with time consuming drama. On the rare occasion that we woke up with our day “free,” I would very easily become discouraged and justify not going for the simplest reasons. Even if we were only going to be five or ten minutes late I would just give up and not go. As many who have gone through this can tell you, this pattern cannot last long before you reach an ultimatum. I could either give up trying to make time where there was none and just wait for a season in life that was less hectic, (waiting for this season is a painful waste of time; it’s like the phrase “tomorrow never comes”), or I could resolve to eat on paper plates all week so that I could go to church instead of cleaning the kitchen. One little sacrifice, (though at the time it didn’t seem so little), for an opportunity to fellowship and be encouraged, all the while praying that the fight would be worth it. Too Busy Not to go to Church God is faithful and the message was something I could carry with me all week. With determination (I can be pretty stubborn when I want to be—sometimes it’s a gift, other times not so much) I did the same thing the next week, and then the week after. And a weird thing happened one day while at the grocery store. I passed the aisle with the paper plates and looked at my list and remembered that I didn’t need them because I knew we still had plenty. I hadn’t needed to buy any in a while. I had been going to church regularly, that was the only thing that had changed. Also, I no longer saw church as a want but I realized that it had been a need all along. Seeking God above the chores, seeking God above a lazy day off of work, seeking God above all else had rearranged my life in the best possible way. The house was kept clean, the dishes were getting done, and the laundry was all washed. Even all of the pointless and time consuming drama seemed to fade from my life. God Rewards Those Who Seek Him And that is only how my life changed on the outside. I can’t even begin to tell you how much better I felt on the inside. I could see a difference in my whole family as well—we could all feel the change. I made room for God and somehow everything else fell into place. I’ve talked to several families and they have all said the same thing about life going wrong on church days. I thought it would get a little easier when we found a church service on Saturday nights instead of Sunday mornings, but I was wrong. I can’t help but laugh because now my Sunday mornings are easy as cake and my Saturday evenings sometimes offer a struggle. But it’s a lot easier now to battle those little inconveniences of kids not finding their shoes or running a little behind. I realize now that it is better to be a little late than to miss the whole thing. Make room for Him and He will change your life.

At Peace With God’s Timing

Posted on Jan 19, 2016 | Download

When God Delays For 40 Days. One of the more fascinating scriptures to me is Exodus 32:1. It says, “Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, ‘Come make us gods that shall go before us, for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’” You would think that after 400 years of captivity and being apart of the EXODUS that included miracle after miracle that they would allow a bit more time for God to do His work with Moses on the mountain. Not so, though. It only took 40 days and the people were up in arms! Looking back, I remember times in my life when I had an expectation for things to happen in a certain time frame and in the end, my time frame really didn’t mean a hill of beans. I remember going into my freshman year of high school as an aspiring basketball player. The only problem was that my boyish body wasn’t  up for the task of my MAN sized dreams. I was like a little runt who had not hit the growth spurt that many of my thick bearded buddies had. It was not till the summer AFTER my freshman year that the MAN in me came out and all of the sudden I was bigger, faster, stronger. The result was going from  a role player on my freshman basketball team to a sub on the Varsity team my sophomore year. Comically, it was still a year LATE in my mind though. God's Timing. There are several other stories I have of God not working things out in my time frame. It’s funny how that works. I could have swore that I was suppose to get married in my early twenties. God at least let me get the “twenties” part right and I got married to the love of my life at… 29. I recall starting college when I was 18 and after a long detour, not graduating till I was…30. I also remember the talks where my wife and I wanting to at least wait a year before we had children. Well, at least we got nine months of alone time, right? Story after story and lesson after lesson, God reminds us that His timing is supreme. I have learned through the 15 years of being devoted to Christ that in many ways it’s less about the fulfillment and more about the waiting. The waiting is the place of preparation. It’s the place that gets you ready to be able to handle the fulfillment. So you can fully appreciate it. In the waiting comes the refining, the maturing, the character and the heart. God's Promise, My Character. Just recently we had a very generous family give us a very nice Honda Odyssey minivan. Of course, this is HUGE to us because we are in the middle of the adoption process that will take our two kids to three or maybe even more. The point being, we need a larger vehicle then our smooth riding Honda Civic. Since our second son was born, I have been looking at minivans online, especially Honda Odysseys. That’s almost two years of looking, researching and above all… waiting. We knew God had a plan and in that plan was a time frame. We did not know the time frame, but at this point in my life, I really didn’t care. I knew this season was more about what is God doing IN ME in the waiting, then WHEN will we get a car our whole family can fit in. Like the Israelites, there were many times that I almost took matters into my own hands. I would go and visit dealerships, call people about their Odyssey listings online, etc. The problem was there was no peace. We knew that God wanted to do a miracle in our lives when it came to this vehicle. When I would begin the process of “creating my own golden calf” so to speak, I would feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit. That still small voice saying, “just wait”, “keep holding on”, “I have not forgot about you”, “I am faithful”. In the end, I obeyed and went with the PEACE over the instant gratification of doing things my way or in my own timing. God was gracious and we are beyond thrilled about the new vehicle addition to our family. We can’t wait for the call when we as a family hop into our new van and go pick up the newest addition(s) to our family! Maybe your a missionary praying for a certain break through in your ministry or your finances. You could be that praying neighbor who is waiting so anxiously to see your neighbor come to Jesus. Or maybe your are a family that has been waiting for what seems like forever for that new baby through adoption. Instead of seeing it as God's delays, let's look at it as God's opportunities. Let’s make use of that time the very best we can. Grow, learn, love, change and all of the sudden, your nudge will not be to create a golden calf, it will be the Lord making good on HIS word!

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