It's Not Enough

It's not enough.

Going to church every Sunday & Wednesday is not enough. Surrounding yourself with good Christian friends is not enough. Tithing regularly is not enough. Blessing your food before you eat is not enough. Doing daily devotionals is not enough.

God is not just a routine. Jesus is not just someone we sing pretty songs about. The Holy Spirit is not just a feeling. Being a Christian is not just being a part of a church.

If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless. Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. ~James 1:26-27

There is so much more that we often miss. God wants to be so much more in our lives. Jesus wants to do so much more through our lives. The Holy Spirit wants to dwell within our lives.

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. ~James 4:7-8a

Nothing should come before Him. Nothing should distract us from Him. Nothing should hold our hearts above Him. Or something is wrong.

If we are redeemed we are called to be apart from this world. Our life is no longer our own, it is His. And we need to remember that.

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. ~1 John 2:15-17

You don't just represent yourself, or even your biological family anymore. You represent the church family. You represent Him.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. ~Ephesians 2:10

This is something we all struggle with at times. We are selfish, sinful people by nature, but we need to overcome our sin. Just as Jesus overcame death.

"O Death, Where is your victory? O Death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing your toil is not in vain in the Lord. ~1 Corinthians 15:55-58

It isn't easy. But anything less is just not enough.

How I Found True Love

I grew up searching for love. I wanted to find the perfect man to share my life with and church seemed a good place to start. As a child I would go to church as often as I could. I went to Catholic church with my 'step' grandfather occasionally when I was really young and then as a preteen I began going to a baptist church with my sister's friend for AWANA. At first just my little sister had been invited to go along with her new best friend, and same name pal, Nicole, but after a week or 2, the rest of us were allowed to tag along also. That eventually evolved into not only Wednesday nights, but Sunday morning services as well. My first experience in Sunday school was not a super positive one, but I was just a very sensitive soul, and the teacher had unintentionally hurt my feelings. Still I felt drawn to church and I loved being surrounded by a group of people who just seemed to care.

Love was in the air at church and somewhere along the line that's where I met 'Him'. The man I had been longing for. He was kind and caring. I knew He would always take care of me. I loved Him.

Over the next few months, I jumped at any opportunity possible to go to church, where I could be closest to Him. The atmosphere there was like none I had ever experienced before, I was accepted in this world. When at my very public school, I was often the outcast and never quite popular enough to feel comfortable. But when we began going to church I never looked back. I didn't want that part anymore, I was content to who I had become at school, because I knew I would always have Him and I would always have church. Though I had never said a specific prayer, I knew Him in my heart. I was baptized along with my mom, at the age of 12. I knew Jesus' love, and I knew He had died for me, and I wanted nothing more than to give Him my life.

In my teen years, the monumental moment when I got my license came and I could not have been more thrilled to have a car. I actually had a job a couple of months prior, so I needed that car to drive to work, and more importantly to drive myself to church. My mom, being a manager in the retail business, was not able to have as many weekends off anymore as she had when my sisters and I were younger. I on the other hand, refused to work Sundays, at least any hours that conflicted with church. Occasionally I would do a short shift, I would rush off after the morning service and then rush back just a few minutes late for youth group. I was used to the rushing anyway, most of my shifts were immediately after school, a 20-30 minute drive away! I rushed EVERYWHERE those 3 years in high school!

Nothing could keep me from my church and from my Jesus. My heart ached, and still does today, seeing those around me, stumbling awkwardly in the dark. I even wrote a poem about it in high school. I would spend nights crying myself to sleep because I loved my friends, but some just would not hear the truth. Their ears and their hearts were closed to my words, to His words. I remember one girl though. She was new to our church, and a year older then I was. I had never had someone ask me so many questions about salvation! I said the prayer with her that I had heard recited so often in church, and since I didn't have all the answers for her questions myself, I was able to direct her to someone who would. I just remember feeling such excitement at her curiosity and then overwhelming joy when she did accept Jesus. She had met the perfect man that would love her unconditionally, just as I had years before. It was an indescribable feeling to be able to be a part of introducing her to Jesus.

But my heart still aches, because even within my own family, I know there are some still searching for perfect love now. Some think they find it in another person, others maybe in a bottle, or in sports or maybe work. Truly though the only place you can find such perfect love is in the Bible and in the hearts of His believers today. And the best part is, it is a completely free and wonderful gift. It can heal all the hurts in your past and bring new, true joy for the future. And it is unconditional, no matter what deep dark secrets you may cling onto, He knows them, and He wants you to let them go and be washed by His grace. And when you do, you have the assurance of an everlasting life with Him in heaven.

Do you know this perfect love yet? Will you go to heaven when you die? It's not about doing or being what the world calls 'good', its about knowing and accepting Christ's free gift of salvation. And if you want to know Him all you have to do is pray for Him to come into your heart and be a part of your life. There are no special secret words, because this must be a sincere prayer from your heart. Just close your eyes, bow you head and call out to Jesus, ask for forgiveness from your sinners and welcome Him into your heart and life to be Lord. You must turn away from things of the world, and rest on Him alone.

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." ~John 3:16

"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." ~ Acts 4:12

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. ~2 Corinthians 5:17

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace... ~Ephesians 1:7

If you said that prayer please feel free to contact me! I would love to rejoice with you in your new life and new hope in Jesus!! The next step would be to get a bible, so you can learn God's word and grow closer to Him, as well as to find a church with other believers so that they may encourage you and pray for you!

How Is YOUR Posture?

I have always had a problem with my posture. I much prefer to slouch then put the effort in to stand up straight and tall. Even my husband now, concerned about the future back problems I have yet to develop from this bad habit, gets on my case about it. I know to the world good posture can make you more attractive sometimes, shows confidence, and maybe even in some a little cockiness as well.
How would you describe your posture? Are you proud to say you have good posture; Tall and straight, head up, just as your parents always hassled you about at the dinner table?
What about your spiritual posture? Do you think God wants you to be standing up nice and tall, proud even, or maybe He is asking that instead you bow your heart and bend your knees.

Come let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the Lord our God our Maker. Psalm 95:6

Bowing down and kneeling before God is an act of great humility. And that is exactly what God wants from us. A humble and open heart. Being humble is putting God before your own needs, obeying Him and doing His will above anything else. And the best part is, when we are humble enough to put God first, He will provide our every need. He will exalt us.

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time. 1 Peter 5:6

But God doesn't just want us to humble ourselves to Him.
As a teenager, I used to love all the different acronyms people would come up with- PUSH- Pray Until Something Happens, WWJD- What Would Jesus Do, FROG- Fully Rely On God, BIBLE- Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, and one I recently heard, GRACE-God's Riches At Christ's Expense. But I think the one that has stuck with me most, that I can remember from when I first started regularly attending church at age 12, is JOY- Jesus, Others, Yourself. God not only wants us to humble ourselves before Him, but also before others. We need to be willing to serve others, just as Christ came to serve us the greatest love the world has ever know. He is our example of service to others and putting others before ourselves. Jesus had the ultimate humility when He died for us on the cross. And even in His earthly life, He left us with examples of His humility, so that we may follow Him.

...and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another for God is opposed to the proud, but give grace to the humble. 1 Peter 5:5b

"If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you." John 13:14-15

How is your posture? Is God poking you, as your parents once did, but instead, He is asking why you do not humble yourself and bow before Him? Or maybe you need to kneel to wash the feet of another?
Remember to have true JOY, you must put Jesus first, others second and yourself last.

All in His Time

I am pretty sure I am not alone when I ponder this: why is it that inspiration seems to always strike when my head has found that comfortable spot on my pillow as my day comes to a close! I truly believe my 'creative juices' are like those babies who seem to have their days and nights all mixed up. Sometimes I get that itch to write about something during the day, but more often then not, whether its writing a blog, or brainstorming for more birthday party ideas for the kids next bash, it always hits me as I crawl into my nice cozy bed, beside my sweet husband who hates going to sleep without me there, which lately seems to be quite often!
I wish, oh how I wish, my mind had an off switch! I would definitely be a more rested mommy if that were the case. But alas, that is one thing God did not install when He created me, just as He intended.
I think we often don't like God's timing, we say no, not now, wait until next week, my calendar is completely clear...next week. Then of course something comes up and soon it becomes next month, next year, after the kids graduate and leave the nest, then I will be totally free and clear! Of course who knows if you will be around then? By then God will have found someone else who is eager to serve Him immediately!
Even now, I think, "Oh Lord, I have so much going on right now, Jon has duty the next 2 weekends, I have to reschedule Zachary's party- remember that Lord, because he got sick on his birthday of all days- yeah, and then, then I still need to get ready for my mom's big visit next month, I need to clean and prepare everything, yep LOTS to do Lord, so right after my mom leaves I will start that new ministry idea you whispered in my ear, as soon as she leaves, well at least by the end of that month because then I have a party thing to host the weekend after she goes..." and the list goes on. Don't get me wrong, all those things are important to me, but NOTHING should come before the Lord, and what He has for me to do! Whether it is to get back up out of bed and post a blog about something He has burdened my heart with or a new ministry He has given me to use for Him, I need to do it in His timing not my own. And as Pastor Schettler shared about Thursday night in his message, this includes prayer. If God lays something on your heart to pray about, you need to stop what you are doing and pray! If we don't, then we forget, or get caught up in something else, we procrastinate- one of my biggest weaknesses, and Satan definitely knows it, and will use it if I let him!
We don't know when we will die. We don't know when anyone will die, even the unsaved neighbor we keep meaning to try and witness too. We don't know what seeds a blog we post might plant, or why God wants us to pray for someone out of the blue, but we know if we don't listen to the Holy Spirit's guidance we might not have the chance to play the role God wants us too in someone coming to Christ. He wants to use us, and instead of fiting it into our schedule, we need to fit our lives into His, because His schedule has no flaws, no missed appointments, no cancellations. His schedule, His timing is perfect. Everything happens all in His time.

"Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near." Isaiah 55:6

"I hastened and did not delay to keep Your commandments." Psalm 119:60

"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." Proverbs 27:1

"And He [Jesus] said to another, 'Follow Me.' But he said, 'Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father.' But He said to him, 'Allow the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.' Another also said, 'I will follow You, Lord; but first permit me to say goodbye to those at home.' But Jesus said to him, 'No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Luke 9:59-62

"Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming." Matthew 24:42

Overflowing with Joy to Share

I don't know about most of you, but after only attending 2 of the 5 evening services during the Missions Conference at Harvest Baptist Church (and also the Sunday morning service of course!), I feel very convicted about certain areas.
For those who aren't sharing this little island with me, our church does a Missions Conference around this time every year. This year a Pastor from Santa Maria, CA came with a group of seniors from their church. While the seniors worked with the children, Pastor Schettler gave some amazing messages! Now, I will be honest, it took me a while to come around to the messages, because while I recognized instantly the truth in them, I was just so overwhelmed, and at first, thrown off on the presentation. I have never had a Pastor, or heard a Pastor, with so much enthusiasm! I mean he was all over the stage, and at points was yelling at us because his excitement for his messages seemed to just boil over inside of him. He had no choice but to let it flow out! Not being used to that, I didn't appreciate it at first, I tend to like what I am used to and not care for change or being out of the ordinary patterns, but I now wish I could have gone to all the services (which wasn't for lack of trying, sickness & Jon coming home late from work is what kept us away).
After a week of stewing over somethings, particularly from Sunday morning's service, I admire his confidence and excitement for the messages he shared with us. And I hope people can look at me, and see the same joy overflowing in my life, because we are not meant to keep it all inside. We need to let Jesus' love and light shine through us! And we need to be excited about it!!
On Sunday morning, he shared with our congregation 3 keys to moving stones out of the way so that we are able to minister to the lost world we live in. The first was that we need to get creative! This reminded me of something else I recently learned. During our ladies night for missions last week, we broke into prayer groups who each had a particular missionary that our church supports to pray for. My group prayed for the Childs family in Australia. Apparently in Australia, at least the part they are ministering in, there is a high concentration of cults, specifically Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. And part of our prayer for them was that they may be creative in how they reach the people there, because the traditional methods of going door to door wouldn't be an option because they would want to stand apart from the cults, those 2 in particular, which do tend to do a lot of knocking on doors. And my thought was, boy am I glad I am not them and thats not my job! Because I could never come up with a very creative way to minister to anyone. But after Sunday morning, I realized, though I am not in Australia, nor do I feel called to be a missionary abroad, but I still need to be reaching out, and I still need to be creative about how I approach it. And that is what has gotten me on the path for a new ministry opportunity that with the Lord's guidance I am developing through my love of baking, and sharing those treats with others!
The next key part of moving stones away is confidence. Confidence that when we pray, God will act. Not praying out of obligation, half-heartedly hoping, just maybe God will answer this prayer request if He really wants too. NO!! Pray expecting, knowing, and believing God CAN and God WILL act on our prayers. We may not always get the answer we want, but if we actually have confidence that our prayers will be answered, we could see our friends and family come to know the Lord!! Instead of thinking maybe God will hear, KNOW God will hear your prayers because He ALWAYS does. I know this is definitely an area I need to really concentrate on improving. I need to have faith and confidence that God will answer my prayers; instead of 'just hoping' and praying with a question mark at the end of my prayer when it should be an exclamation point!
And the last part of moving stones and other obstacles out of the way to reach lost souls is to have compassion. As for me, I think my compassion is there...sometimes, when its convenient for me. I can really struggle sometimes with finding little things to irritate me, and then later learning I misjudged. Instead I should always seek to be compassionate and caring to everyone, instead of finding a negative in any given situation. For example, standing in line at the post office to get a package the other day, a woman with a small girl came over and got into this gap in the line. Instantly I was irritated and upset, it was a long line, I had been standing in it for a few minutes but was already getting bored and tired. I thought how dare she just cut her way in, but then I heard her thank the man behind her, and as I observed further I realized she had already been in that spot in the line but had been letting her little girl wander a little, and in her wandering she had gone out of sight. So the woman had been only coming back to her original spot in line, that the man behind her was kind enough to hold, while she retrieved her child. I felt awful! Though this all only happened in my own mind and was not shared with the rest of the crowd, I know God saw how ugly my heart had been, instead of showing compassion to everyone no matter what circumstances were going on. And I realize, even if she had been 'cutting' in line, I was still wrong for not having a loving heart, a compassionate heart toward her. If I want Jesus to use me, then I need to remember to always, regardless of circumstance, be kind, caring, loving and compassionate, in my heart, mind and actions.
All that said, I have a LOT to work on and pray about!! And that was all in ONE message!! But all of us can always improve, no matter where we are in our lives and our walk with the Lord. He never wants us to stand still and just be content to go no further, He wants us bubbling over with joy for Him like Pastor Schettler is! He wants it to pour out of us everywhere we go and in everything we do. And I hope I have done Pastor Schettler some justice in passing on his message. I did the best I could from memory because I did not take notes that day (shame on me!).

"Being unable to get to Him [Jesus] because of the crowd, they removed the roof above Him; and when they had dug an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic was lying." Mark 2:4 (Creativity)

"Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have recieved them, and they will be granted you." Mark 11:24 (Confidence)

"So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." Colossians 3:12 (Compassion)