Dreams Revealed

What is your dream? From the age of five, and maybe even earlier, I have always wanted to be a teacher. My friends would be playing in the floor with Barbies and I was standing up next to the easel chalkboard giving a math or whatever lesson I felt was appropriate. Of course they weren't listening but those are the kind of games I played. As I grew older I began teaching Sunday school and leading bible studies and this really encouraged me in my dream. My last year of high school and the summer before my freshman year of college (even into my freshman year of college) I fell into a very blinding trap that almost made me lose sight of my dream. I'm not going to get into what it was that happened but in every area of my life I was being attacked and pulled away from where I needed to be. That's how the devil works. When we have a vision and we know that we should be doing something great, there are going to be people or situations that try to tear you from the right path. God promised Abraham (then Abram) that he would make him the father of many nations and instead of waiting on God's timing, Abraham took that dream into his own hands and that mistake has caused strife in the world ever since.

Last night, I started teaching a class at a local bible college. I can't even describe how right it felt to be teaching again. I am living the dream that God planted in my heart as a child. In each one of us, God has planted a dream. It is a desire to accomplish something in your life. Dreams are never easy to reach and shouldn't be. If your dream is easy to reach, you need to dream bigger! God's dream for YOU is so much bigger than you can ever imagine. If you allow him to, he will use you in ways that may seem impossible. God loves to use a nobody with no talent to do something big because then he gets the glory.

I know it seems that I am talking about working but dreams are more than just career goals. Maybe your dream is to raise a family through Godly example and through that example they may do something big. It will ripple and change lives in amazing ways. They told a story on the radio the other day about a man that got saved because of a woman but they had never met. She ministered to someone in college that ministered to someone else that ministered to someone else that ministered to him. Never underestimate the power of a Godly example. And never, EVER give up on the dreams that God has given you. There is nothing more fulfilling than following through with his plan in your life.

Into the Holy Place

http://youtu.be/6Tyu9IJKFi0
For the past several months I have had a renewed, crazy hunger for more of the Lord. I'm not sure if it is because I am so desperately wanting to be a righteous example for my daughter or if awesome things are just happening in my life but this is the best feeling! I am encouraged by reading my bible, and constantly being in prayer. Even if it's only a quick prayer to say "by the way God, thanks for letting me hit EVERY green light on my way to..." (Which never happens to me in case you were wondering.) I've been feeling an urgency recently. Not only in my own life to stay focused but an urgency for the people around me. Trying to be a better, Godly example and encourager.

This is the passage that has been on my heart this past week:
"Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another..." (Heb 10:19-25)

The whole passage is just amazing to me. We, sinners, have the right to enter into a holy place of worship with God. And for some reason, once we get there and a fire lights in our hearts we start to fade away. Instead of dwelling in that holy place with God constantly, we let things come between us. It can be anything really: sin, addiction, lies, etc... Personally, mine is allowing myself to become too busy. No matter what the reason, it's bad. I don't want to allow myself to be too busy for God anymore. I want to always stay in that holy place.

Focusing on that last part of the passage is the main thing I want to get across here. It is so important as believers that we are constantly encouraging each other. That doesn't always mean a cheering for doing the right thing. Sometimes, pep talks happen when things aren't going so well. I want to be receptive when a friend tries to tell me that I may be wrong. I want you, my Christian friends, to tell me when I need to go pray about something! My mom does it all the time (thanks mom!) and I am finally at a place where I can hear what she is saying.

I want to end this blog with an invitation. If you have been feeling the same way I have, longing for a deeper relationship with God and encouragement in studying the word, let's get do it! Whether through online discussion or meeting at a Starbucks it would be awesome to get together with other believers and offer encouragement.

The Desires of Our Hearts

One of the most common verses that people quote when they are waiting for something is Psalm 37:4 and it's usually paraphrased to say God knows the desires of your heart and he will give them to you. This is partially true. God does know the desires of your heart and he does want to give them to you but there is more to that scripture than just making God your own personal genie. When my husband and I were trying to have a baby, I had "God will give me the desires of my heart" written on a posted and pinned on the board next to my computer. It was my reminder that God would give me a baby. I read that note every time I sat down at the computer. Until I realized that maybe I should read more into it and explore the context of the verse.

Psalm 37:3-5 says "Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass." I prayed very hard about this scripture and the desires of my heart. I felt God tell me that when I get back to a deeper place with him, in prayer and in worship, that he would give me a baby. The verse calls for us to trust God and his faithfulness. When we trust God and follow his directive voice, then he will give us the desires of our heart. We need to be aligned with his will or we cannot expect him to provide.

Once we are in God's will, you still may be waiting. God's timing does not always happen the way we want it to. Sometimes waiting just a little longer the way God plans will give you more than you even knew your heart desired. If you are waiting for something (a new job, a baby, a spouse, etc...) pray to God and ask him for faith and trust. Seek him first and all other things will be given unto you.

Recognizing God's Voice

Recently, a friend was holding my baby while I was on the other side of the room. When Abby heard my voice, she began to look for me. She recognized my voice and followed the sound of it looking for something familiar. Her actions, even as a baby, got me thinking. As Christians, we should be searching for God's voice in our lives just as Abby was searching for mine. In John 10:3-5 Jesus tells of a flock of sheep that know the shepherds voice. As a Christian, we need to recognize God's voice when he speaks to us. And he WILL speak to us.

While God can speak to you in an audible voice, it's not as likely to happen as God moving your spirit. Like I said in a previous blog, God told me to start writing again but he didn't speak to me through a burning bush or even through the radio. I felt a moving in my spirit to do this. You can question a moving of God all you want until you feel one. God moving me to do something feels as real as my baby girl touching my arm. The most difficult part of recognizing God's voice in a feeling is knowing when it is God's voice. John warns the church in I John 4 to watch out for misleading prophets. Rule number one to make sure what you are feeling is from God is to check it against his word. If what you are "feeling" might be from God doesn't align with his word, then it is not from God. This can be difficult to recognize as a young Christian but the deeper you get in your relationship with God and into the word of God, the easier it becomes.

The most successful way that you can recognize God speaking into your life is by communicating with him on a regular basis. The more time you spend with God in prayer and study the easier it is to recognize his voice. Abby knows my voice because I talk to her everyday. From the moment she developed ears in the womb I have been talking to her. A strangers voice will not turn her head like my voice will. She recognizes her mother. Jesus says that [the sheep] will never follow a strangers voice. "In fact," it says, "they will run away from him because they do not recognize a strangers voice." So that brings to question, as Christians, if we aren't following God's voice, then who's voice are we following?

A Movable Father

Recently, a spiritual mentor was telling about how God spoke to him when his son a baby. He said that when his son was a baby, he would often wake up in the night and cry because he was thirsty. One night, he entered the nursery and all he saw was a tiny arm sticking straight up holding a sippie cup. After he finished laughing, he was filling the cup and God began to speak to him. What made you move? You moved because you knew he was thirsty. There was no doubt there. When the screams came through the monitor, the father moved. When we cry out and truly thirst after God, he moves in our lives.

A big reason that this story has been on my mind lately is that it shows the importance of a strong hunger after God. It is a hunger I would really like renewed in my life. I want my hearts cries to move God. I want God to speak to me in life experiences and point out lessons that I should be learning. It's so easy to become lukewarm with our walk. Life is so busy that sometimes we put our time with God on the back burner or sometimes even in the fridge. It's time to really stir our hearts and focus on him and what he wants us to do. If you hunger after God, truly hunger and not just a show, he will move in your life and use you to move in others.

The other thing about this story that is that God moves when we cry out to him. God will absolutely not ignore his child's cry out of hunger. When my baby cries, I go to her and do whatever I can to make it better. Check out Matthew 5:25-27. God promises to take care of you. It says that his love for his children is so much greater than the love of birds which he still cares for. So why do we worry so much about pointless things in our lives? Why is it so hard to trust God in all things. My family has been through some storms and really had to learn the hard way to trust God but he always comes through. There was less money coming in than going out. At that time, we could have lost everything. But somehow, in ways that are still a mystery to me, we made it through that storm and God provided every need. When we cry, God listens.

Bless my heart

So for the past couple weeks, I've really been feeling God moving me to start writing again. But there are just so many reasons not to. The biggest excuse I've been using is having a 10 week old baby and finding time to write is extremely difficult. She is actually sitting in my lap as I am typing right now. My second favorite excuse was that no one would want to read it. I am nobody special. I'm not even a very good writer. But there is one thing I've learned through the years and that is if God tells you to do something, you do it! After Pastor Doug's sermon this weekend about God using us even if we are "untrained" I knew that I couldn't use excuses anymore. So here it goes... The ramblings of my mind and how God has been speaking to me:

I've really been marveling at how God answers prayers. It seems like everytime I pray for something, I go through a storm that teaches me a lesson. Sometimes I have to go through it several times before I actually pay attention and learn the lesson.

Several months ago, on the brink of having my first baby, I began to pray for what all parents should be praying for: wisdom and patience. Within a few days of my first prayer, I was verbally attacked and put in a situation that I believe I would have reacted to in a very... non-christian way had I not recently been praying. Only a couple short weeks after that, another situation came up. As hard as it was, wisdom forced me to look at both encounters from the other person's point of view. When everyone was telling me how a reasonable person should have reacted by screaming my side or telling them they were being ridiculous, I felt horrible for them and how they must have been feeling. And a big part of me wanted to be really upset and act out like a normal person would have, but I knew there were already too many emotions in the pot and more would just make it worse. This even I was driving and I was thinking about these lessons that I learned. I am very sure that I will have many more lessons before I can call myself "wise" by any means but, I wonder if the reason some Christians don't pray for wisdom is because a lesson always follows. Even knowing now how difficult it was to go through those few weeks, I would do it all over again. Yes it was very hard and some relationships were broken and others were mended but I wouldn't have done it different. Lessons are sometimes hard but once you get through them, you feel a accomplished. You know you can make it through and that makes it worth it.

Nineteenth Amendment Must Stay

It was recently brought to my attention that there are people in our liberated nation that feel that women’s suffrage should be repealed. Unfortunately, because I was shocked, there are people out there that think taking a step back is good idea. It came up in one of my classes and a discussion started on the issue. There were actually young women who agreed that women should not have the right to vote. Her reasons weren’t very clear, but she did not hide her opinion. I actually felt a little bad for her because in a classroom with a majority of women, she was out numbered. Here is the link to a broadcast on the topic:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/09/30/derbyshire-female-suffrage/

If it were 1921 or even 1930, I would maybe see where this gentleman could use the argument that it worked fine for so many years. However, women have had the right to vote for more than 100 years. It is ridiculous to take away that right now. The gentleman used the argument that women tend to vote left, which polls do show is the trend, however it is unjust to take away that right now.

To take away women’s suffrage opens a tremendous can of worms. Who is to say that next the vote won’t be taken away from the Hispanic, or the African American, or the Asian, or the homosexual. By confining the liberties of one group it creates a path to take this nation back to 1863 when the only people with power were the “rich, white guys.”