Lindsay Willis

We will see Him!

We sang that song this weekend in all of our services! And it just has not let go of my heart! I woke up this morning with it still rolling through my spirit. It thrills me to think that we will see Him face to face! I could cry right now while I am writing this! The day WILL come when we will see Jesus! It will no longer require faith...we will SEE His hands, His side, His feet, and His back....all scarred for our salvation! We will see His love radiating for us from His eyes! We will know without a doubt how much, how deeply He loves us....and we will fall on our face, completely undone!! I am so thankful that grace makes salvation possible! And I am so thankful that through the Bible and through passionate worship, we can have a taste here on earth of what seeing Him will be like!! We WILL see Him!

Looking for purpose in life?

Sometimes we lose track of why we are here....what are we supposed to be doing with this gift called LIFE?  There are a lot of things that can capture our attention or entertain our thoughts or amuse us in America.  And while all of that can be good, it can blur why we are here.  It can lull us to sleep...take the edge off...and make us dull.

But what if each day became an adventure built around our purpose for LIFE?  What if we started each day with a sense that we could impact our world...right where we are, no matter what is going on?  (Mind you, I am writing this from a pretty average hotel room in Green Bay Wisconsin....not the most world-shaking place on the planet...even though the Packers are the current NFL champions.)  Think about it...today you could live life with purpose...no matter who you are, or where you live, or what you have to get done today.

How do we do that?  It was tucked away in our SOAP devotional reading yesterday.  Right there in Genesis 1:26 and 27 in the Message Bible.  It reads:

God spoke: "Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature..."

God created human beings; He created them godlike, reflecting God's nature. 

He created them male and female.

Did you see it?  Did you see your purpose today?  No matter who you are, or what you are doing today, your purpose is to reflect the nature of God!    Your purpose today, no matter what it is you are doing, is to reflect the nature of God.  That IS our purpose as followers of Christ...each and every one of us!  We all do it different ways and in different situations...but we live to reflect the nature of God in this earth TODAY!

Now there is an adventure!!!  No matter where life takes us today, He has given us the power and strength to reflect His nature.  That makes every moment of the day a holy moment, a sacred moment.  That makes everything we do and everywhere we go a place where the supernatural could invade the natural; where eternity can slam into the temporal and make it heavenly; where we could see God's mercy and grace manifest.   A place where miracles could happen!

I hope that inspires you!  Business people...the marketplace is where you can reflect God's nature!  Moms, the changing table, or bath time, or meal time, or correction time...all of them are places to reflect God's nature.  The Target line or the Cub Foods line...both places to reflect God's nature.  At the gym, or in the restaurant, or on the freeway....all place's to reflect the nature of God.

That changes our outlook on every part of every day. 

It is so easy to lose sight of that....and when we do, life becomes mundane, boring, repetitive, a treadmill of "foreverthesame."  But not when we realize that there is something beyond what meets ours eyes...there is a greater purpose to our lives.

We are here to reflect the nature of God in everything we do and everywhere we go!

Go shine today!!

 

I re-ordered my prayer list today

Funny how that happens when you read the Bible!  His ways really are above our ways...and His thoughts really are above our thoughts!

So what did I put at the top of my prayer list today? 

Wisdom...what else do I need when I have Godly Wisdom to navigate each day?

Why do we make life so hard...by asking for all kinds of other things...when all we need is His Wisdom for each day.

Proverbs 4:5-9 says it best:

Get skillful and Godly Wisdom; get understanding, discernment, comprehension, and interpretation; do not turn back from the words of my mouth.  Forsake not Wisdom and she will keep, defend, and protect you; love her and she will guard you.  The beginning of Wisdom is: get Wisdom, skillful and Godly Wisdom!  For skillful and Godly Wisdom is the principal thing.  And with all you have gotten, get understanding, discernment, comprehension, and interpretation.  Prize Wisdom highly and exalt her; and she will exalt and promote you; she will bring you to honor when you embrace her. She will give to your head a wreath of gracefulness; a crown of beauty and glory will she deliver to you.

A Psalm of strength and faith

There are some passages of Scripture that require that we read them slowly, out loud, and meditate on them...this is one that never grows old.  Psalsm 23 from the Amplified Bible.

The Lord is my Shepherd, to feed, shield, and guide me.

I shall not lack.

He makes me lies down in fresh, tender, green pastures.

He leads me beside still and restful waters.

He refreshes and restores my life, my self.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness, uprightness and rightstanding with Him—

Not for my earning it, but for His Name’s sake.

 

Yes, though I walk through the deep sunless valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear or dread no evil,  for You are with me.

Your rod to protect and Your staff to guide, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil.

My brimming cup runs over.

 

Surely or only goodness, mercy, and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life,

And through the length of my days, the house of the Lord and His Presence

Shall be my dwelling place.

How we can forgive

Forgiveness is NEVER based on what someone has done TO us, but on what Jesus has done FOR us.  (see Matthew 18:21-35)

Here are some thoughts that can help you forgive someone:

1.  Don't look past forgiving the person...just forgive.  God will direct your steps from there on.

2.  Talk to God and admit you have been hurt.  Tell him how it hurt.

3.  Release the person who hurt you into God's hands..relinquish the desire to make them pay for it.

4.  Ask God to restore what they took from you. 

5.  Let it drop!  Throw it away!  Write it down and then throw it away...forever!

6.  Let your emotions catch up to your decision to forgive.

True riches

Our SOAP devotional today reminds me that God does not count the way we do. 

I have some dear friends to whom life has not been kind over the past few years.  Almost everything they have had in this life has been stripped from them for no fault of their own.  Yet, they still rejoice in their faith in God and are praising and thanking Him for all they still have. 

They are still rich...as this verse in Ephesians 3:8 Amplified Bible says:

“the unending (boundless, fathomless, incalculable, and exhaustless) riches of Christ (wealth which no human being could have searched out).”

The world counts stuff.  God counts faith in Christ.  They are counting on Him....

I want to count properly....

Change

Have you ever wanted to change something in your life?  I mean REALLY change it?  Like living differently or moving past a habit that has controlled you or a thought pattern that is negative?

Change takes guts!  Change is not easy...mentally or physically or emotionally...if it is a real change to your way of living.

I bought an electric toothbrush years ago.  When I bought it I knew I had to change the way I brush my teeth.  No more scrubbing with my own tooth brush.  Nope, now I just had to hold the brush at the right angle and slide it slowly around my mouth.

Sounds simple doesn't it?  But fully, ten years later, I find myself still wanting to "brush" with the electric toothbrush.  When my mind drifts while I am brushing my teeth, I will come back to reality and find myself "brushing" rather than "sliding."  Gosh, those old thought patterns just don' go away easily!!!

So now that I have made a decision to change...and I mean really change...just a couple of fundamental things in life this year, I am again engaged in the "change battle."  I started with a clear vision the first of the year, wrote it down, and began. 

And now with one month gone in the new year, the "weight" of the change is "there."  The thrill of setting the goal has vanished.  The clear vision of "what could be" has faded.

This is the point where I realize that my will power alone is not enough to sustain the change.  It never was...and I knew that.  I need divine help.  The power of God within me.  The Word of God challenging and renwing my thoughts. 

What I want to change is not a sin, but a couple of things that will help me finish life strong.  They are things that I have "accommodated" in life for years now.

But the question now is will I endure the challenge...even when the emotions are ebbing, the pull of my old thinking is strong, and the new reality has not set in. fully.  Will I continue my quest to just "slide" rather than "brush"?

I've been here before.  It is a crossroads.  I either continue forward ("sliding") or fall back in the old, comfortable ways (brushing")....but on a path that takes me someplace I don't want to be in another 15 years.

With the power of God within me, and with the Word of God to carry me, I will fight through this moment.  Even if I wane, I will not quit.  I set my goals for a long-term change.   And with the help of God, I will continue on the road to change. 

How are you doing on your new year's resolution?  Don't give up on it!  Change is good...but never easy!!!

Psalm 19 Message Bible

The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together.

The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road.

The life-maps of God are right, showing the way to joy.

The directions of God are plain and easy on the eyes.

God’s reputation is twenty-four carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee. 

The decisions of God are accurate down to the nth degree.

God’s Word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds. 

You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring, better than red, ripe strawberries.

There’s more:  God’s Word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure.

Otherwise how will we find our way?  Or know when we play the fool?

Clean the slate O God, so we can start the day fresh!

Keep me from stupid sins, from thinking I can take over Your work;

Then I can start the day sun-washed, scrubbed clean of the grime of sin. 

These are the words in my mouth;

These are what I chew on and pray.

Accept them when I place them on the morning altar,

O God, my Altar-Rock, God, Priest of My Altar.