Retrieve Your Treasure

I remember when I was a little girl, the neighbor boy took my doll and wouldn’t give it back. I loved that doll so much. I couldn’t stop crying I was just so upset.  My brothers came to me and asked me why I was crying. I will never forget looking out in the yard to see my four brothers lined up like in a military march heading into battle as they marched over to the neighbors house to retrieve my doll. I wiped my tears and jumped up in disbelief. I thought my doll was gone for good! I had no idea my brothers would step in and save my doll.

They marched straight over to that boy’s house. I saw the boy walk up to them and then run off into his house. I thought for sure my doll was lost forever. But after a few minutes the boy came out of his house with my doll in his hand. My brothers brought me my doll and promised me that boy wouldn’t bother me again. Sure enough that boy never even came in our yard again.

So many of us have had our precious treasures taken from the enemy and we too think they are gone for good but I am here today to tell you the battle isn’t over! There are times we must go to the enemy’s camp and get back what is ours. There are times we need to go with our brothers or our sisters of Christ and march into the enemy’s territory united and determined to retrieve our stolen treasures.

Prayer is the weapon to the victory! Hebrews 4:12 states that God's Word is alive and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword. When we speak and pray the Scriptures, we are coming into agreement with God, and His power is released to answer our prayers.

Whether you’ve lost a loved one to the world, lost your hope or joy, have received that pink slip, or poor doctor’s diagnosis… we serve a God of restoration! Your treasure awaits you.

“Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”  Psalm 50:15

Tainted

The other day I pulled a roast from the freezer to prepare for our Sunday meal. I removed the outer plastic and placed the frozen meat in the crock pot. I added the correct seasonings and broth and went to bed.

The next morning as I took the lid off the crock pot to add the vegetables, I saw this odd looking black piece of plastic mesh material. I realized immediately I must have missed pulling off some of the plastic the night before. The plastic had cooked all night with the meat.

I wasn’t sure if the meat was safe to eat.  I asked my husband and he thought it would be fine, but I kept thinking to myself it just wasn’t worth the chance of possibly harming my family.

I looked on our computer for the safety guidelines for this type of mistake. My uneasiness was justified.  A safety website stated as the plastic was heated it began to break down and toxins were released into the meat causing it to be unsafe to eat.

The meat looked good. It didn’t look like it had been harmed. It sure smelled good! It hadn’t taken on a spoiled or ruined smell. Nevertheless the meat was tainted.

I immediately began to think of our lives as His chosen vessels. How we must surround ourselves with people with proven good fruit. We all go through the fire and when it starts to get hot we need to have people around us who aren’t going to taint us!

If you surround yourself with bitter people, as the heat turns up in your life, that bitterness will be released and you too will become bitter. But oh if you surround yourself with people that are full of His goodness and His sweetness… as the heat turns up, their sweetness will sweeten you!

Guard your heart, your mind, your spirit, and your purpose! God has GREAT things ahead for you! Choose your companions wisely. Don't ever allow others to "taint/spoil"your destiny!

Don't Be Bogged Down

Life is so busy!  We all have many things to do, things to see, places to go, people to meet… The list never ends! There never seems to be enough hours in the day.  Ever feel that way?

Sometimes it isn’t just the clock that overwhelms us. We can get discouraged, frustrated, tired, and feel like nothing is going right in our life, our job, or our relationships.

I know that is exactly what the enemy wants you to think and to feel. He wants to bog you down, wear you down, overwhelm you, and plant seeds of hopelessness and depression. He will get you so busy that you won’t have time or energy for God, your family, or yourself. You will quit enjoying life and enter the mode of just barely surviving life.

As ships journey from sea to sea barnacles attach themselves to the ships and can slow the ships down thirty to fifty percent. Crews have to scrape the barnacles off or they will overtake the bottom of the ship.  This left undone will put the ship out of commission quickly.

The stresses of life will bog you down if you don’t spend time scraping them off in prayer. A little time each day in prayer keeps the barnacles off.

“Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth."  ~Psalm 46:10

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”  ~Hebrews 12:1

The Path of Life

“God will show me the path of life.” (Psalm 16:11)

When we leave the wide path that leads to destruction onto the narrow path we “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).  We look ahead and can see hills, valleys, turns, a desert, a wilderness, a sea, and even see mountains in the distance. We stand in awe and think of how beautiful it all looks.

We aren’t sure where the path is leading us but know, “God will instruct me and teach me in the way I should go. He will guide me with His eye” (Psalm 32:8).

As we go up and down hills we can rest assured He won’t take us to anything we aren’t ready for. He will tell us the way, where to turn (Isaiah 48:17), and order our steps (Psalm 37:23) as we seek after Him and grow through each step.

So as you journey on the path of life, just remember that He is with you every step of the way leading, guiding, protecting, and providing. Make sure you take moments to enjoy the view around you, smell the roses along the path, and talk to the One who travels with you.

Climbing that Mountain

You have been called, appointed, anointed, equipped, empowered, and yet at times still feel so inadequate. He has placed you here for such a time as this for a purpose. His purpose.

Your very steps are ordered.  Your paths are set before you with special care taken to assure the path difficulty isn’t too great for the moment you are at. Oh we may think it is too much to bear but without a doubt we serve a God who knows what He is doing. 

In order to climb a mountain you have to develop muscles, endurance, strength, and skill. You see walking a path without elevation isn’t as difficult as treading up a steep, slick mountain. The air is thinner making it harder to breathe. Your balance is leaning forward with the steep incline. It is very tiring and painful. So many think it is too hard and cannot take another step, turn around and seek easier paths. But none will lead to the top of the mountain without first enduring the climb. I assure you mountains are never crowded.

Once you get to the top there is victory and relief! There is no greater view or greater sense of accomplishment. It will be worth it all. Just keep climbing! When you grow tired look up past the mountain peak to the One who is waiting on you, who believes in you, and knows through His strength you are going to make it!

Find comfort and strength knowing He made you. He knows your every strength, every weakness, every struggle, and every asset. He isn’t setting you to fail but to grow! Don’t give in, don’t give up, just keep climbing!

^“10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience”  Colossians 1:10-11

Get Your Miracle!

Nine years ago on Easter I was making a 5lb meatloaf for all my family to enjoy after church. It was baking at 425 degrees and the grease surrounding the meatloaf was bubbly hot. I didn't know the rack in the oven had been put in backwards. When I went to pull the meatloaf out of the oven, the rack flipped and the pan full of grease spilled all over both my hands and wrists. I instinctlively cried out, "Jesus!"

I went immediately to the sink to try and cool off my hands to stop the burning process. Dave ran over to the meatloaf dish and was trying to stabilize it and put it on top of the oven, burning the tips of his fingers as he worked to clean up the grease mess. I stood at the sink thinking I didn't feel any pain which really concerned me since I used to work as a burn nurse. I knew 1st and 2nd degree burns are very painful. I thought to myself this must be really bad. I turned off the water and wiped off the cooled grease. No redness, no pain, no burns! It was a miracle!

When you call on His name... He comes running! There is nothing too hard for Him. No matter what you are facing, no matter what happens to you... just remember our God is bigger and in control! Call on His name and get your miracle!

Shine On

Have you ever sat in a room without any lights on at dusk?  The darker it gets outside the darker it becomes inside. You can sit there and see without difficulty because your eyes have become adjusted to the darkness. As you sit there you may not even realize how dark the room has become around you. Sometimes it isn't until you actually turn on a light that you realize how dark the room is.

We live in a world where we are surrounded by darkness. We are the light in that darkness.
Darkness cannot overcome light. The darker it is the brighter the light will shine.

Shine on my friends! Shine on!

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."  Matthew 5:14-16 (KJV)

Made to Soar

We were made to soar!

But if you cut a bird's wings, it cannot fly. It can run about, flap its wings and jump but it won't be able to take flight.  At times the enemy will slip in and cut your wings. He will use your circumstances, frustration, disappointment, past, pain, or even fear to snip away at those feathers.

We will run about trying to take flight but just can't seem to get off the ground. Ever feel like that?
 If you have not been able to take flight, not been able to overcome... remember the power of praise! As you lift your praises to the King, He will lift you! The higher you fly the better your perspective will be!

Just remember... the enemy can't keep a King's kid down! We were made to soar!

“But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

I Can See Clearly Now

I was 29 years old before I needed glasses. I didn't even realize I needed glasses. I had grown accustomed to my blurred vision and to me I didn't even realize it was impaired. I had just moved to MI and needed to change my driver's license. I went up to the counter to check my vision and thought something was wrong with their machine.

Our vision can become impaired and we can grow so accustomed to it that we don't even realize we aren't seeing clearly anymore. It is a gradual change. We think we are fine...

I remember the first time I put glasses on and everything become clear. I was looking all around and it all looked so different than what I had actually thought it looked like.

Our spiritual vision can become impaired as well. We think we are fine but until we actually check it we won't know. It is a gradual change. A gradual clouding. We compensate and can still "see" so believe we are doing well. It isn't until we get on our knees and say those key words, "Search my heart oh Lord" that we feel the Lord stirring our spirit. It is a clarifying moment when He corrects our vision and we can see clearly.

Our vision has to be clear in order to see His plan and His path (especially if we are leading others).

Every day I have to put my glasses on. Every day I have to spend some time with God. Both help me to see clearly now. 

The Purpose to the Punches

·         Ever feel like you are a punching bag in life? There is a purpose to those punches. It is called growing pains. I know it hurts and you are tired but you are growing stronger every day with every trial. He is taking you to a higher place, a place only He can take you to but there are a few things you have to go through to get there. Trust Him, lean on Him, and let Him be your God. It will be so worth it!

·         Easier said than done at times... those punches hurt! Don’t they? Sometimes it is difficult to get over hurts in our lives. The enemy doesn’t just use strangers to punch you, he will use your friends, your family, the people you go to church with... he will use whatever he can to distract you.  

·         He is trying to: distract you, trying to make you focus on the punch, and the pain.  He hopes to discourage you, to frustrate you, to tear down unity, to make you build up walls of unforgiveness and or resentment, to rob you of your joy, to make you stumble in your walk with God.

·         He knows everyone of us has been called and chosen for a purpose to glorify God. We are appointed and anointed to do so. Just like Jonah... he was appointed and anointed to go to Nineveh. But he didn’t want to. Right? God ever ask you to go to or through something you don’t want to?

·         And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. THEN Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly" Jonah 1:17-2:1 KJV

KEY WORD THEN! He was in a stinky, dark, scary place. His trial swallowed him whole AND THEN after being consumed and in it 3 days that is when he cried out to Jesus! Don't wait for your trial to consume you! trial to consume you before you cry out to Jesus! He is waiting! Go ahead!

·         Ever wonder why Jonah waited 3 days BEFORE he prayed?

·         So many times we run from what God wants us to do, we don’t want to submit to God

·         Sometimes we think we can handle our problems on our own and don’t even talk to God about them, or we do talk to Him about our problem but instead of laying them at His feet trusting Him to take care of it/us ... we pick them back up again not trusting Him to handle it.

·         Sometimes people just don’t pray, they try to live off Sunday and Wednesday’s blessings but actually don’t have a prayer life UNTIL they are so consumed by a trial that they finally cry out to Jesus. They try to live off yesterday’s manna instead of collecting new every day. Manna was God’s daily provision for bread for the Israelites, the Bible is our daily provision. It had to be consumed the day it fell from the sky or it made you sick, you had to go get fresh everyday to survive. Same goes with spending time with our God, you need to spend time with Him or you die spiritually.

I want to remind you, we all go through trials and get “punched”.  It isn’t just you! And just because I am your pastor’s wife doesn’t leave me immune.... sometimes I think the ministry has bigger targets on our foreheads! If he can discourage the leaders of the church then he can discourage the church.

He is calling us to a higher place, out of the belly of the fish, and onto a path covered with praises!

More Than Enough

Ever feel inadequate? That you don’t bring enough to the plate? Or maybe what you bring is so not enough compared to what is needed. God wants us to realize it is Him who brings what is needed in the ministry not us. It is always about Him and His sufficiency.

In Matthew 14: 18 Jesus says, “Bring them hither” when he is speaking of the two fish and five loaves. There was no possible way man could feed His people with that little bit of food. But God took it, multiplied it and provided MORE than enough! Not just enough to scrape by. Not just enough to provide what they needed…. But MORE THAN ENOUGH!

God too will take what you have to offer and multiply it to provide more than enough to feed His people. You just have to “Bring them hither to me.”