Raylee's thoughts on God

How Do You Help Someone Trust God?

2012-02-01T09:15:00.000-08:00

The simple answer is you can’t, right? Scripture is very clear that “no one comes to salvation unless the Father draws him”. Understanding your place in salvation process is key to understanding how to help someone learn how to trust God. Understanding this truth in my mind is essential for understanding your place in helping others learn to trust God. In saying all that, I want to share my thoughts on what you can do as a Christian to help someone grow in their ability to trust God. Because isn’t trusting God really what is at the core of our part in salvation? God is the one who saves us and we must trust in Him.

Be Real

When I was in middle school, my 8th grade year was a huge year for me. I met my very best friend and I became a Christian. Both of these were gigantic experiences for me because most of my life I felt very alone. I was the girl with lots of friends, but no deep friendships. That changed my 8th grade year with my salvation and a best friend. After I received Christ, I really struggled with how to act around my best friend. I knew she was not a believer, but I also knew I couldn’t fake being more spiritual than I was. She knew me better than anyone. How was I suppose to share what Jesus had done in my life in the mist of who I really was. You see I don’t have the testimony of being saved and my whole world changing. I became a Christian and my heart changed, but my feelings and behavior were still the same. It took many years for my feelings and behavior to catch up with my heart. So I decided to simply be myself and be honest at where I was in my relationship with Christ. My best friend did become a Christian a few years later when we were in high school. This experience shaped how I live and how I do ministry. In my life I have tried my hardest to be authentic with where I am in my journey with God.

I truly believe it is essential to simply be yourself in life in general. But specifically when it comes to helping people trust God. There are so many times when we “play church” with people out of fear or pride. We fear some how that if people see how imperfect our lives really are that God will some how lose credibility. Or we allow our pride to get in the way because we fear people knowing how imperfect we are and that some how we will lose our status in our community. But let me be blunt here-God doesn’t EVER lose credibility because of my sin. It actually shows how kind, patient, and accepting He is to us. Now the pride things is a huge hurdle that we have to get over in our churches today. We are not a country club, people! Church is not about who your family is or isn’t. Or how much money you have or don’t have. What type of clothes your wear. It is about real people getting together in the mist of a messy and sinful world coming together to worship God and encourage each other. Jesus says it best in Mark 2:17 “ I did not come for the righteous, but for the sinner.”

This idea of helping someone learn to trust God has been a big theme in my life. It is been a hard theme in my life because it is easy for me to hide parts of myself from others. A good family friend describe me best a few years ago when he said “Raylee you are a master at showing people the part you want them to see and still looking authentic.” Showing my whole self is really really hard for me because honestly deep inside I am a dysfunctional mess. So I try to be authentic about being honest about my trust issues and being a dysfunctional mess. For me being real is being authentic about your imperfections. What a beautiful picture of how good God is and how trustworthy He is because He loves a dysfunctional mess like me. How better to help someone trust God than be real with who you really are in the mist of God’s love and acceptance.

I am wanting to blog more on this topic of helping someone trust God over the next few weeks. I would love to hear back from you stories of how this topic has played out in your life.

Personality Questions

2012-01-18T12:19:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday, I started taking our youth girls through the Place Ministry Spiritual Gift Curriculum. I LOVE this material because it is just not about understanding your spiritual gifts, but how your personality,talents, and life experiences affect how you use your gifts in the church. The first session is on your personality type. We talked through strengths and weakness based on your personality. And this test always brings up great questions about who you are and what you really believe about how God made you. Have you ever had questions about the quality of your personality? Let me explain what I mean.

When I was in elementary school there were a lot of people in my life who had a lot of opinions when it came to my personality. I had many teachers who simply looked at my personality and did not like what they saw. Some of the descriptions I heard from adults at school were things like: troublemaker, talker, disrespectful, loud, rebellious etc... Let’s just say I did not have a lot of fans at school. I realized at a very young age that I had... how can I put this... issues is probably the best way to describe it. I certainly did not need anyone to tell me that I was sinful. Even before school, I had a very clear understanding of sin in my life. But something happened in my elementary years that has plagued me to this day. I started confusing qualities of my personality as sinful instead of through the lens of strengths and weaknesses. I thought if I just wasn’t such a talker or if I could just make myself like rules, then maybe I could be more acceptable to others...to God. If I wasn’t so opinionated then maybe I wouldn’t ruffle so many feathers. Have you ever been there? Have you ever thought if I was more meek or more bold than my life would be easier?

It wasn’t until college that I realized how completely wrong I was in confusing qualities of my personality with sin in my life. It actually was a truly horrific event that led to this understanding. I walked into a room full of people that I cared about laughing and making fun of different qualities of my personality. Because I am a prideful person, I didn’t act like it bothered me at all. But honestly it was devastating. Everything about my personality that deep down I loathed and thought of as sin was comical to people that I truly loved.

It was at this point that God started to help me understand that the qualities of my personality that I had been ashamed of deep inside for most of life were not sinful. That having a rebellious nature is not sinful in its self, as long as your focused on Jesus. I realized that God gave me boldness to really believe what the bible says and to live it out without fear of what others will think of me. Let me be honest that I am still on the journey to deepen my belief that God did not make a mistake when He created my personality. I understand the truth that God created my personality as He desired in my mind and in my heart, but there are still areas in my life that this truth has not sipped into just yet.

Because of my own journey with my personality issues, I have a huge desire to talk through this issue with young girls. So I am using the Place Ministry material to hopefully put our questions about personality into perspective with what God’s Word says. My prayer is that this will be the start of a great discussion with the youth girls that God has placed in my life.

Learn What It Means...

2012-01-09T18:54:00.000-08:00

Matthew 9:13 "Learn what this means: 'I want mercy, not sacrifice.'. I've come to call sinners, not people who think they don't have any flaws."

Jesus came for the sick, the messed up, the people who knew they are bad. How opposite we are as the church? We feel that the spiritually mature in the church are those who have been married the longest, who have perfect children, who simply seem perfect- those who don't think they have any flaws. Or at least do a great job of covering the flaws. You know who i am talking about...i am talking about us- the church today. We care way too much about how things appear than how they really are. How opposite this is to how Jesus approached life.

As a believer who didn't grow up in church, I desperately wanted to find mature Christains who were inspiring and authentic. Women,especially, who were honest with who they were and what God was calling them to do. Women who knew their strengths and weaknesses. And women who were ok with others knowing them. Honestly I searched and searched finding very few.

As a wife, mom, and woman in ministry, I want to continue to "learn what it means" to show mercy to others and to see myself honestly without the pretense of religious living. I want to be the woman, I desperately searched for as a youth. A woman who knows herself (strengths and weakness) and who is ok with others knowing it too! And woman that seeks God above all else and lives out His calling daily in my life.

What about you?

Prince of Peace

2011-12-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

As Christmas approaches, I have been thinking about this idea of peace. If I am truly honest with myself there has not been a lot of peace in my life the past few weeks. It has been filled with activities preparing for this very special Christmas weekend. It has been full of activity but not a lot of peace. I really have felt some guilt over this off and on for weeks. How do I have peace in the mist of all this activity? And as I think about this the lack of peace in my life, the scripture in Isaiah 6 comes to mind.

"For to us a child is born... his name shall be called... Prince of Peace."

Prince of Peace is one of the very names of Jesus. He not only came to bring peace. but He is peace. Peace is one of those things that I think get misunderstood a lot. Peace is some time looked at as a lack of activity(ex get peace when you meditate or when get peace when you slow down). But scripture talks about peace beyond being still, but peace being in the mist of our activity/circumstances. And I started to think more about the few weeks that led up to the Prince of Peace coming as a child. What were the activities that Mary was involved in during the weeks before the birth of her Son? Was there peace in her life during these days before the Christ child is born? We know from scripture that there was a lot of travel due to the census. But I also wonder if there was doubt about the promise that God had given her? The promise of her child being the Messiah. Could there have been a lack of peace on her part? When the shepherds came to worship did it bring peace to her? After the shepherds showed up Luke 2:19 says "But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart." In the mist of her activity, God had shown Himself faithful and brought peace through His Son.

In my life, is it possible to find that same kind of peace? I truly believe I will find peace through acknowledging the faithfulness of God. When I treasure what God is doing in the mist of my activity, peace will come. My prayer for myself this Christmas season is that I will remember to treasure the faithfulness of God in the mist of my crazy activity. And not allow guilt to take away the peace Jesus brings!

FBC Woman's Ministry-Ways To Serve in December

2011-11-17T08:53:00.000-08:00

David's Influenced by God

2011-11-12T15:09:00.001-08:00

Week 7

David’s Life Influenced by God

1 Samuel 16-17

The next three weeks we are going to look at the life of David. Tonight we are going to see how his early life influenced what he knew about God and how David used each experience he had in the past to shape how he reacted to circumstances in the present. What I want you to think about as we study the early years of David is where has God placed you right now and how can you use what you are learning right now to react to future circumstances? Let me give you an example. My oldest daughter when she was 3 1/2 and she couldn’t wait to be big! She would say” mommie I can’t wait to be big so I can get married and have a baby in my tummy and then learn how to drive and then go to China and tell all those India peoples about Jesus!” Now I have a few concerns- if I’m honest-I would like for her to be married when she has a baby in her tummy, but I would prefer that she learns how to drive many years before she is ready to get married. And it concerns me that she thinks that the whole country of China is full of people from India! But the real issue is that she was 3 and 1/2 and was struggling with being content with simply being 3. Think about you-how are you doing with being content in your present circumstances? Tonight we are going to see how David handled his present circumstances.

Let’s start with what do you know about David?

Let me give you a little bit of history about David...

-He was the youngest son of Jesse of Bethleham

-He was a shepherd boy

-He was anointed king by Samuel the prophet

-He then returns to being a shepherd boy

-He is then asked to to play music for King Saul

-He battles Goliath

-David them begins a process of persecution from King Saul

-Then finally after the death of King Saul-David becomes king

-All of this happened over a period of 20 years

Let’s begin reading in 1 Samuel 16:1-21. What do these verses tell us about the circumstance Samuel and David find themselves in? Samuel is once again anointing a king in part due to his lack of parenting many years before. We find David in an interesting place don’t we. His dad thought so little of him that when the prophet came to have a sacrifice with his family, the dad left David in the field tending the sheep (vs 11). So we have David anointed as king by the prophet Samuel and then the next thing we read in verse 19 is that David is still a shepherd boy-say what? He has just been anointed as king! Where is the parade...where is the crown...where is the robe? We also

see in these verses that David is asked to be a harp player for King Saul and an arm bearer. So not only is he not the king, he becomes a servant to Saul the practicing king. But let’s read a little further in 17. Let’s focus on verses 12-17 for a minute. It is so hilarious to me that the writer of 1 Samuel felt the need to reemphasis the fact that David is the youngest-I mean he was anointed as king-and he is having to be reintroduced. I think that this is an important fact for us to see how Davids position did not change when he was anointed king. People still did not know who he was and not only that he was still tending the sheep from time to time. Why would God do this? I mean what was the point? Let’s continue reading in chapter 17:33-37 to see what David had learned. So why did God still have him being a shepherd? David was able to use past experiences of being a shepherd boy to have confidence in God’s ability to deliver him from danger and in God’s ability to use the skills that David had learned. It is amazing to me that looking back on Davids life it is easy to see why God allowed David to stay put. It is easy to see why God wanted David to stay where God had placed him-being a servant, a shepherd boy. God wanted to teach some essential lesson to David as the servant, shepherd boy so that he could face his Goliath with confidence in the Lord.

Ok Let’s talk about you. Where has God placed you here and know? What has God placed in your life right now that He wants you to “stay put in” so that you can use it in the future for your Goliaths? Where do you need to be the servant/shepherd in your life? Could it be possible that God knows what He is doing in your circumstance? That maybe your not really stuck or alone or left behind, but this is the place where God wants to teach you the things you will need for your next step?

There are times when we feel like we are ready to be done with these present circumstances, but God still has things He wants us to learn right where He has places us.

David is a great example to us of a person who God allows to “stay put” longer than seems logical. God allows David to continue to be a shepherd and then becomes a servant because there were essential lessons he needed to learn to be able to face his Goliath. I want to challenge you to look at the area’s in your life where you need to “stay put” so that you can be the shepherd/servant God desires you to be so that you can learn essential lessons that you will need to face your future Goliaths.

God's Rejection of Saul Part 2

2011-11-12T15:08:00.001-08:00

Week 6

God’s Rejection of Saul

Part 2 of 2

1 Samuel 15

Last week we looked at Saul again. We looked at how he disobeyed God and God rejected him from being king. We focused on what God asked Saul to do and why would a loving God ask one of His own to do such a thing. Tonight we are going to focus on Saul’s disobedience and why God rejected him. Let’s start by reading 1 Samuel 15. Let’s break into two groups and look at how Saul disobeyed and how he responded when he was confronted about his disobedience.

What did God ask Saul to do? (vs 3 be devoted to destruction with Amalek people)

How did Saul respond to what God asked him to do? (vs 8-9 he did not completely obey)

How does God respond to Saul’s disobedience? (vs 10-11 He regretted making Saul king)

How did Samuel respond to what God had said? (vs 11-35 he cried and was angry, confronted Saul, spoke truth to Saul, and then refused to go with Saul to worship the Lord)

How did Saul respond to Samuel? (vs 13- 35 he lied, made excuses,blamed his people, then admitted his sin, asked Samuel to still keep up pretense in front of the people)

So all in all what was wrong with what Saul did? He deliberately disobeyed God to please his people. Saul cared way more about what they thought of him than what God thought of him. Think about how Saul responded to Samuel-the man who anoint Saul as king. He lied to him, made excuses for his sin, blamed his own people, and then begged Samuel to worship the Lord with him in front of others. Why did Saul want so much for Samuel to worship with him? (vs 30) Even when Saul had been confronted with his sin-he cared more about the people and what they thought of him then God regretting for making him king.

I know it is so easy to look at Saul and say dude how could you do that? But lets make what Saul did more practical for you. In all of our lives the things, the people, the activities we love more than we love God...those become like the people of Israel were for Saul. The love of things, people, activities more than God make us just like Saul. Think about it like this: there are compartments in my life(things, people, activities) that I care more about than I care about obeying God. And in those compartments, I lose the blessing of God in that area of my life because I love other things more that God. And it is the same in your life. I want you to think about the things,people, activities that influence you-the ones we talked about 2 weeks ago. Do you love those “compartments” more than you love God? Do you care more about those “compartments” than you care about obeying God? Can you see the progression in Saul’s life? He cared a lot about the opinions of others. He was really influenced by what they thought. And that caring turned into him loving what people thought of him more than what God thought of him. In your life it will be the same, unless you look at what influences you and you look at what you love more than you love God. And you purposely give those things over to God and ask Him to help you love him more. As we wrap up this portion on Saul, let this be a great reminder to you and to me about how allowing influences unchecked can lead us to love things, people, and activities more than God. And this will lead to the blessing of God to be taken away in that particular area.

God's Rejection of Saul Part 1

2011-11-12T15:07:00.001-08:00

Week Five

God’s rejection of Saul

Part 1 of 2

1 Samuel 15

Last week we looked at Saul. We saw that he was from a wealthy family and that he was very attractive. We also saw that he was heavily influenced by others opinions and he was insecure with his own position. We saw how Saul experienced God and his heart was changed, but he kept it a secret. Tonight we are going to look at Saul again. We are going to see how he disobeyed God and God rejected him from being king. We are going to focus tonight on what God asked Saul to do and why would a loving God ask one of His own to do such a thing. Next week we are going to focus on Saul’s disobedience and why God rejected him. I think it is really important to focus first on what God asked Saul to do and why God would expect him to do this. So Let’s get started by reading 1 Samuel 15.

I want you guys to break up into groups of two and answer the following questions.

What did God ask Saul to do? (vs 3)

-What did Saul do wrong? (vs 9)

-Why do you think that God would ask Saul to do this?

Tonight I want to show you a practical way to handle really heavy scripture that you struggle to understand. The very first thing I want to say is that you have to view God correctly as He sees Himself, not as we would like to see Him. For instance most of us love the view of God as a loving, patience, kind God. And He is, but He is also just, holy, judge. So let’s look at how God sees Himself in scripture.

He is kind

Psalms 145:13 (...kind in all His works)

Luke 6:35 (He is kind to the ungrateful and evil)

He is holy

Leviticus 19:2 (He is holy)

1 Samuel 2:2 ( There is none holy like the Lord)

Isaiah 6:3 (Holy,Holy Holy is the Lord)

He is just

Deuteronomy 32:4 (...He is just)

Daniel 4:37 ( ...His ways are just..)

Ok so I hope you see that when dealing with heavy scripture that is difficult to understand, you always need to look at the character of God rather than who we think God should be. Next I want us to look at a few different times we see in scripture God and how He handled different circumstances to help us see why God asked Saul to do what He asked him to do. I want you to ask yourself several questions as we look at these verses.

- What is happening in this scripture?

-How does God respond in these verses?

-What does this tell us about God?

Deuteronomy 25:17-19

-What is happing in this scripture? God is making a promise thru Moses to the people of Israel of His judgement toward the Amalek people because of their harsh treatment toward them.

-How does God respond? With protection of His people.

-What does this tell us about Him? He cares for His people.

Jonah 3:10-4:2

-What is happening in this scripture? God spares the people of Nineveh and Jonah’s response to God sparing the city.

How does God respond? He showed compassion.

What does this tell us about God? He has compassion on people who turn from evil.

Ezekiel 33:11

What is happening in this scripture? God is speaking thru the prophet Ezekiel to the Israelites about His heart when it comes to the wicked.

How does God respond? He finds no pleasure in their death, but wishes they would turn and live.

What does this tell us about God? He finds no pleasure in punishing the wicked ,but desires for them to turn away for wickedness and live.

So overall what does this tell us about God and why He responded to the Amalek’s the way He did?

-The Amalek’s were cruel to His people and He promised to bring judgment because of their cruelty. (Deut. 25:18, Judges 4 ) a side note: David dealt a mighty blow to the Amalek’s ( 1 Samuel 30:18) and they were eventually wiped out by the Simeonites

(1 Chronicles 4:43)

-God does show compassion on evil people when they repent.

-God desires for people to turn from their wicked ways and live

I hope this gives you an example for how to handle heavy scripture that is difficult to understand. God didn’t just ask Saul to do something because God was bored or for no reason. But He asked Saul to do something because of a promise God had given and because judgement needed to come.

Next week we are going to look at Saul’s disobedience and why is was such a big deal that God rejected Saul as king.

Samuel's Influence on Saul

2011-11-12T15:06:00.001-08:00

Week Four

Samuel’s influence on Saul

1 Samuel 9

As we start looking at a new person(Saul), let look back at the influences in Samuel’s life and how they impacted him.

Elekana (Samuel’s dad)-

Hannah(Samuel’s mom)-

Eli(priest)-

Eli sons-

Israel/Philistines-

As we being 1 Samuel, we see how before Samuel was even born God was using his mom/dad to influence(direct) Samuel to the chosen path God had for him. We see his fathers influence of truth spoken in love. We see how Hannah’s pain leads her to turn to God and pour out her pain/anger toward her situation to not be able to have children. And how this encounter with God directly impacts Samuel calling to become a Nazarite and be raised in the temple. We then see how Eli the priest and his sons impacts Samuel. We see a direct impact on how Eli raised/disciplined his sons and the life of disobedience the sons led and how Samuel raised/disciplined his sons and how they lived a life of disobedience. We then see how Israel/Philistines had a direct impact on Samuel being led to make Saul king.

I had a conversation with my brother the other day on the phone. We talked about our experiences with God as a teenager. Looking back on his teenage years, he never really felt like anyone taught him how to study Gods word. He really felt like he had missed out on that experience. As we continued to talk, I told him that sometimes God allows us to miss out on experiences at one point of our lives so that when we finally get that experience-it changes us-it changes us so much that we make sure that anyone God brings our way will not miss out on the particular experience.

Have you ever felt like you missed out on an experience? Wish that some how your life was different? If so describe

How do you think God can use this experience?

Today as we study Saul, we will see how Saul’s whole life changed once he experienced the influence and power of God. We will see how Saul’s nature was to depend others opinion/advice instead of knowing what is truth and living it out. Tonight I want you to think about in your own life-what areas do you depend on others opinion instead of knowing/trusting in God’s truth. So let’s get started. Israel wanted a king. And they used Samuel’s sons as their excuse to have one. Let’s read 1 Samuel 8:1-9. Can you imagine what Samuel must have felt. The people wanted to have a king and used his son’s behavior as a reason for it. Can you see the connection between Samuel and Saul before they even met? Let’s break up into groups and read 1 Samuel 9. Answer the following questions.

-What do we know about Saul and his family? (vs1-2) (wealthy/attractive)

-What choice did Saul’s dad give him? (vs 3) (any servant to go with him)

-How many different places did they look for the donkey? (vs 4) ( 3 areas)

-In verses 5-10, what is the tone of this conversation between Saul/Servant?

-who is asking all the questions?

-who is answering the questions?

-what does this tell you about Saul/Servant relationship?

In verse 18-22, what is the tone of this conversation between Saul/Samuel?

-how is this conversation different than Saul/Servant?

-how is it the same?

In verse 27, why did Samuel send Saul’s servant away? (Saul was too dependent on his servant to be the king he needed to be)

So what did we learn about Saul? He was attractive and wealthy. He naturally depended on others for advice. And he was insecure about his position. One of the major things that sticks out to me with Saul is his lack of confidence. He ready relied on his servant and he saw himself as not really important. Think about your life can you relate?

In what areas have you felt like you really had to depend on anthers advice?

In what areas in your life have you ever struggled with feeling like you are not good enough?

In what areas in your life do you feel like you can handle it without any help?

In what areas in your life have you found your place and you feel secure in that place?

In all of our lives we have both don’t we? We have areas where we feel insecure and need advice and other areas where we feel secure and don’t need any help. Whether we put our trust in others or ourself we can end up missing God. We can rely so much on others that we never seek God or we can rely so much on ourselves that we never seek God. But God desires for us to put our confidence in Him. Samuel knew this and I love how God uses Samuel to lead Saul to follow the path God has for him. What I love also about Samuel is how he spoke to Saul as what he was called to be, not just simply as Saul saw himself. My youth pastor was a master at doing this. He always spoke to me like he knew i could be be someday not at what he saw standing in front of him.

So how about you? I want you to think about all the influences around you, in your life. Let’s name some: Parents, friends, popular opinion, culture, approval of others, admiration of others, wanting to fit in, wanting to stick out...

In your life who/what influences you the most?

All of us are influenced to different degrees at different times. We must always be aware about the level of trust we put into following others opinions. And we must always put truth above opinion. In our culture today we have misunderstood popular opinion and truth. We have started to look at Christianity as an opinion not a truth.

Ex: types of opinions- favorite drink, color, to date or not to date, movies

Truth: Math, calories in a soda, being pure whether you date or not, having pure motives with movies, music, and friends

Let’s finish reading in 1 Samuel 10:1-16. Let’s focus on verse 6, 9, and 16. What do these three verses tell us about Saul? How did his life differ once he experienced God? As we proceed from tonight it is important for us to understand that Saul is a believer. Even though he was sinful and we will see the next two weeks he really really messes up. In spite of Saul’s salvation he struggles with following after others opinion. We will see over the next 2 weeks how that plays out in his life. Identifying who/what influences you in your life and measuring it up against scripture will help you experiencing God on a deeper level. It will help you not be swayed by others opinion and help you stand on the truth of God.

Influence of the Enemy

2011-11-12T15:05:00.000-08:00

Week three

Influence of the Enemy

Today we are going to look to at how a foreign people and a sacred item plays a part in the chosen path for Samuel and ultimately in Saul and Davids paths. As we begin to read in chapter 4, we see Israel go to battle with the Philistines. We see that Israel was defeated the first day of battle so they decided to bring the ark of the covenant from Shiloh to the battle field. As the ark was brought into the camp the people of Israel started to celebrate their impending victory-why? Because the people of Israel knew from their past history that God’s Spirit dwelt with the ark of the covenant and they felt like they had brought God into the battle. They felt as if they now had God’s power on their side. It didn’t seem to bother them to have God on their side until they were in the mist of a battle and they lost the first round. Have you ever been there? You made a huge choice and in the middle of a difficult battle you decide to bring God in on it. Because you think He will then be on my side? Man I sure have. I have made choice after choice like this in my own life. It’s the “I ‘m in big trouble-save me now” mind set. God if you will just get me out of this I will do anything you say. How would you fill in the blank. God if you will just get me out of this I will _________________________.

Scripture doesn’t say what Samuel was thinking when they came to Shiloh to send word to bring the ark of the covenant to the Ebenezer. It only says that Eli’s sons were with the ark. So they were the ones who brought the ark to the battle field with out protest. This choice was the first step to fulfill the prophecy that God spoke to Samuel when he was a child. It led to the death of Eli’s sons and the ark of the covenant being taken. We also see the death of Eli the priest. We see a man, who God used to impact the chosen path of Samuel the prophet, heritage completely destroyed due to the sin of passivity when it came to his children. We see a man who lost his life when he heard that the ark of the covenant had been taken by the Philistines. We see the same passivity a man had in raising his sons pass over to his ministry.

Why do you think that Eli would have allowed his sons to take the ark of the covenant to the battle?

What areas in your own life are you passive?

How will those areas of passivity affect your daily life?

What amazes me most is the reaction of the Philistines. They were petrified. They had heard all the stories of how the God of Israel. They had more fear and reverence for the ark of the covenant than God’s chosen people. They were sure that they had already been defeated so to make sure that they were not taken as slaves they fought. They fought and won. They not only won the battle, they were able to take the ark of covenant too! What a glorious victory this was for the Philistines and a humiliating defeat for the Israelites. Have you been there? A place of mortifying humiliation due to disobedience to God. A place were shame reigns and self loathing overtakes you.

How did that defeat effect how you responded to God?

One thing I love about our God is that He allows us to make our own choices, even choices to our own detriment. But then He always comes to make it right in the end. Lets look at chapter 5 of 1 Samuel to see how He makes it right for the Israelites.

What city did the Philistines go to after the battle?

Where did the Philistines put the ark of the covenant after they returned from the battle?

What did the people of Ashdod find when they awoke?

What happened to the second morning the people of Ashdod awoke?

What happened to the people of Ashdod?

What city did they send the ark to next and what happened to them?

What was the next city?

What did the people of this city want the Philistines to do with the ark?

It is truly amazing to me the sense of humor God has even as He places judgement on the Philistines. It was if the God of the universe was playing a practical joke on the people of Ashdod and their god Dagon to make His own point. What was God’s ultimate point? He was if He was saying to them” allowed you to defeat my people due to their sins and lets not forget I am the one who let you take the ark away from them. But you will not keep it and I want you to understand that I am more powerful than all your gods. Amen to that!!! How great is our God that in spite of our sin, our disobedience, he will never allow His name to be taunted, dishonored. Isn’t that reassuring. That there is absolutely no way I can mess up so much that God will not be able to make it right.

How does knowing that God can always make it right no matter how much we mess up make you feel?

What action does it make you want to take?

I don’t know about you, but it makes me want to be on God’s side. It makes me want to obey Him, to love Him, to worship Him. As we continue on to look at chapter 6, lets look at how God finished making things right.

What did the religious people tell the lords of the Philistines they needed to do when they send back the ark of the covenant?

What was the test that all bad things that had happened to the Philistines had been from God?

What was the outcome?

How did the people of Israel respond when they saw the ark?

Why was God’s judgement on them?

Have you been there? You have come out of a dark time with rejoicing because of the favor of God and you mess it up again. Because you tried to fix the behavior and not the heart? As we continue to on our path of wisdom and understanding on how God uses all things to impact to chosen path for us we will begin to see that God cares far more about the state of our heart than simply our behavior.

As we close today, I want you take some time to think about about how all of this impacted Samuel.

How did the death of Eli and sons impact the path that God had set forth in Samuel’s life?

How did the ark of the covenant being taken away by the Philistines impact how Samuel saw sin?

How did the judgement of God on the Philistines impact how Samuel saw God?

How did the return of the ark impact how Samuel saw how God makes things right?

In your own life, how do these scriptures impact you and how you see God?

1 Samuel Notes Week two

2011-11-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

Week Two

Eli the Priest’s Influence

1 Samuel 1:19-3:19

Lets look at how Eli the priest impacted the chosen path for Samuel. Lets read 1 Samuel 1:9-17, 25-28, 2:11. Eli the priest is literally minding his own business and this hysterical woman, who Eli thought was drunk came in to pray. He confronts her and says “how long will you be drunk. Put the wine away from you”. Now we all know that men and women are very different. But the older I get the more I have come to understand that men REALLY don’t understand the emotions of women. I can just imagine Eli and his utter exasperation. “Who does this woman think she is? You can’t come drunk into the place of worship! What has this world come to!!!” Then Hannah responds to Eli accusations with her experience with God. Eli must have recognized that her experience with God was real even if he did not understand her emotions or reactions during her prayer time. Eli was wise enough to understand that God is God and you simply can’t put Him in a box. In verse 25 of chapter 1, we see Eli’s next encounter with Hannah. You know that Eli was thinking “Not this crazy woman again! God what are you doing to me.” Eli listened to Hannah and then they all worshipped! Not only did Eli worship with this family, we see in 2:11 he kept Samuel with him. We see a man who did not understand a woman approach to God, but he was obedient to what God was doing in and thru this family and accepted Gods chosen path for a young baby boy!

Have you ever been in a situation like Eli? You know that God has place a person(s) in your life, but you just don’t get them. Describe the situation.

How did you respond in this situation

This week we are going to look at the direct impact Elkanah, Hannah, Eli the priest, and Eli sons (Hopni and Phineas). Remember that Elkanah was the husband of Hannah and father of Samuel, who loved her with a fervent love, Hannah is the mother of Samuel, and Eli is the priest who takes Samuel in “as one set apart to do the work of the Lord”. We are going to be introduced to the sons of Eli. They were the priests who served under their father. It was a history of priesthood that was past down from father to son all the way back to Aaron(Moses brother). As a priest they were responsible for the sacrificial ceremonies for the Israelites, the tabernacle, and ministering to God(Exodus 28 and 29). So lets begin by reading 1 Samuel 2:12-3:21 together.

We first see in 1 Samuel 2:12, that the sons of Eli were corrupt and that they did not know the Lord. How in the world can this be? How can they be appointed to take care of the sins of others and not even know God? In this time the priesthood was handed down from father to son through the line of Aaron. They were suppose to be taught and to be known by God. In this instance they knew about the things of God, but did not have an intimate relationship with God. We also see in 1 Samuel 2:17, that the sons of Eli not only did not know God, but even had a contempt for the things of God. They despised the things of God so much that God desired to kill them(1 Samuel 2:25). How do we wrap our minds around these ideas?

In our politically correct society today, we do not like to think of God in these terms. We like to think of Him as all loving-which He is- and all forgiving-which He is-, but we don’t like to talk about Him as just-which He also is-. You see the sons of Eli were given every chance to know and be known by God, but chose not to know God to the point where they were defaming the name of God and the things of God. And in Gods justice, He will not stand for that. There will be consequences.

Lets look at how this relates to our lives. The sons of Eli were raised around religion and religious things, but never knew God intimately. Is it possible to know all the right answers, but not know God the only answer? If so how.

How would you describe your experience with the things of God?

Do you intimately know God? Or do you have a contempt for the things of God?

I believe that each choice we make has a consequence, some good and some bad. What are the consequences for knowing God?

What are the consequences for having contempt for the things of God?(it is not necessary a physical death).

So how does the choices that the sons of Eli make relate to Samuel and how did it impact the chosen path for him? Samuel was raised watching the sons of Eli. His life is a complete contrast to the sons of Eli to the point that when God called Samuel into ministry, Samuel's first prophecy was against Eli and his sons(1 Samuel 3:11-14). Samuel saw first hand the justice of God.

One other way Samuel was impacted was by Eli as a father. Eli was a very passive dad. He was not honored or his opinion respected by his sons. Let’s look at how Samuel handled fatherhood. Let’s read 1 Samuel 8:1-9. Do you see the comparison to Eli’s sons? Can you imagine what Samuel must have felt. The people wanted to have a king and used his son’s behavior as a reason for it. This is my point with this-Samuel was a man who truly LOVED and followed after God, but he was also flawed and sinful. He was influenced in positive ways by Eli, but also negative ways. But the point is that God still received glory despite Samuel’s failures.

In your life you are not perfect. You have been influenced in positive/negative ways by our family/mentors. Your life is not about you being perfect, but about your desire to please and serve God in spite of your imperfections. God still loves you and still gains glory from your life.

Spend sometime thinking about your family/mentors. How have you been influenced by them?

2011-10-19T12:53:00.000-07:00

Intro to 1 Samuel:

1 Samuel was written in accordance with 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, and 2 Kings. They are a historical look at how Israel came to have kings instead of judges. It gives us an inside look at how God used many different types of people to accomplish His will and how our own wants and desires when put in front of Gods wants and desires can lead us down a path of hardship and yet we can still have victories thru Gods mercy and grace. 1 Samuel walks us thru the life of Samuel the prophet, Saul, and David. It reveals to us how God used each of these people to accomplish His will in spite of their own sinfulness. My hearts desire is for us to see how even in spite of our sin God’s will shall be accomplished and that we can see how God can use us to accomplish that will.

At the start of 1 Samuel, we see that the people of Israel did not care for religious things. There were corruption with the judges and religious elite. The things of God were not taken seriously and were certainly not seen as sacred. After Moses brought the Israelites out of Egypt his father in law Jethro advised him to put “men who fear God” in charge over ten, fifty, one hundred, and thousand. They were to be called the judges. After Joshua’s death, the role of the judge changed from being simply civil magistrate to a military deliverer for the people of Israel. Their main responsibility was to protect the Israelites from foreign powers. As the judges overcame a people they were to do away with them and the Israelites were to take over that area, but some judges allowed the Israelites to live with other people groups. The Israelites began to take on these peoples gods and their types of worship.

Over the next 10 weeks we are going look at how God uses families,circumstances, and even enemies of sinful, imperfect men to accomplish His will. My prayer is that we will be able to see how God uses our families,circumstances, and even our enemies to bring about His will.

Week One

Samuel’s Parents

Tonight we are going to look at Samuel the prophets parents.

We are going to look at 3 things.

-Who they were

-What they did

-How did this influence Samuel’s life

Before we being let me hear from you about your depth of understanding about who Samuel was. What can you tell me about Samuel the prophet?

-a Nazarite for life

-first to hear from God in a long time

-served as a priest for Eli

-one who God used to anoint the first king of Israel

-he spoke countless truths from God

-a man of influence

-a man of spiritual depth, but also an imperfect man

-absence father and poor spiritual leader to his boys

Since we have a overview look at Samuel’s life -let’s look at how his parents influenced who he became. Let’s read 1 Samuel 1-2:7

Elkanah was a man Levite() who is presumably wealthy because he was able to afford 2 marriages. He really loves and cares for Hannah. We read in verse 5 that Elkanah gave a double portion of his offering for Hannah as a way to compensate for her being childless and as a way to show his love for her. We also read in verse 8, that Elkanah is very concerned about Hannah’s lack of appetite and her sad disposition. He really hurts for her. What amazes me about this kind of love is that it describes 1 Peter 4:8 perfectly “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins” Can you imagine how this type of love and commitment impacted Hannah? And how as we look further into these verses how this kind of love and acceptance impacts the path chosen for Samuel?

Elkanah showed his love by speaking the truth to Hannah. He spoke the truth even when it was not simple to speak it because he truly loved her. How many times do we shy away from the truth simply because it was simpler to do so. One character trait that makes a strong Christian is to be a truth teller even when it costs you something. As Christians we should not speak the truth to be right, to one up someone, to put someone in their place, to give someone what they deserve, but because it is done out of kindness and love toward that person or what will eventually be what is best for that person. Elkanah gives us a beautiful example of how to tell the truth to someone you love, even when it is not simple.

Hannah was the first wife of Elkanah. She should have had multiple children at this point. But instead she found herself in a place of bitterness, sadness, and apathy. She has no children and her rival(as the bible describes her) has many sons and daughters. On top of all that, her rival basically is rubbing her face in it. And finally in the mist of these circumstances, Hannah in all her pain and bitterness goes before the Lord. She commits to Him that if He will bless her with the one thing she wants more than anything(a male child) that she will commit him to the Lord and that no razor would ever touch his head. Hannah was committing this future son to the life of a Nazarite. Normally this was a commitment of a few weeks which entailed no wine, cutting of the hair and no contact with dead bodies, but Hannah committed this future child to this for his entire life. In the mist of her grief, she turns to the Lord and asks for her “hearts desire”(a son) and in that request she commits that “her hearts desire” will serve the Lord.

Hannah believed the best life her son could have would be to serve God. Isn’t very different than how we believe? Most of us think how much do I have to do so I can still be seen a leader. We think what is the bare minimum I have to give to God and still have his blessing. Instead of really understanding that committing our whole life to serve God is simply the best way to live.

Let’s look at how Samuel’s parents influenced his life.

Let’s read 3:15-18. How did Samuel feel about the vision of Eli? What did Samuel do despite his fear?

Let’s read 8:4-6. Samuel was struggling with his circumstances and he went to the Lord. It seems like that would be natural-he is Samuel the prophet. He is super spiritual. But how do you respond when life circumstances are hard? If we were being honest most of us don’t run toward God, but away from Him.

Samuel was a truth teller and a man that understood that during hard times you must run to God.

I want to spend sometime looking at our families. I want you to ask yourself three questions

-Who are my parents

-What have they done

-How has my life been influenced by this

As you answer these questions, remember that we all have imperfect families and for some Who/What about your parents may not be super positive and uplifting. But this I can promise positive/negative God desires to use your family to influence you for His purpose/will.

2011-06-08T11:08:00.000-07:00

Being Comfortable with the Word of God

Today we are going to talk about the idea of being comfortable with the Word of God. Think about your own comfort level when it comes to the Word of God. Isn’t it true that for most of us it is much more comfortable for us to talk about what boys we like or don’t like than it is to talk about God let alone the Word of God? As girls when we get together we talk about clothes,boys,music we love,boys,movies we have recently seen,boys...

Why is it so uncomfortable for most of us to naturally talk about God and His Word? I think it goes back to our human nature. It is natural for us to be attracted to the opposite sex-we are born with this attraction. But we are not born with a nature that is comfortable with the things of God. (scriputure Romans) We only receive the Holy Spirit at salvation and we need Him to guide our heart to become comfortable with the things of God. Basically girls we have to work at it because it is not natural for us to be comfortable with the Word of God.

So why is it important for us to be comfortable with the Word of God? Think about your very best girl friend. A girl that you trust and love. If you overheard a group of other girls talking about things that she supposedly said. As her best friend you should immedialtely know if she said those things or not, right? Because you know her tone, how she normally talks and the things she normally talks about. Let’s pretend that this same group of girls are talking about your best friend and you hear them talking about things she did this past weekend. As her best friend you should know if that seems like activities she would normally participate in. Because you know her inside and out. You know her character.

Think about this example when it comes to God and His Word. If you heard someone talking about the truths of God’s Word are you comfortable enough with the tone of scripture, what scripture talks about that you would know if it is truth or someone’s incorrect explanation of scripture? This idea of understanding the tone of scripture effect how we live on a daily basis. Let’s look at John 1:1 for an example.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

John 1:1

John 1 is talking about how Jesus is the Word and how He was in the beginning He was the Word. Think about what this name “the Word” means. That Jesus is the very language of God-the Good News-not simply God Himself. Think about the last seven days of your life. How has Jesus being the very language of God effected your life? How has your life been different because of this? As a believer this should be an ever present part of our lives. The God of the universe used Jesus as a way to have relationship with us-He used Jesus as His language to us-He used Jesus a the way to communicate to us. Knowing the tone of scripture helps us to know the truths of God and should effect how we live in our daily life.

The character of God effects how we think about ourselves and each other. Think about the things that you hate the most about yourself. Whether it be things about your appearance, your personality, your station in life... What does how you think about yourself say about what you believe about the character of God? Let’s look at what scripture says about how we should think about ourselves. In John 1:1-9, we see that Jesus is the Word and that He was here from the very beginning. In verse 3, it says that ALL things were made through Him and NOTHING was made without Him. In verse 9 it says that Jesus is the true light and that He has come to enlighten everyone to the truth of God. So many times when it comes to how we think about ourselves we are ashamed and we believe a lie about ourselves. We think about ourselves through the lens of this world not through the truth of the light of God.

Let’s look about Psalms 139 thru the idea that Jesus was there at your creation and that we should see ourselves through the light of the character of God.

Psalms 139 says that you can go no where without the presence of God already being there. That you were woven together. The number of days have already been written. Basically God knows you faults and all. And He still chose you. Think about the things you hate about yourself-what would it look like in your life if you realized that you can use that which you see as a weakness for the glory of God. Let me explain what I mean. I was born a girl with a very strong will, stubborn, and simply a rebellious heart. My whole life always felt misunderstood and wrong some how. But one day my youth pastor took me aside and showed me Psalms 139 and he said “Raylee how different your perception of yourself would be if you focused all of you rebellion on Jesus.” It what a light bulb moment for me. How different my life could be if I use what I saw as a weakness for the glory of God. If I obey God and follow Him with a spirit of out right rebellion in the face of those who would steer me away from what God has called me to do. How very different indeed.

Think about in your life. What is the comfort level you have with the Word of God? Test yourself this week. Do you have a clear understanding of the tone of scripture-that you can tell between the truth and a lie. Do you see the character of God clearly? How you think about yourself and others is your first clue to how you see God. Let’s end with Psalms 139:23-24.

“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”

Psalms 139:23-24

My prayer is for each of us to become more comfortable with the Word of God so that it can affect our daily lives.

2011-04-24T17:53:00.000-07:00

A Remembrance...

This past Friday was a very special and important day for our family. It was the first Good Friday that we celebrated with our new church family at FBC Chickasha. And it was also very special for our oldest son because it was the very first time he participated in the Lord’s Supper. Pike surrendered his life to Jesus on the Wednesday before Christmas. And because of how God worked out our transition from CRBC to FBC, he was baptized at CRBC, but was not able to participate in the Lord’s Supper at CRBC. So he has had to wait several months and I am telling you he has been pumped. On Friday morning he was buzzing around our house before school talking about how he was going to FINALLY get to do the Lord’s Supper and he could not wait. As a mom, I thought it was super cute. After school he was even more jazzed. He asked if we could do bible study(our wording for quiet time with Jesus) together. We normally do a family bible study every morning and I have made it a practice to do part of my daily bible study in front of our kids so that they see me daily in the word of God. But this is the FIRST time he has ever asked to do bible study the way I do bible study together. So I was super excited! We got our journals out, our pens, and our bibles out. We read thru John 1:1-18 and he wrote out verse 14 in his journal. We talked about what it meant and how we could apply it. Honestly it was awesome-simply awesome. It was then time to get everyone dressed for church so we could celebrate Good Friday. I was setting out the clothes for the girls and Pike walks in completely dressed. Now Pike has been dressing himself since he was 2, but I mean he was dressed up. He had a pair of jeans, a button up shirt with a tie, and his shiny black shoes with dress socks. He told me that he wanted to be fancy for church tonight because it was a special night. I was truly blown away by his excitement and his understanding of the importance of the Lord’s Supper.

In Deuteronomy 4:9 it says, “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children-” It is talking about not forgetting the things God had done for the people of Israel. How He has spoken to the people and revealed Himself. God knew that nature of man and how we quickly forget the importance of the acts that He has performed for them.

I think about this idea in Deuteronomy of God not wanting us to forget the works He has done for us and how it applies to the Lord’s Supper. Jesus said in Luke 22:19 when he is performing the first Lord’s Supper “...Do this in remembrance of me.” Just as God knew that the people of Israel needed to be reminded about His works in the Old Testament, He also knew that as those who believe in Jesus, we would need to be reminded of what Jesus did for us.

I think about the excitement that Pike had for his first Lord’s Supper. He wanted to be ready to participate in all that Jesus had done for him. He wanted his heart to be ready so he spend time in the word of God and he also wanted to dress up for His Savior. In my life how do I live this out? Am I keeping my soul diligently focused on the things Jesus has done for me or am I allowing my day to day life to keep my eyes from seeing the things God has done for me? Am I keeping my soul focused on a remembrance of all God has done? My prayer is that I will daily carry with me an excitement, like Pike, of all God has done for me. In your life can you relate?

2011-04-19T14:14:00.000-07:00

Lenses of Everyday Living

When I was a little girl, I had a very difficult time in school. I had a hard time learning to read, hard time learning much of anything at school. And let’s be honest I was a really ornery kid on top of my learning issues. My parent along with school tried to figure out why I had such a hard time learning. This included a lot of testing. Finally my 4th grade year, the school did it’s annual eye test. Low and behold not only did I have a vision issues, I was almost legally blind. It is amazing to me that I had lived 9 years without ever realizing that I could not see things correctly. I will never forget the day I put on my glasses for the first time. It was like a whole new world for me. As soon as I got my glasses my learning improved. Within the next year not only was I reading, but I was reading above grade level. For me it simply took me viewing my world thru the proper lenses.

In our Christian life how many times do we find ourselves struggling simply because we are viewing our world thru the wrong lenses. Think about this: sometimes we focus so much on the BIG life changing things that we get out of focus on the normal everyday stuff. Have you ever had an experience where you have been seeking God’s will for your life? I, mean, not just the big stuff like should I be dating this guy, or who should I marry, or should we have more kids. But about the daily little things. The things that most of us think God is too busy for or that He simply doesn’t have time to think about. It is interesting to me how Paul address this very issue in Ephesians.

Let me share with you what I mean. Paul is addressing this letter to the Ephesian Christians. There were no major issues with the church itself. There was no major dispute or conflict. There was no special occasion for this letter at all. Paul was simply writing this letter to affirm the Christians in Ephesus to live out the truth of their salvation, to continue with unity in a diverse setting, and what is the proper conduct of the Christians in their daily lives.

Lets look at some of the scripture from Ephesians 1. In verse 15-22, Paul is writing his prayer for the Christians. Here are just a few of the things he prayed.

-He prays for them to have the spirit of wisdom and revelation in Christ (17).

-He also prayed that the believers would know the hope that they were called to (18).

-And he prays for the immeasurable power for those who believe (19).

Now think about the context this letter was written in. Paul did not write this for a special occasion or for simply the BIG stuff in their lives, but for their day to day normal life. In my life how do I apply the context of this letter to my life?

Paul prayed for the Christians in Ephesus to have the spirit of wisdom and revelation in Christ for their daily life. In my day to day life how am I allowing the spirit of wisdom and revelation to affect how I go about my life? Am I seeing how Christ is revealing Himself to me as I go about my ordinary daily life?

Paul also prayed for the Christians to would understand the hope they were called to in their day to day living. Does my life reflect that kind of calling or do I simply reflect what others expect? Do I simply blend in to my surroundings?

Paul continued to pray that the believers would have a full understanding of the immeasurable power that is provided to them thru Christ. How do I in my day to day life plug into this power? In what ways do I depend on God’s strength in my weakness?

Can you relate? In what ways do you struggle with seeing Christ at work in your life? Do you struggle with the calling that God has given to you? How do you depend on God’s strength in your weaknesses?

2011-03-16T19:50:00.000-07:00

One in a Million...

This week the ladies in our church started doing a new bible study. It is a Pricilla Shirer bible study called “One in a million”. During my study this week she made a statement that really made me think about my own life. “ You can’t afford to ignore the fact that a pit of sin separates you from the Father. Your journey toward abundance and fullness must start at the foot of the cross”. She then led us to look through Romans 5:13, 17-19. The following is how this statement and verses made me think about my own life.

“ Therefore just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned-” Romans 5:13

There is no question that sin is alive and well in our world. All you have to do is turn on the television, the radio, or turn on your computer and sin is every where in all aspects of our world. But how does this sin effect my day to day life? How many times do I go about my life without every thinking about the effects of sin in my life and those around me? I am living in a world that is dying and hurting. What am I doing to share a life of abundance and fulness with those who are dying and hurting all around me?

“For if because of one man’s trespass , death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:17

I have been saved... from my sin, from myself. Christ has made me new... but do I live like the new creation He has made? Am I living out the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness He has provided or am I living out a life full of trespass and death? Do I get so bogged down with a life so focused on myself and what I need that I forget to what God has called me to... a life of abundance?

“Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by ones man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:18-19

In what areas in my life do I simply live out the status quo? I mean simply live a passive life. A life that is way more concerned about my needs than seeing how sin truly effects my life and the lives of those around me? I mean seriously Christ died for this very sin. Christ paid the ultimate price so that I can have an intimate relationship with God. He took the steps that I could not...He accomplished what was and is impossible for me to do...He did what I was not able to do. But how many times a day do I act like I saved myself in how I live my life? In what ways do I try to save myself in different areas in my life? How many times a day do I worry? Which we all know is a nice word for not trusting God to be God. How many times a day do I simply over look the need of others because I am far too concerned with my own busy life? Simply put in what areas do I strive to live as Christ has intended me to live with an abundance of life He has called me to...

2011-03-15T13:05:00.000-07:00

A New Chapter...

It has been a while since I have posted a blog. God has taken my family on a wild ride the past few months and it has been amazing to see God at work as He has led us to a new chapter in our lives.

“ I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.” Psalms 32:8

Let me take you back a few years so you can see how unbelievable these past few months have been for us. A few years before my husband met me, he started to struggle with this idea of being in ministry. And when he was 14 years old God called him not only to be in ministry, but to be a pastor in ministry. So I have known since I was 17 years old that some day God would lead Michael to be the pastor of a church.

It was back in September that God just put all the pieces together for Michael and I to start the process for us to start a new chapter in our lives, into the the role God had called him to when he was 14. And it has been the most amazing thing for me to get to see my very best friend get to do the very thing God created him to do...to be a pastor.

I can not tell you how unbelievably kind and good God has been to us thru this whole process. First He has allowed us to serve at CRBC for ten amazing years. He provided a safe place for us to learn and grow in ministry. He blessed us with amazing unbelievable people who have loved and encouraged us in so many ways. It is not lost on us that not everyone gets to be apart of a loving and supportive church family. And as we leave this loving church, that we are going to a new church that is filled with loving and kind people. I mean seriously people-who gets to do that? I have been truly amazed at God’s kindness.

“But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy,...” Titus 3:4-5

So know we are moving to FBC Chickasha! And we are truly excited to see all that God has for us there. I want to use all the things that God has taught me at CRBC to fulfill the things God will call me to do at FBC. And my heart is to truly “do this new chapter well” and to never forget all the God has done at CRBC:)

2010-09-29T11:13:00.000-07:00

I’m not talking to myself here people...

Have you ever felt like no one is listening? I mean your pouring your heart out to someone or asking them to do something for you only to realize that they are not paying attention to a word you say...

This actually happens quite often at my house. Whether I am having a deep conversation with one of my kids-you know the kind where you wish someone could record what your saying and how your saying it because it’s just that good-or I am asking them to do something only to realize that they are completely ignoring me. In my house the phrase that normally comes out of mouth once I realize I am being ignored is “I’m not talking to myself here people...” Now I know that no one else is ever sarcastic with their kids-it’s just me right? But really in my mind during these moments I am thinking did I just receive a super power that makes me invisible? And then I realize, of course not, I am just being ignored by my sweet precious kids. In reality what I am saying doesn’t hold any value for them. So they don’t acknowledge my presence.

In my spiritual life, I realize that I treat the Holy Spirit much the same way that my kids treat me... I ignore what He is saying to me or what He is guiding me to do simply because what He is saying holds no value for me so I ignore His presence. Think about what Ephesians 4:30 says:

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

If we look closer at Chapter 4 we see that these verses speak directly to bringing sorrow to the Spirit of God.

Things that grieve the Spirit:

-having a hard heart (17)

-speaking with corruption on your tongue (29)

-living with bitterness, wrath, and anger (31)

Instead it says we should:

-put off our old self,renew our minds, and put on our new self (23-24)

-speak the truth to other believers (25)

-when angry-don’t sin(26)

-build others up(29)

-be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one other (32)

It is amazing to me how my interaction with other believers can grieve the Holy Spirit. Think about how much of the conflict we have with each other has to do with how we treat each other. Whether you feel ignored, unappreciated, or misunderstood, most of the time we can look at how we reacted to feeling this way and see how at times we grieve the Spirit.

I think about how just in the past seven days, how I have ignored these scriptures in my interactions with other believers. How I have not seen the value of these scriptures and how I have ignored the Holy Spirit when He has pointed this out in my life. Can you relate? In what ways have you ignored the Holy Spirit?

2010-09-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

Lessons From This Summer
Part Two

It has truly been an amazing summer! God has been so gracious and full of many surprises. We welcomed our fourth child into our lives in the late part of July. It truly has been a summer full of memories and sweet times. It has also been full of some amazing lessons in my own life. I would like to share with you a few of them. This is part two of three major lessons that I now have a deeper understanding of due to this summer full of lessons.

If you know me well-you know that I am fiercely independent and stubbornly strong willed. At my core I live day to day with a purposeful mindset of what my circumstances should look like or a plan on how to modify the circumstances to fit how my day should go. Because of these two attributes-I am obsessed with knowing God and His plan for my life so that I can have confidence in the plans of my day to day life.
There have been several life circumstances this summer that I could not alter or change simply because this is how God had ordained these events. And He chose to act in ways that were unexpected and if I am honest, simply annoying at times. But due to these circumstances, I have come to a deeper understanding of the idea of being grateful for the ways God has chosen to provide and how essential His provision is to my growth and understanding of who God is and who He wants me to be. I have experienced why it is so important for me to choose to be grateful... Here are two major lessons I learned through my circumstances.

-God does not want me to desire His plans more than a relationship with Him.

“You shall have no other gods before me”

Exodus 20:3

I have come to realize that in my life when I desire to have confidence in God’s plans more than I desire to simply know and love Him-I have made His plans my god. Crazy right? Think about this:how many times in our Christian life do we simply want to find our confidence in God’s plans instead of simply finding our confidence in God. We want to have confidence that we will be taken care of more than we will have confidence that we will come to a deeper level of intimacy with God. I found myself this summer wanting to be comfortable rather than more intimate with God.

-God wants me to understand that I will never truly know all of Him or completely understand all His ways until I am in heaven.

“ Your ways are not My ways”

Isaiah 55:8

No matter how far I feel I have come in my relationship with God or how much I feel like I know Him- there is always more to learn and know. I caught myself this summer wanting to put God in a box. I wanted to be able to know exactly how He was going to lead me and what His plans looked like all laid out before me. Basically I wanted to tell HIm how He should and should not act and respond in my life. God of course quickly reminded me by how He responded that He does not take direction from me:)

This summer I have learned a deeper respect and understanding for the mysteries of how and way God chooses to act in my life. I have also come to be reminded that my response should always be one of gratefulness.

Can you relate? Are you struggling with being grateful in how God has chosen to act in your life circumstances?

2010-07-17T18:08:00.000-07:00

Lessons From This Summer

Part One

It has truly been an amazing summer! God has been so gracious and full of many surprises. We are just a few days away from welcoming our fourth child into the Butler household. It truly has been a summer full of memories and sweet times. It has also been full of some amazing lessons in my own life. I would like to share with you a few of them. This is part one of three major lessons that I now have a deeper understanding of due to this summer full of lessons.

“Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.” Proverbs 14:29

Let me begin by telling you the circumstances God used to deepen my understanding of this first lesson. At the end of May I had to go into the hospital for precautionary reasons due to my prenancy. I had several tests that my doctor wanted done and thankfully all of them came back completely normal. But the doctor also wanted to do an ultra sound just to be cautious. So at this point I am joking around and feeling very confident that they are going to let me go home as soon as we have the ultra sound results. As this cute ultra sound tech comes into my room, the first thing she says is “ I really hope there is nothing wrong with your baby.” I thought to myself “well duh me too”. (As a side note: NO PREGNANT WOMAN WANTS TO HEAR THIS FROM SOMEONE WHO IS IN CHARGE OF DOING A TEST-) I should have known at this point that this ultra sound was going to be rough. As she tries to get the machine to turn on and get all the equipment to work properly, I am starting to get nervous. I am starting to think that this sweet looking girl has NO idea what she is doing... Let me be honest inside I am starting to flip out a bit. As she starts to look at the baby, she is not saying very much (note to those who do tests on other people-not talking can indicate two things- 1. you have no idea what your doing or 2. BAD NEWS). My sweet friend Vickey starts to ask a lot of probing questions and the girl smiles and make comments like “I wouldn’t know-you’ll have to talk to your doctor about that.” FINALLY at the end of the ultra sound she tells us that everything looks normal. I take a deep breath and as she is leaving I start making jokes about the whole experience. A few minutes later the same utlra sound tech peeks her little head in and says “I’m really sorry, but I have some really bad news...” My heart simply stops...I feel all the air sucked out of the room...and literally the only thing I can say is “Ok...” The ultra sound tech then explains that the bad news is that she has deleted a lot of the ultra sound pictures and that she will need to redo the ultra sound..... Obvviously I was stunned-how is that BAD news for me-let me be honest-how is this really bad news for her-this may be annoying news or inconvient news-but not bad-life or death-news. Truly in this moment I wanted to flip out on the poor girl. I wanted to give this girl a piece of my mind about her bed side manner, but in that moment I had no words to give and by the time I did I was already in my car on the way home from the hospital. Through this unpleasant expereince I learned several lessons that I would love to share with you.

There are simply stupid people who come into your life. People who are careless with your circumstances and feelings. People who simply make you want to flip out.
How I interact with theses ridulous people reveals my depth of relationship with God. It reveals how far I have come in my understanding of God’s love for me and my understanding of my response to His love.

Let me see if I can explain- When I had to deal with stupid people in my childhood, I would simply punch them ( it did not matter whether it was a stupid older person or a stupid person my own age). When I accepted Jesus to come into my life the summer after my 8th grade year, I came to realize that hitting or kicking even stupid people probably was not the godliest way to handle the situation. So I relied more heavily on sarcasism and manipulation as my main weapons to deal with stupid people. After I surrended to full time ministry the summer before my senior year in high school, I realized that manipulating even stupid people was not honoring to God. It wasn’t until my twenties that God really started to work on my saracasism. And the way He started was I would simply have no words. This was His huge red flag to me to not flip out on stupid people, but to wait silently...patiently until my words came back. So you see for me the fact that I had no words for this riducoulus utlra sound tech revealed to me how far God has taken me.

“And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.” 2 Timothy 2:24-25

Have you ever been there? Can you think of times when stupid people have been careless with your circumstances or feelings? How did you respond? What does your response say about your relationship with God?

My hope and prayer is that we will all be able to endure stupid people simply because of how God has endured-no how He has loved us.

2010-05-31T01:24:00.000-07:00

A Covering...

“Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses”

Proverbs 10:12

As a child I was always very competitive. My desire was not to simply win, but to make the losers enjoy being beaten. I was very competitive in sports, but also in how I related to other people. I was never scared of confronting someone when they had hurt me or showing them how upset they had made me. My goal was to win the argument/disagreement and to prove that I was right and they were wrong. I would use a multitude of tactics to accomplish my goal of winning in sports and also in relating to other people. It looked something like this:

Visual Intimidation(looking the part)

In sports, I would have all the best equipment that would give me an edge.

In my relationship with others, I would make sure I had the right people on my side.

Verbal Intimidation(using sarcasm and criticism)

In sports, I would “trash talk” with the best of them.

In my relationship with others, I would use sarcasm or criticism to shake someone’s confidence.

Mental Preparations(thinking thru the what ifs)

In sports, I would spend hours and hours picturing the “what ifs” of the game.

In relationship with others I would think thru what would be said and then would have come backs to dispute the other persons argument to make sure I would win.

As a child my desire to be the best was my main priority. I simply did not care who I took out to accomplish my goal or how my actions would effect someone else. I would do anything to win whether it was in sports or in relating to others. I know that not all children have a super competitive approach to life like I did, but I think most children can relate to having a desire to be the best at something. When I think back to those childhood years I wonder as an adult has much changed in how I relate to others? When someone hurts my feelings do I fall back on my childhood tactics or do I allow the love of Jesus to cover the offense that has been done to me? When I have been wronged by someone do I fall back to my natural tendencies or do I allow the Holy Spirit to push me to love despite how I feel?

I mean how many of us spend more time “looking the part” we desire to live out than simply loving those who have offended us?

I ask myself how many times a day do I have a “I wish I had said this” conversation with myself instead of simply allowing the love of Jesus to cover the person who has hurt me?

How many of us spend way too much time preparing a mental “what if” strategy instead of simply accepting the person or circumstances as is that has hurt/offened us? Choosing to understand that God has allowed this to happen for some reason and using it as a teachable moment to grow closer to Him.

I know in my life there are far to many days that I resemble that little girl I once was instead of the woman God desires me to be. What about you? Can you relate?

My prayer is that we would choose to love the people who have hurt us the most and to allow that love to cover all that persons offenses...

2010-05-01T09:17:00.000-07:00

Integrity Lived Out!!!

“Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor with God and man.” Proverbs 3:3-4

Steadfast Love and Faithfulness

These words are described a lot together in the Old Testament. They literally mean unwavering fidelity and rock solid integrity and trustworthiness. God describes Himself using these exact words in Exodus 34:6. Think about this-the very character of God is summed up in this idea of unwavering fidelity to us and a rock solid integrity! I have not only seen His trustworthiness, but I have actually gotten to experience it first hand.

But these verses in Proverbs are not talking about how God lives out His steadfast love and faithfulness, but how we should live this idea out. This idea of having unwavering fidelity and rock solid integrity as I go about my day. This idea should be lived out not only in how I do ministry and how I interact with my amazing husband and my precious children, but my friendships and those who are not so much my friends.

A Mothers Perspective

Write Them On The Tablet Of Your Heart

As I am wrestling with this idea-it occurs to me in a moment of teaching with one of my kids-that I have 2 ways I can teach this lesson of trustworthiness to them. I can focus my energy on the behavior I am seeing or I can try to touch my child’s heart with the truth of God. I can try to teach my child the “right way to behave” or I can try to mold his/her heart through how they experience trustworthiness in our house. I mean, honestly I can allow them to see trustworthiness lived out in my life and then also allow them not to just see it, but allow them to experience it. As a mom I don’t want my kids to simply “behave right”, instead I want their hearts to be right.

In my life how many times do I simply miss the fact that steadfast love and faithfulness does not come from simply trying to “behave right”. It comes because the God of the universe models this type of love and integrity to me! And then He allows me to not only see it lived out, but I get to experience it first hand as a child of God. In my life, do I model this type of love and integrity as I go about my day? Do I allow others to experience this love and integrity lived out first hand through me? Or do I make people have to earn my love and trust?

What I love about Exodus 34:6 is that God says this is who I am...it is not a conditional promise to His people or to man kind. God doesn’t say that is based on our behavior or our choices-it says that this is simply who He is...

My prayer for my life is that I will not make my steadfast love and trustworthiness conditional,but that I will allow others to experience this without conditions- that I will live my day to day life base on integrity lived out...

Can you relate?

2010-04-24T10:12:00.000-07:00

Being Thirsty...

Yesterday I went to lunch with a sweet friend and mentor. We spent sometime laughing and catching up each other on what God has been doing in our lives over the past few weeks. One of the things that I love about spending time with my friend is that our conversations always lead me to great conversations with God later in the day. My sweet mentor always gives me a lot to ponder over...

Yesterday was no exception. After lunch there was this idea that kept coming into my mind-this idea of thirst. And this idea of how Jesus uses this idea of thirst in a spiritual sense to draw others to Himself. And how has this idea of using thirst in my spiritual life affected me and those around me?

There are several times in scripture when Jesus uses this idea of thirst to draw others to His truth-

In Matthew Jesus is teaching about the beatitudes-

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” Matthew 5:6

When Jesus is talking to the Samaritan women at the well-

“Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14

We also see Jesus teaching during the Feasts of Booths(Tabernacle)-

“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, Out of his heart will flow the rivers of living water.” John 7:37-38

In a vision given by God to John the apostle-John describes those believers who come out of the great tribulation-

“They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. Revelation 7:16

Again John the apostle describes a scene where God is explaining the new heaven and the new earth-

“And he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water life without payment.” Revelation 21:6

And yet again John the apostle tells of how Jesus explains His desire for those who are thirsty-

“The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come’. And let the one who hears say ‘Come’. And ‘let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” Revelation 22:17

So we see how Jesus uses this idea of thirst to describe how He draws people to Himself. We also see in these scriptures that if you are a follower of Christ that we have the “spring of living water” to give to those who are thirsty. Both of these ideas bring up questions in my own mind. My first question is in my life do I thirst for Jesus or am I trying to quench my thirst with other things? Where in my life do I live like I don’t really need Jesus?

My other question is- does the way I live my life make others thirsty for Jesus? Do others look at my life and say “ I want what she has, but I simply don’t know how to get it.” Or do they say “ There is something she has that I wish I did.” Do I live such a way that I make others thirsty for Jesus? Because one thing I know to be true is that in the areas in my life where I don’t thirst for Jesus-I can’t make others thirsty either.

In your life do you thirst for Jesus? Are there areas that you are trying to fill up with other things? Do you make others thirsty for Jesus? My prayer is that our thirst for Jesus will over come each of us so much that the people we come in contact with can’t help but be thirsty for Jesus too!

2010-04-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

A Stirring of the Soul...

“And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:38-39

Have you ever had an experience with God that is hard to explain to yourself let alone anyone else? I mean an experience where you knew that God spoke and He spoke clearly? An experience where your very soul is stirred and every part of you wants to obey, but you simply don’t know exactly how your suppose to live out this knew command that God has stirred your soul with? Well that has truly been my experience this past weekend.

This past weekend I was blessed to be apart of the State Women’s Retreat at Falls Creek. I really felt like as this weekend approached that I would be able to overcome some major fears when it came to speaking to grown women. And God was sooo faithful before,during, and after the two seminars I taught, but as amazing as those experiences were it was in the main sessions that God truly stirred my soul. It was during these sessions where I heard God say very clearly, “Raylee you are too comfortable in your life and I want you to get prepared to choose to be made uncomfortable so that you can meet the needs of others.” He said “ I don’t want you to spend more on yourself than you spend on those in need!” In my spirit I know that He wasn’t simply saying financially, but emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically.

This morning as I am spending time with God and feeling like a MAC truck has run over me several times, I simply don’t know how to live this out- I mean what does this mean on a day to day basis in my life? One thing I do know is that I am right where God has placed me in my life and in my ministry. The stirring I am feeling is not conviction over some area of sin in my life, but an overall deeper knowledge of what God wants from and for me.

So as I sit here with the knowledge of my soul being stirred... I have some discomfort and fear just thinking about the future changes God desires for me to make and a whole lot of questions. But what I do know is that God wants more from me and so I am now in the process of trying to figure out what that means in my life, in my families life, and in my ministry.

Have you ever had a stirring of your soul? An experience where God has spoken and you simply don’t know what that looks like being lived out? My prayer for us is that we will be obedient as we try to process thru exactly what God desires as He stirs our soul and what that looks like as we live it out.

2010-04-11T19:47:00.000-07:00

Times of fear

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control

2 Timothy 1:7

Have you ever been afraid? I mean knees shaking-I can hardly breathe afraid? If someone had asked me as a kid what I was most afraid of it would be 4 things-Freddy Krueger., Vampires, Zombies, and Dentists. Ok, I know you are thinking those seem really ridiculous. And I have been told my whole life that the first three are not real, but this idea seemed a bit unreasonable to me in the middle of the night because I knew that if they were real I would have no power to stop them from bringing real harm to me. As for the fear of Dentist-I had some very traumatic experiences with 2 different dentists as a young child. And lets be honest everyone knows that dentists are real and they do cause pain when they are sticking an enormous needle in your mouth!

But if you asked me today what I am most afraid of it would be 3 things-Freddy Krueger, Zombies, and Dentists. Thanks to the Twilight series, I think I have over come my fears of Vampires:) And once again I logically understand that the first 2 are not real, but it is hard for me to remember that when my husband is out of town and I hear weird noises outside. And I understand logically that a dentists is not meaning to cause me harm, but I have even as an adult hyperventilated in the dentists chair.

All three of my worst fears are due to my lack of control and my inability to feel powerful when facing these fears. Isn’t that why we all struggle at times with fear?

God’s word says that God did not give us a spirit if fear, but of power, love and self control. So in times of fear do I have to trust in my own ability to control the situation or in God’s ability to overcome the situation? In my life what do I most fear? Not being able to have control of a situation or the power to overcome that situation. What does that say about my relationship with God? It simply says to me that I have some major trust issues with God’s ability to control a situation and His power to overcome it. I don’t know about you, but my spirit of fear runs deep and it is only through Gods ability to chip away at my fear and replace it with a spirit of trust as I seek Him that helps me deal with my fears.

Now I don’t know if I will ever completely overcome my fears, but over the years God has been using these 3 silly fears to help me understand deeper spiritual issues in my own life.

In your life, what do you fear? How can God use these fears to grow a spirit of power, love and self control in your life? My prayer for us all is that we will allow God to use even our silly fears to deepen our understanding of spiritual issues in our lives.

2010-03-25T18:41:00.000-07:00

A Beautiful Saint...

“A beautiful saint may be a hinderance if he does not present Jesus Christ but only what Christ has done for him.”

Oswald Chambers

As I am spending time with God today-it is Oswald Chambers who reminds me of the importance of being a beautiful saint who points other to Jesus not simply to myself. As I think deeper about this idea, I am reminded of a man who says that he “is not the Christ” when asked by others. This man doesn’t stop with this simple statement, but the very next day when he sees Jesus he announces to the crowd-

“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” John 1:29

A beautiful example...

What an amazing example of a beautiful saint pointing others to Christ. It really makes me wonder in my own life-do I live out this same type of example? Do I point others to Jesus as He works in me or do I point them to myself? Who in my life am I trying to point to myself or to my christian achievements instead of pointing them to Christ? As I have gone about my day today I have realized areas in my own life where I am a beautiful saint pointing others to Christ. And I have also realized that there are many more areas in my life that I am a beautiful saint that is pointing others to myself.

What about you...

In what areas are you a beautiful saint pointing others to Christ?
And in what areas are you a beautiful saint pointing others to yourself?

My prayer today is that we all will be more like John the Baptist as we point others to Jesus as He works in us. Oh how different would our life be if we really lived out Oswald Chambers advice....

2010-03-10T19:38:00.000-08:00

Running with wild abandon...

This past weekend, Michael and I were so blessed to hangout with some of the seniors from First Baptist Purcell! We had been asked by the youth pastor-a great friend of ours-to lead the seniors for their Disciple Now. I must say that it was an amazing weekend. We really had so much fun! And as I think back to some of the experiences we had with these soon to be graduates I have truly been inspired. There were several of the students that had become Christians in the past year and their excitement about Jesus was contagious. At one point during our small group, I asked the question “What do you do when you become bored with your faith?” One of the new believers said something that has really stuck with me.

She says, “ Well my life has only gotten better since I gave my life to Jesus! My life is more exciting now than it has ever been.”

This statement has really made me think about my own life. I remember feeling that way when I submitted my life to Jesus. I remember feeling hopeless and alone before I became a Christian, but I also remember my life only getting better at that all important moment of excitement of salvation. But when was the last time I expressed that kind of excitement about my relationship with Jesus? If I am honest it has been a while since I have felt that kind of excitement in my relationship with Jesus. Lately it has been more like “Jesus I want to desire you more-I’m getting a little bored.” Now I know that we all of seasons where we don’t “feel” the excitement of a new believer and as a mature Christian you must “push through” those times and seek Jesus even when you don’t feel like it. But a scripture just kept coming to my mind as I was thinking about this sweet seniors statement.

“ Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the mist of them, and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 18:2-4

This verse made me think that the reason I am struggling with being bored is due to my lack of humility towards Jesus, not due to the mature relationship I have with Jesus. Think about this, a young child will run to their mom/dad with wild abandon in spite of the looks of others, but as an adult we would never run that way to our mom/dad out of a sense of pride. Honestly I think this is what has happen to me in my own spiritual life- that due to pride I have lost the desire to humble myself and run with wild abandon to Jesus. Instead I walk properly has all other mature Christian adults should do. But let me be honest walking is boring and running is true bliss-

Let me ask you this-are you bored with your faith? Could it be that you have allowed pride to keep you from the excitement that gives us all a desire to run to Jesus? My prayer this week is that we will set aside our pride and run with wild abandon to the feet of Jesus!

Finding Rest

2010-01-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

As I put my girls down for their naps-I think to myself I need some rest. I am truly bone tired-not just simply physically tired, but my brain even hurts. And in this moment I wonder what do I do to find rest? I mean real rest-not just a break-but renewed energy-renewed life? In your life during times of restless living where do you find your rest?

In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus addressed this idea of rest. He says “ Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

As I look at these verses, I have several thoughts. But my main thought is that Jesus wants me to put on His yoke. I have heard many preachers teach that this yoke is a harness that farmers used on oxen to lead and guide them. This picture has always bothered me for many reasons, but the main one is I am not an oxen and a harness simply doesn’t appear to me that it would bring anyone rest. A few years ago, I read a book by Rob Bell called The Velvet Elvis and he gave me a new picture of this scripture. He talked about how the rabbi’s of Jesus day were teachers and each teacher had a yoke (or teaching/interpretation) of scripture that they lived by. So if a person said I follow the teachings of Rabbi so and so, people would understand that that particular person would take on the yoke(or teaching) of that particular rabbi.

Think about it in this way, Jesus is asking us to not put on a harness, but a way of living. I can relate completely to this picture of putting on the teachings of Christ. And I think about how this relates on a daily level in my life. In my life how many times do I put on the teachings of this world instead of the teaching of Christ? How many days do I burden myself down with the desire to be completely self sufficient instead of being desperately dependent on Christ? We all have a way of living, but what teaching do we put on ourselves that burden us down? Do we put on the desire to please man above God, do we put on the desire to be self sufficient above desperately needing God, do we put on discontentment with our lives above having contentment with where God has placed us? In my own life, what am I putting on that is weighing me down and keeping me from the rest that Christ so desperately wants me to have? And how would it feel to simply take off those things that are weighing me down and replace them with the teaching of Christ that will truly bring me rest? True rest...lasting rest.

As you read this- my prayer is that you will ask yourself the same questions that I am asking myself as my sweet angels sleep in the next room. In your life what is weighing you down? How can you today take that weight off and replace it with the teaching of Christ?

2010-01-05T18:16:00.000-08:00

As a New Year Begins...

What is God’s will for you for this coming year? As a new year begins, many of us never think to ask this question. It is generally easy for us to make at least one new years resolution about the coming year, but how many of us ask “what does God want for me this year?”. My prayer is that we all will take the some time to ask this critical question and listen to God’s response.

As we ask the question”what is God’s will for me this year?” many of us think of actions to take or jobs that can be done, but what if God wants you to simply wait-to not take actions that are any different than you already are doing and not to take on any new jobs. But to simply wait on HIm? My husband and I have recently found out that we are pregnant with our fourth child and we are sooo excited. But if I were honest I am not exactly super excited about the next 9 months. I am more excited about holding my new baby. Seeing who this little miracle is and how God is going to use him/her in this world. But as we all know I have to wait...And during the next 9 months I will learn some very valuable lessons about sacrifice and doing what is best for the baby above my own desires and wishes. Isn’t this the same with our waiting on God in other areas of our life. Waiting is simply no fun. But the results of our waiting bring immeasurable joy to our lives and the lessons we learn during the waiting process are valuable lessons that will stay with us through out our lives.

So this year what is God’s will for you this coming year? Could it possibly be to simply to wait...

2009-08-04T19:23:00.001-07:00

Revelations 21:1-8

Today we are going to look at our future. We are going to see how scripture says our future will be as a believer or a non-believer. As we read in Revelations, we will be focusing on God and His part in our past, present, and future.

Let’s read Revelations 21:1-8

This scripture is about our future. It is either about our future hope or our future demise depending on what type of relationship you have with God. As we look at these verses it describes a new heaven and a new earth. It describes how God’s tabernacle will be with men and how God will physically dwell amongst us. Can you imagine? The physical presence of God dwelling with you? This is our future, this is our hope. This is the part at the end of the fairy tale where it says they will live happily ever after-this is the love story between God and us. Our story with God begins in Genesis, in the garden-God ‘s physical presence was there-lets look together at Genesis 3:8. But due to sin we as humans were thrown out from the physical presence of God. So as a believer in Jesus, I have never experienced the physical presence of God. But we see how God did not remove his whole self from mankind- he allowed us to know Him through His spirit-we see Enoch who walked with God(Genesis 5:24), Noah also walked with God(Genesis 6:9). And then we see God reach out for a covenant(a promise) with Abram (Genesis 17), we see God send his word to Abram and make a covenant relationship with him. We see the God of all creation reach out to a people to create a relationship with them. We then see in Exodus 25:40, how God takes it a step further and thru Moses, He creates a portable tabernacle-a place of worship-a place to meet Him in spirit. We then see in 1 Chronicles 22, how God’s relationship with David, how He gave David a vision to create an established tabernacle that Solomon(David’s son) builds in 1 Kings 5. Then God does something unbelievable, He sends Jesus in a physical body to dwell among us(John 1:14). Then when Jesus has made a way for us to have a personal relationship with God, He returns to heaven and sends us His Spirit to not just dwell with us, but to dwell in us!(Acts 2) Lets read 1 Corinthians 2:10-12, God has given us His Spirit so that we might know the things of God. And know we read today about our future hope that God Himself provides for us-for us to have His physical presence with us always-what a love story!

So what about you? What is your love story with God? How has He pursued you? How has He made a way for you? You see the love story I just describe to you-isn’t just the love story of God for the Israelites, but for each one of us. In your life, God is the one who has made a way for you to experience His spirit-believer or non-believer. As humans we all experience the presence of God threw His spirit-the bible says the every good gift comes from God(James 1:17)- that God is love(1 John 4:8)-where have you experienced His spirit in your life? Do you have good things in your life-it doesn’t matter if you are a Christian or not. Have you experienced love in your life?-than you have experienced the presence of God-you have experienced the God of the universe drawing you to the knowledge of His presence. But simply experiencing God’s spirit on your circumstances does not mean that you have the hope of experiencing His physical presence in heaven. God’s future physical presence only comes from the understanding of who you are in relation to your sin and what has happened to your ability have a relationship with God due to your sin, and who Jesus is and what He has done to make a way for you to have a relationship with God. So have you had a that moment?

I want us to spend some time in groups for few minutes-I am going to put your teachers on the spot and I want you to tell your love story of becoming a Christian.

What is amazing to me is that this story doesn’t end with just having a God pursue you to salvation, but that relationship should actually affect your daily life-do you get that God still pursues you after salvation? That you should be able to see Him coming to you on a daily basis and this is not dependent on how you are living your life-now it will determine your ability to see Him and hear Him pursuing you(John 15:1-4)-but the fact that He continues to pursue you whether or not you are living for Him says a lot about His character doesn’t? Let read in Revelation 21:4- let understand the significance of this-God Himself will wipe the tears from our eyes...Jesus says in(John 16:33) that we will have trouble in this life-there will be hard times-there will be disappointments-there will be pain-but our future hope is in that God Himself will wipe away our tears-He will wipe away the pain-picture with the me the intimacy of this moment in heaven-not only do we get to be in the physical presence of the God of the universe, but He wipes away our tears-I honestly don’t understand how this will happen, but I know that I desperately want to experience this moment with God. I want you to think about your pain...what is causing tears in your life-imagine with me the day when there will be no more pain-no reason to cry...What a love story-we not only get the very physical presence of God, but we get a perfect world to live with Him in... But it will only come to the ones who have committed their life to Jesus-listen to God warning-Let read Revelation 21:5-8-God is perusing you-He wants to give you a new life-a new spiritual life-He wants to give you His Spirit so that you may know the things of God-have you done that?

My very first post:)

2009-08-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

I thought I would use my very first post to explain my heart in starting this blog. I have been teaching and sharing my experiences with God through bible study since I was 18 years old and I have come to understand a deeper calling in my life to share these experiences with all the people that God has placed in my life. So this is my attempt to be obedient to the calling God has placed on my life. My prayer is that your life will be enriched by the things that God continues to teach me and that you will be encouraged by God's desire to make Himself known to you:)