Iwascreated2worship's Blog

I Was Wrong….I was Right.

iwascreated2worship — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 02:47:06 +0000

I wrote a blog a few nights ago about how several lives (including mine) would change drastically in one week. I was wrong…it changed last night. Little Bentley had different plans. He arrived last night weighing in a 6 pounds 9 ounces. Perfect.

I was right…..he stole my heart….

In One Week.

iwascreated2worship — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 02:51:13 +0000

Over a year ago I wrote a blog entitled “Flying the Coop” (you can read it here:http://iwascreated2worship.wordpress.com/2010/05/01/flying-the-coop/) It was about my daughter who decided it was time to move out of mom and dad’s house. That was a very emotional blog for me to write. I remember writing it and crying at the same time. Tonight, I am doing the same.

Well today I am sitting here with the house quiet (finally) pondering what will happen in 1 week. What? I’m glad you asked! One week from today my daughter will become a mommy and I will become a Gigi. One week from today her whole life will change and another life will begin. One week from today a little one will enter a world of chaos, confusion, and very little morals. One week from today a 7 pound little boy who will be named Bentley will steal my heart away.

This has been a long journey the past couple of years with my daughter. I will not go into details, but it has not been easy. We have raised her to be a respectable human with good morals. I would love to say she has been perfect and never made mistakes. That is not so. She, like all of us, has made her share. I just pray that she has learned from them. I have had my heart broken watching her make those mistakes and wondered at times what I did wrong. Above all of that though I know a God that does not make mistakes. I know He has a plan for good in all things. I know that no life is a mistake. Knowing in one week her world will be altered forever, I pray these things for her:

That she will learn that she has never felt love until she looks at her son.

That she will learn that she needs to cherish every moment with him because time goes way too fast.

That she will know she is beautiful and deserves nothing but the best from the man God made just for her.

That she will instill morals and hard work into her child.

That she will know she has a family who is always here for her.

That she will know after looking at her son how full my heart has been made by her and her brother being born.

That she will know she has a savior who offers forgiveness and mercy.

That she will instill into Bentley that same fact and raise him to be a Godly man.

That she will know, that no matter what….she will always be my little girl….and I will always be her mommy…

Eeeek! Evaluation Time!

iwascreated2worship — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 03:09:26 +0000

Recently it was evaluation time for me at my place of employment. Well…you know how it is when someone tells you that you are about to have an evaluation! Suddenly your mind starts going and you think of all the things you have done to mess up here and there. Well, my evaluation went great. So, I was wondering today “what if we were evaluated in our spiritual lives?” What if Jesus appeared to us and said “ok! Time for your evaluation…come have a seat.” Ok, don’t give up on me now reader….work with me…I promise this is going somewhere. So we go in, we sit down, and Jesus starts reading off categories to us. We may have things such as:

1. Works. Do you do work for the Kingdom of God? Do you make an effort to spread the word, teach a Sunday School class or even work in the nursery? Though we can’t be saved by works, work is necessary to spread the word.

2. Attendance. Do you attend church regularly? Or are your “too tired” on Sunday to get up?

3. Forgive. Ok…here were go, this is a good one. We want everyone to forgive us when we do something wrong. However, we are quick to judge another. That’s the exact opposite of what Christ tells us to do.

4. Love. Here’s another one. Do we love not only the easy to love but also the unlovely? Do you love the homeless person on the street? Do you love the person who was rude to you on the phone or in a store? We are called to love all people…just as Jesus did.

5. Tithe and Offering. This is a category I don’t talk about often. Why? Because to me this is between each person and God. I don’t need to know what you give and you don’t need to know what I give. However, we are all called to give. Period.

6. Prayer. Do you pray only when you need something? I often tell our youth to pray for several minutes without asking for anything for yourself. Pray for others or just praise. Praise Him for who He is and all He has done. Speaking of Praise…

7. Praise and Worship. Do you do it? It doesn’t matter if you can sing….He loves it anyway. It doesn’t matter if you get up in front of people…just do it. It will make a huge difference in your life.

These are just a few categories that could be evaluated in the Christian’s life. I evaluated myself. I need some improvement in several areas….all of us do. But take heart! All those little “mess ups” that we all remember….He has already forgiven if He is Lord of your life!

So…evaluate yourself and be empowered to go out, do more, and be more for the Kingdom!

Love to all!

Would You Follow?

iwascreated2worship — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 00:51:50 +0000

I recently wrote a blog about Peter and how I feel he gets a bad rap. We are quick to think of him being the one who sank even though he was the only one to step out of the boat. We are quick to remember that he denied Christ three times. BUT….listen to this! In Matthew 26:56 we are told “then all of the disciples deserted him (Jesus) and fled.” Skip down to verse 58 and we are told “But Peter followed him at a distance right up to the courtyard of the high priest”. What?!?!?! Yup…good ole Peter…the Peter who denied Christ….the Peter who began to sink when he stepped out of the boat…that Peter was the ONLY one who followed Jesus to the courtyard!

Picture this. Jesus is on his way to be beaten and crucified and the ones who loved him; the ones who he taught and walked with…his friends had all left him. Except one….Peter.

Peter may have messed up but He still loved Jesus enough to follow him. He still loved Jesus enough to risk his life to be caught. It’s why he denied Christ; he was scared of what might be done to him. But, Peter loved Jesus. When Jesus later appeared after his resurrection he asked Peter 3 times, one for each time he denied him, “Peter…do you love me?” Peter cried YES!

Peter messed up. We mess up but do we still love Jesus enough to follow him? Or do we take what the enemy throws at us? Do we look at ourselves as failures and want to give up? Do we think “I can’t do this! I can’t follow Christ and be what he wants me to be!” That’s what Satan wants. If Peter had stayed down and looked at himself as a failure then one of the biggest pioneers in the early church would have been lost. You have to keep pressing on! You have to know that your love for him can be bigger than your failures. Even when we let him down he gives us another chance…and another and another. Just like he used Peter he will use you. Just keep pressing on. Love him and follow him. Peter did and after the darkness of failure came the light of forgiveness and he went on to be what God had called him to be; Petros (Peter; the rock). A rock on which the church was built.

Endurance

iwascreated2worship — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 23:52:10 +0000

One of my favorite passages of scripture is found in 2 Timothy 11-13. It reads like this:

“If we die with him we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us. If we are faithless, he will remain faithful for he cannot disown himself.”

These are such awesome verses! Just read them again slowly and let them sink it. To die is to live with Christ if you are a believer. To endure our hardships means we can reign with him. Let’s stop right here for a minute. How many of you are in a hard place right now? How many of you feel like you are facing a mountain you cannot get over? Our faith is something that must be developed. How is faith developed? Through trials. It is when we are at our most vulnerable with no where to turn and nothing we can do that God says “Finally! Now, I can do what I need to do!” Through our dark times…those dark nights that we all encounter…that’s when the light of Jesus can shine through.

An athlete works their body day in and day out to finally meet their goal. Yet, even when they meet their goal they don’t stop. There is another goal in sight. They want to continue to become better and better. So it should be with our faith. We may overcome one hurdle…but rest assured another will be on it’s way. Push through, depend on God, and remember how you overcame the last one; it will help you to get through the present one.

Now, I want to skip to the last part of this passage. If we become faithless he will remain faithful because he cannot disown himself. Some versions read “he cannot deny who he is”. God is ever faithful to us. Period. His word says it. He can’t be unfaithful. It goes against his personality. What does this mean for you? Well, it means that even when you feel He is not there…He still is. It means even when you throw in the towel and decide you don’t want to follow him….He is still there for you. Ever loving and ever faithful. It means that when those dark clouds loom overhead and you feel the darkness closing in…He is there waiting to whisper the words “Peace! Be still.” He is always faithful….even when we aren’t. He is ever faithful…even though we don’t deserve it. Take heart tonight…He is there.

Regret?

iwascreated2worship — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 01:35:04 +0000

Peter gets a bad rap. You know…Peter…the one who denied Jesus 3 times on the night he was crucified. People love to talk about Peter whimping out on Jesus, his friend and teacher, when Jesus needed him most. This is true. However, remember how Peter regretted it and remember that Peter became one of the most influential persons in the Bible ever! God will still use us even when we fail him.

I began to think about Peter the other night and wondered how he felt day in and day out living with that regret. Knowing that what Jesus had predicted came to pass as that rooster crowed a third time. I like to put myself in a Bible story when I read it; it helps me to grasp it. I can see Jesus in the hands of the religious people…I can see Peter telling a person “no! I don’t know who He is and I have never followed him!” About that time….in the distance….a rooster crows. This is the third crow Peter has heard in just a few hours. He turns, looks at Jesus and realizes…the prophecy has come to pass. Jesus looks at him… not with judgment or anger. No, he looks at Peter with love. He looks at Peter with forgiveness. He looks at Peter because he knows how it feels to be human. He knows the temptation, the fear, the doubt, and the hurt of being human. And he understands. He wasn’t mad at Peter. On the contrary, he knew that now…now that Peter had fallen…now Peter would be used beyond all comprehension. Even Peter could not fathom how he would be used in the kingdom of God. You see, in the words of Kay Warren, that “Kingdom of Me” must fall. That pride and that self preservation that we have.

Jesus doesn’t get mad at us. He doesn’t hold our failures against us. So…why do we do that to ourselves? When Jesus forgives, He forgives. Why do we beat ourselves up? I wonder if Peter lived with that regret every day for the rest of his life. I can imagine he did. But, he let that regret and that determination to never let God down again drive him to becoming a great man of God. Can we do this? Can we let our failures go? If we can’t let them go…can we let them drive us to not make the same mistake again? Can we allow them to mold us into the person we are called to be?

I don’t want to give Peter a bad rap anymore. I think Peter did pretty good myself. Ok…he made a mistake. Ok…he made a really big mistake. But…so have you and so have I. We all make mistakes…we all have regrets. We are human. Jesus understands that because he was too.

A Religious Hand

iwascreated2worship — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:12:30 +0000

I have been reading a wonderful devotional book for one of my classes. Each day there is a scripture reference and then the author follows it with a 1 to 2 page meditation. I got to one the other night that made me gasp and then….cry. The scripture reference is John 18:12-14, 19-23. It goes like this:

“¹² So the soldiers, their commanding officer, and the Temple guards arrested Jesus and tied him up. ¹³ First they took him to Annas, the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest at that time.^[a] ¹⁴ Caiaphas was the one who had told the other Jewish leaders, “It’s better that one man should die for the people.”

¹⁹ Inside, the high priest began asking Jesus about his followers and what he had been teaching them. ²⁰ Jesus replied, “Everyone knows what I teach. I have preached regularly in the synagogues and the Temple, where the people^[a] gather. I have not spoken in secret. ²¹ Why are you asking me this question? Ask those who heard me. They know what I said.”

²² Then one of the Temple guards standing nearby slapped Jesus across the face. “Is that the way to answer the high priest?” he demanded.

²³ Jesus replied, “If I said anything wrong, you must prove it. But if I’m speaking the truth, why are you beating me?”

So, this was bad enough…reading of an innocent Jesus being sent to his death…being beat upon; taking our sin upon his shoulders. At this point he was getting ready to be beaten beyond recognition. He knew what was coming. His soul was in grief; but not enough to make him stop for we were his passion. So…then I got to the meditation part of the devotion. Now, remember I told you that typically they are 1-2 pages. This one however was simply one line. It read:

“The first hand to strike the savior was a religious hand.” (p. 343)

WOW!!!! Are you kidding me?!!??! I have read this story a hundred times before and it never hit me that the very first hand to strike Jesus was someone of religious stature. I began to weep. How many times do we as “religious” people “strike” the savior when we do wrong? How many times have we neglected to tell someone about him because we didn’t know what they would think? How many times have we revisited something in our past that he died to forgive? How many times have we taken his name in vain? How many times has his spirit told us in the still, small voice to not do something and yet we do it anyway? I don’t know if this line hit you the way it hit me. Ponder it for a few minutes. Read the passage again and picture yourself there. Then read the meditation again. Again…all I can say is “forgive me”….

Gire, Ken. Moments with the Savior, Zondervan Publishing, 1998.

In a Funk?

iwascreated2worship — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 01:08:30 +0000

Have you ever been in a funk? You know what I mean…like you just don’t feel God there? We call out to him and we wonder where He is and why he is not answering our prayers a little bit quicker than he is? I have been like that lately. It’s like I am praying and praying about the same things all the time and yet I see no results. Well, I was reading my Bible today and this story in Luke jumped out at me. It’s the story about a lady who had been bent over for 18 years (Luke 13). Jesus was teaching in the synagogue and this little lady came to hear him. She could not stand up straight and every inch of her hurt from being bent over for so long. She was probably looked upon as unlovable and shunned by the community. She hauled herself simply to ear Jesus speak. She came in, took a seat, and began to listen. She couldn’t really look up at him because her back was not straight. But….she didn’t have to. The story tells us that Jesus saw her and called her forward. She didn’t have to do a thing! He saw her, knew every detail of her life….the pain, the ridicule…he knew it all and was moved with compassion as he often was. She did not have to speak a word..he knew her and loved her and desired for her life to be whole. She got up-probably against her natural will because she wouldn’t want the stares (she got enough of those) and went to him. He simply said to her “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity” and she was healed! She went out praising God and telling of his goodness.

I pondered this story and thought to myself that this lady had went around for 18 years like this. I am sure she went to the synagogue and prayed, offered sacrifices and possibly sought medical help. However, it wasn’t time just yet for her to be healed. Then I thought, “well maybe it’s not time for my prayers to be answered” Hum….well that would make sense. We want God to work in our time when we should be waiting on His. So, I have resigned myself that I will not be in a funk. I know that God spoke to me through this scripture today and was telling me to hold on….help is on the way. When these things do happen…I will be like that little lady and raise my hands praising God all the way.

In the meantime, I will trust and I will serve. No matter how far away God feels…I will know that He is near. I will life my hands to believe again….this is the song that will play at the end of this blog. He is ever faithful. If you are in a funk (and all of us go through it)…let me encourage you to raise your hands to believe again. Let me encourage you to be like the lady with the bent back and find your way to hear Jesus speak and let me encourage you that when he does call you forward you, like she, will come forward. Little did that lady know 2000 years later she would encourage a woman in Florida.

Suffering

iwascreated2worship — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 00:48:16 +0000

I have been attempting to write this blog for several weeks now, but have had to wrap my head around it. It seems as if things come in waves. You know, things are going good…life is happy and then WHAM! Something knocks you down. Then before you can even begin to get up again, something else comes along and WHAM! Another one. It seems like seasons of suffering…seasons of pain. What do we do with these seasons? What are we supposed to make of them? I have pondered this for about 2 months now. I have one thing after another after another after another. And I still don’t have an answer to the question posed, so if you came here looking for one, I am afraid you will leave disappointed.

I do know that in the midst of hurt is when we can feel God’s presence most. I do know that his word states “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” Why would he make a point to put this in his word for us? He wants us to know…”hold on during that pain, hold on during that hurt…you have something so much greater in store”.

Job tells us “but he knows the way that I take and when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold” Gold goes through a tremendous amount of pressure to come forth as pure. I guess it’s that way with us. We cry out to God to make it (whatever our “it” is) stop. We cry out to him to make his presence known. We cry out for forgiveness and a little bit of peace. That’s fine. But, what if we look at it a different way? What if we look at it as every tear we cry is bringing us closer to Him? What if we look upon the hurt as an opportunity for him to heal? What if we look at every wrong done to us as a chance to forgive and show his grace? Maybe then we could go through the suffering just a bit easier. Will it be easy? No way! Will there be days when we just beg God to relieve us a bit? There sure are. But, take a breath. Know he is there. Know he cares. Know there is something so much bigger at work; things we can’t see or fathom. Know he knows. Yup…take a breath and trust…knowing after it’s done, you will come forth as gold——and so will I.

Prayer for the Weary….

iwascreated2worship — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 01:43:41 +0000

I am burdened by the sights I see on television. I am overwhelmed with grief about what people in Japan are going through. These are people that God made and God loves. The travesty of seeing helpless women, children, men, elderly….fighting for their lives and scared that they won’t win the fight. There is little I can say. The only verse that comes to my mind is:

“I lift my eyes unto the hills…where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord; the maker of Heaven and Earth. He will not let your foot slip, He who watches over you will not slumber…”

This lets me know that God is completely aware of what is going on and He CARES. This lets me know that know matter how bleak the situation, He is there and able to help. Let’s turn to Him; seek His face and humble ourselves before Him.