Lindsay Willis

authentic, life-changing relationship with Jesus

I love reading our SOAP devotionals! Today our chapter is Romans 14. This is so descriptive of an authentic, life-changing relationship with Jesus...which is the mission of River Vally Church. 

Each person has their own relationship with Jesus.  Each person has their own convictions in how to walk that out.  We go wrong when we try to impose our convictions on other people...in essence, we try to make them live by our standards rather than what Jesus is speaking to their heart. 

Clearly the Bible is black and white on some issues...but on MANY issues, the BIble is silent or gives us liberty to make our own decisions.  That is what Romans 14, our SOAP chapter for today, talks about.

Look at these verse from Romans 14 in THE MESSAGE BIBLE:

Verse 7-9:  "None of us are permitted to insist our own way in these matters.  It's God we are answerable to--all the way from life to death and everything in between--not each other.  That's why Jesus lived and died and then lived again; so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other."

Verse 19-20: "So let's agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other.  Help others with encouraging words; don't drag them down by finding fault."

Verse 22:  "Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don't impose it on others."

As one of my favorite teachers once said, let's fall in love with Jesus today, let's live in love with Him, and let's die in love with Him.  If we all do that, we will fulfill His purpose for us. 

great thought from my devos today

From Eugene Peterson, the author of the MESSAGE BIBLE:

"If a creed is a master of your life, it will change some things.   If Christ is the Master, it will change everything.  Or, more accurately, He will change everything."

That is my breathing lesson for today....

tired never felt so good!

Wow!  What a whirlwind six days!  Left for Chicago on Tuesday. Flew to Philly on Wednesday. Flew home on Thursday.  Did a conference call for three hours on Thursday afternoon. Then straight into Sparkle through Saturday afternoon at 3:45.  Then church Saturday night and this morning.  And I am tired...but it feels so good!

Sparkle was so great!  I know lives were changed for eternity over the weekend.  Women encountered the presence of God from the moment they came in through the last moment of the conference.  The messages that Holly and DeLynn and Pastor Rob shared were terrific.  The worship and special music were powerful.  The atmosphere was so beautifully prepared with all of the decorations.  The after party was a blast!

Becca, and Kristie, and Jeff, and the whole Sparkle team did such an amazing job on the conference.  I have been to a lot of women's conferences and several first time conferences...and I can honestly say that the Sparkle team and all the volunteers did an amazing job.  Heaven is smiling on all of their tired muscles tonight!

And church this weekend ROCKED!  I loved Terry Esau's messages.  An unscripted, spontaneous adventure....being the seeds of love in the hands of a loving God that He wants to throw into someone's life...every day!  I SO LOVE THAT!! 

Tired as I am, I am so thankful for the past six days!  And I am looking forward to God's continuing surprises each day this week.

Stay in the ready position...OK?

Getting ready to SPARKLE!

Sparkle starts to night and I am really excited.  This is the first women's conference for River Valley and the team has done a wonderful job in setting the conference up.  The table has been set, the speakers are prepared, and the house is ready.  This is a gathering that I believe will change the course of our church for the future...in a very good way!

I am excited for the whole weekend.  If you are coming, please come with your heart open and take in everything God has for you.  If you are not going to be there, please pray for all the women who will attend.  Your prayers count...they make the difference in a conference like this.

surprised in the laundry

do you ever do really dumb things?  i do.  did one this morning.  washing clothes.  i set the washer settings, turned it on and poured in the detergent and put the fabric softener in..everything you are supposed to do, right?

when I went back to take the load out of the machine to put it in the dryer...there were no clothes!!  just a really clean washer!  looked great...but really dumb!!

does this count as a surprise?

surprised by a prayer

I was praying as I was walking around the house today and I heard this come out of my mouth:  "Father, change the world today, and use me to do it."

I startled myself when I heard that.  At first it sounded so pretentious that God would use someone like me to change the world.  But then when I mused about it, I realized each of us can be used by God to change the world...with a smile, an act of kindness, a simple phone call or a card to say to someone, "I've been thinking of you," lending a hand, sharing tears when someone's experiencing a loss, or sharing a laugh when someone is having a great moment.

Changing the world simply requires that we think about someone other than ourselves...to stop and take the time to enter another person's world and experience it with them. 

Surprise me God, today, by giving me the opportunity to enter another's world with Your love. 

from my SOAP today

Eugene Peterson, the author of the MESSAGE BIBLE, writes:

“God is also out to get us (in a good way).  Everything we consider a loss can be a chance to discover God at the center to realize the preciousness of life itself, of love unencumbered by lust and pride and greed.  The Voice keeps arriving in the midst of terror and disaster and hopelessness: ‘Don’t give up…take heart.’”

 

Wow!

thinking a lot

I have been way under the radar screen for a while on blogging.  I have not even opened up my blog for a couple of months.  But today, I just decided to write a post.

I woke up thinking about the Holy Spirit today and how much He wants to be involved in our every day lives.  (Think that has anything to do with the series we are in at church right now? Surprise!!)

The Holy Spirit wants to teach us and lead us and guide us and strengthen us.  He wants to love us so we can love others.  He wants to reveal Jesus to us as we read the Bible.  He wants us to give us the eyes and heart of God for this world.  He wants to make us more like Jesus every day.  All in all He wants us to lead the best life we could ever have.

But we need time with Him to do that.  He is a gentleman. He waits for us to make time for Him.  He won;t DEMAND time from us...He will just gently ask us for time.  But if we load our schedules down so much that He becomes an afterthought, we thwart His efforts to lead us in this life. 

It all comes down to our priorities.  We can find time for exercise and movies and watching the news or surfing the web or checking our Facebook page or watching our favorite shows or running our kids to every event they want to be at.  We can find time to hang out with friends or family or over time at work or wash the car or clean the house or read our favorite novel.  But if we cannot find time to hang out with God, then there is only one thing we really need to do:  Reevaluate our priorities. 

None of the things I mentioned are wrong...not one of them.  None of them are sin or are bad for us.  But one of the most subtle tactics of the enemy is to get us so busy that we don't have time for the most important thing in this life:  to spend time with Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to truly lead us in this life.

Father, it is so easy for us to get caught up in the rush of life.  Thank You for loving us when we do, but today, give us the strength to stop the treadmill that we are on and re-evaluate our priorities.  Jesus, You are Lord of everything in our lives.  Be Lord of our time.  Show us how to change our schedule so that You are the priority. In Your Name we pray, Amen