Conversations in the car

Is honesty a hard character trait to come by? It has become clear to me through prayer and real self searching that I am not always the most honest person.

Shocked? I was.

No, I don’t have a problem with lying. And, no, I probably haven’t been deceiving you or leading you on. Yes, I really am your friend, and things I share with you are most likely true. Where’s the dishonesty, then?

Really, it’s been with myself. And with God. In an effort to better our relationship I’ve been thinking a lot about how to be more honest with God about what is going on – how I’m really feeling or what I’m really thinking. And that forces me to be honest with myself.

And it’s not always pretty. Or easy. Or nice. And I’m uncomfortable with that.

So in an effort to practice “honesty,” that’s what I told God in the car today. And it wasn’t so bad. It was real, and that felt good.

Is there something you’ve been putting off telling Him, because you hate to admit it to yourself?

From lunch

Sin has many manifiestations, but its essence is one.  A moral being, created to worship before the throne of God sits on the throne of his own selfhood and from that elevated position declares, “I AM.”

-A.W. Tozer

Read this at lunchtime today..and now I fear there is something I must do about it.  How about you?

 

Behind the Wheel

I know that when I tell you I went to driving school, you’ll think I got a ticket and was ordered by a judge to go or face the consequences. It wasn’t like that at all. I signed up for this – advanced drivers training at Ford’s proving grounds. Test driver training. Certified to drive like a controlled maniac.

Leave it to God to use this day of training to really teach me something about Him..and me.

A Business Lesson

God cares about the details of our lives – everything from our choice of diet to the way we spend our time.  It is no suprise, then, that God cares about how his Church conducts business.  That is what I’ve spent the last month studying..Business in the church.

I’ve been reading Business Management in the Local Church by David Pollock.  Now, I don’t want to bore you with the details of managmenet practices in a church, however there was one key theme that stood out to me: Excellence.

In all areas of ministry, God deserves honor.  Serving as an afterthought, giving only whatever effort it takes to “get by,” is not an option.  Excellence honors God, and reflects His character – something my Pastor tells us all the time.  It’s TRUE!  If I am not willing to serve to the best of my ability, then I should move over and let someone who will take over.

It has been a challenge to push myself toward excellence in serving in this area of ministry.  I’m not trained in business, and only enjoyed number crunching as a hobby.  It would have been easy to simply adapt what I do in my personal bookkeeping to a church setting…but there is much more required within a church.  I’ve had to add time studying the ins and outs of church management in order to make myself ready for this challenge.  There are many things that I thought would work that simply don’t – I’ve had to admit that and grow, asking God for inspiration for something better.

This lesson falls over into every other area of my life.  If I am going to offer my service to God, whether singing, children’s ministry, office related, or in the workplace…God deserves my absolute BEST!  Not only that, but I should be getting better week after week.  Continual improvement. 

Have you learned a lesson like this before?  How did God change you and your ministry?

The Sheep is Me.

I used to have a copy of the “Footprints” poem hanging in my room. You know the one I’m talking about. I found it framed at a thrift store when I was 14 or so, and could not pass it up. God and I were very close during that season of my life…but as I grew, I put the old tacky poem away. Wasn’t my style anymore.

Fast forward 10 years, and I find myself once again contemplating being carried by my Lord.

What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Luke 15:4-7 (emphasis mine)

My savior sees worth in me – enough to go out in search for me when I wander off. When he finds me, he doesn’t hand me a map showing me the way home and *vanish*. He is so much greater than that! He picks me up and carries me. And that’s great, because compared to him I have no strength at all, certainly not enough to get myself out of the messes I make.

He puts me on his shoulders. He takes my burden, my sin, on himself. Rejoicing. He’s happy to do it, because he loves me. He will carry me all the way back to the flock. He will tend to my wounds, and throw a party over my return. I’ll lead him on wild goose chases all over the country side, and he will faithfully look out for me, kindly carrying me home. Every time, no matter how far or close I wander.

My mind can’t wrap itself around the kind of love that makes a girl reading a story about a shepherd and his flock suddenly stop and say, “Hey, I’m the sheep…” and begin to cry.

The sheep is me. Crazy love.

You’re the sheep. What do you think about that?

Right between the eyes…

The  most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs. There is not one of them  which will not  make  us  into devils if we  set it  up as an absolute guide.  -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, Book One

Have you ever been prayerfully struggling with something, and no matter what book of the Bible or other study resource you happen to turn to, they all say the same thing?  Now, call me crazy…(CRAZY!)..but I don’t think its coincidence. 

And it’s comforting to me to be hit between the eyes over and over with this, because I know God hears me, and He’s trying to teach me something.  What relief, that he hears.

 

Every word of God is flawless; 
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.  Proverbs 30:5