Are You Drinking in the World?

Teaching people about health and wellness has been a part of my job for four years now. I talk to people about the importance of drinking water. It is always interesting to me to watch people’s reactions. I remember my own! I hated water. I would go months drinking everything else but never letting my lips touch water. I was dehydrated and was on an uphill climb of obesity. I have learned the biggest reason people do not want to drink water is that they drink too much pop, aka soda. Pop is changing our taste buds and what we consider “sweet”. Our pop consumption increases every year. Research shows we drink an average of 50 gallons of pop per person, per year. We have tripled the size of a normal pop bottle since the first coke glass bottle came of the scene in the 1950’s. Today, the average young teenager consumes 23-26 teaspoons of sugar per day directly from pop. Also, pop is now our biggest source of calories which is adding to our growing obesity epidemic. Those that drink pop regularly have a 31% greater risk of becoming overweight. The studies show that it does not make a difference whether it is regular soda or diet soda. Considering the calories we consume drinking what some call ‘liquid candy’, it is horrible that there is no nutritional value to it. We call it empty calories. Drinking pop does not satisfy our real thirst, it actually leaves us more thirsty, but it does take away our desire for water. Even diet soda makes us fatter because the artificial sweeteners induce a response of “hunger” from the brain, leading to over eating. As if this is not bad enough, pop takes away our smile because it ruins our teeth. Pop is ruining our health and yet we continue to spend $68.1 billion on this carbonated drink a year.
It seems so incredible that we consume something that leaves us empty and thirsty; something that robs us of our health. We accept feeling miserable for a drink that is worthless. Yet, the pure water that can give us health and healing, we resist! Basically there are two things wrong with drinking pop. One, it keeps us from drinking pure water and two, it offers us nothing to sustain life; it is of no value to us.
Again, the situation is the same from a spiritual perspective. We become spiritually dehydrated when we do not drink in the Living Water because we drink in too much of the world, our spiritual pop. It is something that steals our spiritual health. It leaves us empty. It robs us of our happiness, our smile for life. The world never satisfies us, it leaves us more thirsty. It is nothing but empty calories and we can find no sustenance in it. In the end it makes us fat and lazy Christians. We can get so busy doing the things of the world that we do not find time for God. Worse, we don’t even have a desire to spend time with Him because the world changes our desires.
When we forsake the Living Water for things that are worthless, scripture calls it ‘evil’. That is a hard word to swallow. However, we must not forsake God for the things of this world. It is easy to let the world consume us to the point of abandoning God. We spend time growing our careers, watching TV, reading, cleaning, shopping, eating out, etc. We do pretty much what we want and then say we do not have time for God. I have admitted to you that this has been a problem in my life. My time with God has been squeezed out for the things I wanted to do.
When was the last time you gave up something you wanted to do in order to spend time with God? In the end, what gives you nourishment, health, and healing? Doesn’t the world leave you empty and still thirsty? Quench your thirst with Living Water which is the only thing that can satisfy!

“For my people have committed two evils, they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living water and they have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns which cannot hold water.”
Jeremiah 2:13

Side Effects of Dehydration

     When we allow ourselves to become physically and spiritually dehydrated we have consequences that we have to live with.
Symptoms of physical dehydration:
· Increase in anxiety, stress, impatience
· Hindered mental ability and performance.
· Going long periods without urinating
· Inability to cry tears
· Wrinkled skin
· Fatigue and drowsiness/ hard to awaken
· Dizziness and confusion; inability to focus
· Increased heart rate and breathing
     As we looked at the physical symptoms of dehydration, I believe the same symptoms occur from spiritual dehydration.
· Anxious, stressed, impatient
· Build up of the toxins in our lives
· Inability to cry tears; our heart is hardening
· Stressed appearance
· Exhaustion from life
· Confusion as to direction for life, hard to focus on God, dizziness from busyness
· Increase in tension, decrease in relaxation, no rest in Christ
     In addition, it has been documented that a number of aliments, even “diseases’ can be directly linked to dehydration. Significantly, water can also provide the cure, at times superior to medication. In the book “Your Body’s Many Cries for Water” the following health problems were listed as having a direct relation to the lack of water and which can be helped with proper hydration are:

· Headache

· Stress

· Kidney problems

· High Blood Pressure

· Thirst

· Hypertension

· Cholesterol

· Ulcers

· Higher risk of cancer

· Drinking your 8 glasses of water a day decreases the risk of colon cancer 45%, reduces the risk of breast cancer an incredible 79%, and makes one 50% less likely to develop bladder cancer.

     At different times in my life, I have experience all of the effects of dehydration, both physically and spiritually. Today, I listen to my body and when I have headaches and I am tired, I know I am not drinking enough water. When I am spiritually dehydrated, I know it because I am anxious, tired of life, hard-hearted, and stressed. By learning to pay attention to my body and soul, I know when I need to drink more water or spend more time talking to Jesus and letting Him fill me. There is a healing power of water for our bodies and there is an amazing healing power of Living Water to our soul. It is mind boggling that we are so out of touch with our need for water. We do not have to live with the symptoms and ailments of dehydration because the cure is so simple. Drink more water!! Be filled with the Living Water.

Jesus answered, "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.

John 4:10 (The Message)

Are you Dehydrated!

One of the ways we take care of our health and body is to drink water. My body has not always had the privilege of water. It had to work for it because it had to draw it out of all the other things I drank. Literally, I went up to 5 months without drinking straight water and not just once, but as a way of life. I lived on tea and coffee, milk and juice, and mostly pop. When I chose to get healthy, the first and most important thing I had to commit to is learning to drink water.
Here are some facts about water:
· 50-80% of our body weight is water
· 70% of our muscles are water
· 75% of our brain is water
· We lose 2 cups of water a day due to breathing, another 2 cups when we sweat and still a few more when we visit the ladies room.
· Water plays a very important role in keeping our body cool and comfortable
· The only thing our body craves more than water is oxygen and by the way, you get oxygen from water.
· Water is necessary to eliminate toxins from the body as waste products, to lubricate the joints preventing damage from arthritis, and to re-hydrate the muscle tissue.
· Thirst and hunger can be confused. Often when a person feels hungry, their body needs water! It is thirst, not the desire for food that causes the “need to eat” sensation.

We can begin to see that we must drink water in order to maintain good health. Yet, 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. Dehydration can manifest itself slowly over a long period of time; if you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated! Our body’s need for water is substantial. Much of our anxiety, stress, impatience, drowsiness, confusion and inability to concentrate are due to low grade dehydration. Dehydration leading to a 2% loss of body weight may affect mental ability and performance. A loss of 10% may cause extreme weakness and heatstroke.
I don’t think we are only physically dehydrated. I would like to propose that the large majority of us are spiritually dehydrated. The water we so desperately need is Jesus Christ, the Living Water. I believe that one reason we do not reflect Christ in our lives is because we are spiritually dehydrated from the lack of us drinking in Christ daily. Just like our bodies need water to function properly and to maintain health, we must consume the Living Water, Jesus Christ for our spiritual body to function properly and live in a healthy state.
If we know that our bodies need water so desperately to survive and function, why do we not drink water? Why do we live with a dehydrated body? And why, if our spirit needs the Living Water so desperately to survive and function, why do we drink everything instead of that Living Water? Why do we let our selves live in a state of spiritual dehydration? Maybe it is time we get thirsty!

“they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water”.

Jeremiah 17:13

All About You?

Yesterday we spoke of living between the extremes. We started looking at two extremes. One extreme is not accepting yourself the way God made you. I hear women everyday speak negative about themselves. Usually, they are women you think are adorable and cannot imagine why they would feel negatively about themselves. I actually made a mistake yesterday when I said the other extreme was being a good steward of what God gave us. Being a good steward of our health is the middle ground and we will talk about how to do that over the next several days. However, today we are covering the other extreme which is to be totally wrapped up in our self. It is important to feel good about ourselves and do what we can do to take care of our health and appearance, but when the focus is all about us, we enter a dangerous place. In scripture we see several women who adorn themselves with nice clothes, jewelry, perfume, and nice hair do’s. We do not see anything saying that these things are wrong. It only becomes wrong when they forget about the inside. When all the attention becomes only on external things, we have crossed over to the extreme spot. Another thing that pulls, us to the extreme, is pride. Pride makes us believe that we are superior. As women, it makes us flaunt our stuff. It can make us put down other women and talk about their inferiority in their looks, their appearance, or the way they carry themselves. When we live in this extreme we dress to have men look at us, to whistle at us, flirt with us, or lust after us. We don’t just want to look nice, we want men to want us and women to want to be us. The whole focus is us. There is one more thing that can take us to the extreme of being wrapped up in our self. I learned about this attribute many years ago and the older I get the more I struggle with it, and yet, the more I understand it. In Proverbs 31 we read about an example of the perfect Godly woman. We refer to her as the Proverbs 31 woman. She is described as a woman who smiles at the future. This can mean many things. She has prepared well for the days ahead so she doesn’t stress, she trusts God for His provision and care, but I also think it means that she realizes that she will always be aging, she rests in her stage of life. She realizes that you can be beautiful at any age. However, the women who are all wrapped up in themselves fight hard to keep from growing old. They are always looking for the 'fountain of youth'. You can see it in a forty year old who tries to dress and appear twenty! There is an irony that comes from this extreme. Those who think everyone should love them for all their beauty and specialness, end up being a very ugly person. They appear to have so much confidence but in reality they are very insecure because they always wonder if people love them only because they are beautiful.

Have you ever jumped to this extreme? Our society today sells it to us at every avenue. It is hard to not get pulled in this direction. How much time and attention do you pay to yourself? More time than you give God? More time than you spend being beautiful on the inside? Evaluate your intentions for the attention you give yourself. Are you to stand out? Is it all about you? Or is it about bringing glory to God? How do you feel about growing older? Are you okay with being real? Showing the real you? Or are you too busy trying to be somebody you’re not? Let’s learn to be content and happy in our own skin and to be responsible for the great gift of life and health that God has given us!

Let not yours be the (merely) external adorning with elaborate interweaving and knotting of the hair, the wearing of jewelry, or changes of clothes; But let it be the inward adorning and beauty of the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible and unfading charm of a gentle and peaceful spirit, which is not anxious or wrought up, but is very precious in the sight of God. 1 Peter 3: 3-4

Life Is A Balance

I learned about living outside the extremes when I was managing a temporary service while Dwayne was attending seminary. When I started working in the temp business, I interviewed many people every day. I would listen to sob story after sob story on how they needed a job. I was so excited to have a job that I could help people and took it upon myself to help them through this time in their life. I trusted everyone to be telling me the truth. However, I called people every day and listened to all kinds of excuses as to why they couldn’t accept the assignment or they would accept the assignment and not show. I got to the spot where I thought every person was lying to me and I trusted nobody. Soon, I realized that neither spot was a healthy place to be. It was important for me to learn how to live somewhere between these two extremes.
There are many things in life that have extremes which try to pull us their direction but the principal of success is usually learning to live between the extremes. We must learn to balance: obedience and grace, serving and boundaries, work and play, church and family, marriage and friends, confidence and humility, etc.
We are going to talk about one of these extremes for the next several days. It is the extremes of accepting the way God made us and being good stewards of the health that God gave us. It is hard to find the middle with this but either extreme can cause us emotional hurt. So many times we look in the mirror and we only see all the things we call faults. We belittle our self and think we are inferior to others. We find our self saying things like, “my husband would love me more if I could just be prettier!”, “Everyone looks better than I do”, “If God loves me, why did He make me this way?”, “I am getting so old, I wish I could be young again”. I agree it is sometimes challenging to see the wrinkles forming, the natural highlights glowing in the hair, and worse of all the facial hair that wants to take root on your face! However, there are certain unchangeable traits that God chooses to frame the pictures He wants to show with our lives. It has nothing to do with Him loving one person more or a person being more worthy. We each have a picture of God to show this world and He takes special care in choosing the right frame. Do you frame all your pictures with the same frame? I bet you don’t. Sometimes you need a fancy, ornate frame. Sometimes, you need a simple, rustic frame. Sometimes you need a small frame and sometimes a large one. Everything about you was handpicked by the loving hands of God. We have to learn to accept His plan and His love.
Can you do that? What do you see when you look into the mirror? Do you think God made a mistake when he created you? Let me assure you that a perfect God does not make mistakes. Maybe you have heard the old saying, “God doesn’t make any junk!” Ask God to show you how He sees you. Work on seeing the beauty God gave you and yes, He gave you beauty! Accept how God made you and stop talking negatively about His wonderful creation—which is YOU!

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking. Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; you know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was

sculpted from nothing into something.

Psalm 139:13-15 (The Message)

Going Home

I am ending the devotions on my trip to Peru by sharing the end of the trip which was trying to leave Peru and enter into the United States. Sounds pretty simple, right? We knew the trip home was going to be interesting when we started our last day. When we all woke up that morning we discovered that Kristen, my daughter in law, was sick. To her disappointment she was not able to go with us to the orphanage; she had to stay close to a restroom and the bed. At the end of the day, we were able to get her to Brittne’s and by the late evening it appeared she would be able to make it home, though it was not going to be fun. Within a few hours of the time we were to leave for the airport, Bryce started getting sick. Now our concern was growing. Our flight out of Peru was at 12:50 a.m. We had the taxi scheduled to pick us up at 10:00 p.m. from Brittne’s apartment. When we reviewed the time frame we determined that we had booked the taxi 30 minutes early and we considered changing the time but because taxis are usually late in Peru, (and known to stand you up) we kept the original time. At 9:30 we were just beginning to get things ready to leave when we heard the taxi honking. We were shocked. He was early! This never happens in Peru. We ran around trying to get the bags together and downstairs. It was very chaotic but in actuality it helped with the goodbye with Brittne. We didn’t have time to cry and drag it on. It had to be quick as if we would see her the next day. Traffic to the airport was unusually heavy for a late week night. We had the same driver as we had when we arrived in Peru and we had not noticed then how bad he drove. Maybe it was the excitement of seeing Brittne! However, with two people sick in the back seat, every increase and decrease of the gas pedal was felt and it was happening about every 3 seconds. When we piled out of the taxi at the airport, Kristen immediately found the plastic sack she had packed and threw up in it. We weren’t even in the airport yet and it was already challenging. Earlier Brittne’s friends had told us that late at night, the check-in lines for Continental were never long. Well, consistent with the evening, the unusual was happening! The lines was extremely long. Dwayne and I stood in line with all the suitcases and carry-on bags while Kristen and Bryce made trips to the restroom and rest area. As you might have guessed my now, the luggage was overweight again. This time, I was prepared and knew what I was going to pull out. I was able to handle it in record time. Except after she took my suitcase, (with the help of Dwayne’s keen eye and memory) I realized I had dropped my glasses in the suitcase, so we had to get the suitcase back for a quick scavenger hunt. When we all had made it through that line we were relieved, though it was short lived. When we met up, Kristen had bought several bottles of water and Sprite to take with her, forgetting you can’t take those through security. We drank what we could quickly and then threw them away. Next, we stood in a long line to pay our taxes in order to get out of the country. Yes, we had to pay $32 each to leave; that was a first. We then made it through the long line for Immigration, only to discover that the two little pieces of paper they gave us coming into the country were no longer in our passports. My tidy husband didn’t think we needed them anymore and didn’t like papers in our passports, so he discarded them. Now we had to go to another line. He found his wadded up in my carry-on bag but he had given mine to the check-in attendant. It wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated, it just cost me another $5 to solve the problem. Next was the security line. This shockingly went very smooth. When we found our gate, the kids were sitting on the floor. This showed me how sick my little germ fanatic daughter in law was because she was sitting on a floor, in the airport, in Peru!!! We then went to get some more drinks to replace what we threw in the trash. There was no place to get drinks other than at the end of the terminal. She actually made it all the way there and back. After paying for those drinks we realized our hay days of amazingly cheap prices were now on the other side of the wall. Within a few minutes our seats were called to board. (It was a good thing the taxi driver came early—God always has things in control.) Then to our surprise we had one more slow line to endure. We had to be frisked down and have our bags searched to enter the plane. Also, the new rule states no drinks from the terminal allowed on the plane. So you know what that meant, the drinks Kristen bought once again went into the trash. When I saw my seat, I discovered I was sitting in the middle seat, between Dwayne and a very large woman who took up part of my seat. I decided the only way to endure this long ride, in such a tight spot, was to sleep the entire trip! About the time I couldn't stand being confined, we landed. Now all we had to do was unload the plane and go through US Immigrations and Customs. This was the only check point we had a slight concern about. I had made Kristen’s plane ticket in the name of ‘Thompson’, however, her passport was still in her maiden name of ‘Mounts’. She had been traveling with her passport and marriage license. We had checked with every agency to approve the acceptance of the license except US Immigration. Though we were told by others it would be fine, it was the only agency we had not directly confirmed. Praise Jesus, there were no issues. After Immigration, we proceeded down an escalator to baggage claims. We were to gather our baggage and clear through customs. When I reached into my purse to get my passport from the pocket I always put it in, it wasn’t there. I looked through everything and could not find it. Only I could lose a passport from walking down one hallway and going down an escalator. I checked with Customs to see if it had been turned in. I went back to Immigration to check there and to make sure the officer gave it back to me. It was not there. I couldn’t believe it. So close to home and I can’t walk across the line to enter my homeland! What was I going to do? After talking to the officer, I was informed that as long as we had our clearance papers from Immigration, which Dwayne had, I did not need my passport to leave. I was so relieved. We did clear through Customs and after standing in 8 lines and flying 7 hours, we were out of our visiting land of Peru and in our homeland of the United States. The trip was complete!
This experience made me very thankful in advance for a future planned trip that I am taking. I have my reservations and one day, I am going to leave this world I have been visiting and I am going to my real home to spend eternity with my God and my Savior, in a place called Heaven. When this day comes, I will not have to stand in lines to enter. I do not have to pay a price, Jesus already paid it. I do not have to be searched to be declared fit to enter, Jesus already took care of that too. I do not need to take any possessions because everything will be provided for me. I do not have to worry about having the right papers. My name is already in the book. I do not have to have a photo ID, God already knows me; He knows the number of hairs on my head! It will be the simplest trip I have ever had. I will breathe my last breath on this earth and breathe my next one in His presence. I am ready. Are you? Do you have your reservations? Is your name written in the book of life?

I saw Heaven and earth new-created. Nothing dirty or defiled will get into the City, and no one who defiles or deceives. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life

will get in.

Revelations 21: 1, 27 (The Message)

P.S. I found my passport. It was in the pocket I always put it in. It was stuck behind a card and I didn’t see it the ten times I looked! As Dwayne says, only me!!!! Haha

It Takes Focus

The Sunday we were in Lima, we went to church with Brittne. It was totally a Spanish speaking service. In case you have forgot, let me remind you that I cannot speak Spanish. I can read a few words but I cannot get the words out properly. If you know me, you are thinking to yourself, “She doesn’t get her English words our right!”. Nobody knows that better than me! Lol It was a great looking church. I was glad to see a praise team was going to lead worship. When they started to sing, I immediately became excited. They were singing the same praise songs we sing at Fusion. The words were being projected on two screens. However, it was all in Spanish. That was okay with me, I figured I knew the words well enough that I would just sing along with them in English. Afterall, these are the songs I sing to myself all the time. It would be cool to hear them singing in Spanish while Kristen, Bryce, and I sung in English. Dwayne was at the end of the row sitting on the other side of Brittne, so he wouldn’t be a part of our English trio. However, within seconds we knew there was a problem. With all the Spanish being sung around us we couldn’t remember a word of English. I mean not a word!!! We all just stood there in shock. How could we not remember words to something we knew so well! It became apparent to us that if we wanted to sing praises to the Lord we were going to have to read them and sing them in Spanish. So, for the first time in my life, I sang in Spanish. I will never know for sure but I imagine that God was amused at his daughter’s praises that Sunday morning. As a parent I loved laughing at the adorable things my children did. Maybe I gave Him a little parental laughter!
One of the things that bewilders me about the Christian walk is consistency. How does a Christian live a life of service to the Lord, a life of devotion to His Word, a life of loving others, and a life of glorifying God and then stop doing it? How do we walk away and forget all the things we live for? Who we live for? Singing praises in the Peruvian church that day showed me an answer to that question. We were inundated with our environment. We were more focused on what was going on around us than what we had placed in our heart and mind. The same thing trips us up in life. When we concentrate on all that is going on around us in life, we can so easily start to focus on the world, the trials, and the problems. Very quickly we start forgetting about the words, the lessons, and the testimonies we have stored in our heart and mind. When that happens, we soon stop recognizing and hearing God’s voice and we become complacent. Before long we start hearing and feeding our flesh. Our life is now far from the life we once lived, and our relationship with the Lord becomes passionless.

Where do you find yourself? What are you focusing on? Do you still hear the voice of God or has it become unrecognizable? If you still have passion and zeal in your relationship with Jesus, then stay focused and persistent to keep it. If you have lost it, return to the Lord. He hasn’t quit speaking and He hasn’t quit wanting to have a relationship with you. Change your focus and listen to Him. Remember all He has done for you and surrender yourself into His care.

Good friend, don’t forget all I’ve taught you; take to heart my commands. They’ll help you live a long, long time, a long life lived full and well. Don’t lose your grip on love and loyalty. Tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart. Earn a reputation for living well in God’s eyes and the eyes of the people. Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He’s the one who will keep you on track.
Proverbs 3: 1-6 (The Message)

Conquering Fear

One of the fun activities we did in Peru was sand boarding. Sand boarding is similar to snow skiing except you go down on your belly, instead of standing and you ski on sand, instead of snow. Brittne had gone before so I had seen pictures and she had given me all the details. This was the main activity Bryce wanted us to do, so they were going with or without me. I had a conflict going on internally. The side of me that still thinks I am 20 years old thought this would be a great thing to do. The 49 year old woman, who gets forced to look at reality, thought it was scary and crazy. However, as I get older, I have noticed I am developing a desire to conquer my fears. My mind was saying, “Go” and my body was saying “no way”. Then after a few caring comments from my son like, “you’re going?”, “You really think you’re going to do this?”, “This will be fun to watch!” I was determined to not only go sand boarding but to keep up with them! I was going to love it, and never show my fear! We loaded in the sand buggy and the roller coaster ride on sand began. It was great! After several times of catching air and losing our stomachs, we stopped on the top of a cliff of sand. We unloaded out of our machine and each of us was given a board. The instructor waxed the bottom of the board (so we could go faster!) and we lined up. One at a time we laid on our bellies on our board. The instructor helped us get in proper position. At this point, the board is hanging over the edge and you feel like you are teeter tottering. Yes, you are pointing straight down a large incline head (and face) first. At this point, my common sense tries to convince my pride to admit that this is too scary, and to quit and to just be content with watching the young people do it. I am pleased to inform you that my common sense did not win and I allowed the instructor to push my board down the hill. You control your speed by how much you drag your feet. It was so much fun! I was elated that I followed through and didn’t let fear keep me from trying. After all of us had reached the bottom, the buggy would drive down and pick us all up. Then we would go do it all over again on a bigger dune, and a bigger dune, and still a bigger dune! A total of six times I had to deal with my momentary fear! At the end, our reward was sitting on the sand watching the sun set over the desert. Over all, I was very proud of myself and I was so happy that I allowed myself to have such an amazing, fun experience. The icing on the cake was hearing my son admit that I kept up with them and when I compared my newly painted toenails with my daughter’s, she had worn off more polish from her toes, from dragging them in the sand, than I had!!!
Many times as we walk through life, we hit situations that are out of our comfort zone and they simply scare us. If we give into our fear, we get stuck and miss out on great experiences that God has in store for us. If we will learn to push through our fear and experience something new in our lives, we can receive blessings and sometimes pure joy and happiness. To step out and conquer your fear, you have to trust. On the sand dune, I trusted Brittne when she said how much fun it was and I had to trust the instructor when he showed me how to do it and then gave me the final push. In my life, every major spiritual decision came with a level of fear; like going to seminary, moving to Montana, moving to a hurting and recovering church, starting another new church, changing jobs, planning and speaking at retreats, writing devotions on a blog, etc. I have had to trust God to teach me, protect me, and then give me the final push. The results have always been blessings and joy. What is happening in your life that scares you? Is there something that God is calling you to do that makes you feel like you are hanging out over a cliff just waiting to fall? How much do you trust God? When you are looking at a scary situation, will you learn to trust Him to show you the way? Will you trust His push? Or will you let fear keep you out of God's plans?

In times of fear, it is good to read the words of Moses that he spoke to the Israelites after they let their fear keep them from believing the report that the promise land was good...

But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You grumbled in your tents and said, "The Lord hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, 'The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.'" Then I said to you, "Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place. In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.

Deuteronomy 1: 26-32 (The Message)

A New Home

Before we even went to Peru, we knew it was going to be more than a tourist vacation or a visit to see a daughter. We knew it would be an eye opening, mission minded, spiritual growing experience. Seeing the world our daughter serves in and the sacrifices she makes was definitely all of that. However, we knew there was an outing she had planned for us that would be certain to pull at our heartstrings. It is a place where she started volunteering weeks ago and now wanted to share with her family. It was an orphanage in Lima. Just the thought of it conjured up many images. We were expecting the worse. We had seen some extreme poverty ridden areas and we anticipated a dirty, broken down, building with malnourished, unkempt children. We took a taxi to the orphanage. The closer we got, the more rundown the buildings became. We ended up in a community with dirt streets and no signs of prosperity. Brittne led the taxi to a wall with a large, green, solid metal gate. I’m not talking about a gate in a fence; I am talking about a gate that was at least an 8’ x14’ gate. Brittne pushed a buzzer, like a door bell. Soon a little window opened and closed and the door in the gate opened. I know we each took a deep breath preparing for what we thought we would see. We stepped in and our jaws must have dropped to the ground. I remember trying to figure out how I left reality and entered into this make believe world! The sound of children laughing and playing in a pool of water brought me out of my confusion and I started realizing that though this felt like we had just walked into Heaven itself, it was actually the orphanage. We had totally misjudged what we were going to see. What we did see was an amazing, beautiful play area with happy, clean, adorable children. Three modern buildings surrounded the playground with cement sidewalks paving the walkways from building to building, all lined with flower beds. Brittne had told us churches in the states support the orphanage and also send mission teams to help with different projects. God’s people did GREAT! Sometimes we as Christians do not give our best when it comes to helping others. There are times we do just enough to make us feel good about ourselves. I have seen people donate clothes that are torn and stained to the poor. I have seen people give furniture that is old and broken, expecting others to be grateful. A person can have an attitude that their trash should be good enough for the poor. The Christians that have supported this orphanage did not have that kind of attitude; they gave the best to these needy children. These children were in clean, new clothes. Their furniture was solid and in good shape. The teachers were loving and kind. (They even took the children in one by one to brush their teeth after lunch). There was a part of me that wanted to live there. I would feel blessed for the opportunity. I will never forget Roxana coming up to me and taking my hand to play. I will remember Judith who played with me on the grass and would teach me a Spanish word for an item and then I would teach her the English word. I will never forget feeding Liz, the adorable little girl that Brittne wants as her niece. Dwayne and Bryce will not forget the little boys throwing the balls to them just begging for some rough housing. One little boy would love on Dwayne and pat him on the head. These precious children had all been abused and now they live a life with love, security, joy, provision, learning, care, guidance, and healthy interaction. They learn about God and how Jesus loves them. Their eyes are not filled with sadness but with peace. Spending time here with the children and staff will always be considered one of my greatest blessings and a great life changing experience.
The pictures in my mind of Liz will always represent a spiritual picture of me. I once belonged to a father who goes by the name of Satan, Lucifer, and the Devil. He abused me, lied to me, and deceived me. His goal was to destroy me. However, there came a point in my life that I learned about my Heavenly Father who loved me and wanted to care for me, guide me, nurture me, and bless me. I chose to leave my life of sin and enter into my Heavenly Father’s care. Since then, He has surrounded me with His protection and healed my hurts. I abide with Him and it is a beautiful and amazing place to live! Hallelujah! What a Savior!

You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out "Papa! Father!" (Galatians 4:6 The Message)

Never Alone!

There was only one time during our trip that I had a sense of fear and panic from my environment. We purchased a tour of some islands with birds, penguins, and sea lions. Part of the tour cost covered the travel to and from the town where the tour began. The town was about an hour north of where we were so the salesmen of the tour had a great idea. Since we were planning on traveling back to Lima after the tour and we would be traveling five hours north, they would drop us off at the small town on the highway to catch our bus and save us two hours of travel time. Now we would not have to travel an hour back south just to turn around and travel back north through the same town where they could drop us off. This sounded like a great plan to us. So after the tour, the taxi driver drove us to the intersection of the highway back to Lima. The town we had expected was more like a few shacks and something like a truck stop. Since the bus we rode from Lima stopped at least every 30 minutes to pick people up along the highway, we knew this was nothing to panic about. However, since we were planning on purchasing bus tickets at a bus station where we could use a Visa card or an ATM to get out some cash to convert to soles, we now found ourselves with six soles between us and a twenty dollar bill. Tickets from Lima had cost us around 30 soles each and so we knew we were going to cut it close. Now we found our self standing on a highway in South America, with not enough money to catch a bus back to Lima! Not a position I was feeling good about. First, I had a momentary panic. Nobody in the world knew where we were, how could they. I remember my first thought was that if I looked at a map, I could find the spot we were standing. That brought some relief. However, I had a rush of peace come over me when I realized that God knew where we were. He didn't even have to have a map. As long as He knew where we were, He would take care of us and help us figure out what to do. Within minutes the bus came. Brittne started explaining to the ticket master on the bus our predicament and with great amazement Brittne told us that they agreed to let us ride to the next stop where Brittne could convert her dollars to soles and pay for our tickets! She did that and when we were back on the bus heading for Lima, the ticket master came to collect his money. Once again, we were in a predicament. We were 2 soles short. Again, God took care of us because the ticket master told Brittne not to worry about the 2 soles. All was well, and soon we were back at Brittne's apartment in Lima.

This situation happens to us many times through life. Sometimes, we panic that we feel deserted in an unknown place. We feel lost and forgotten about. We can not see any possible way to be delivered through our circumstances. It is at these times we need to remind our self that God knows exactly where we are. He will provide for us in ways we can not see or fathom. We must keep our self from panic and worry by standing firm in trust and faith in God and watch Him work!

Is there any place I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you're there! If I go underground, you're there! If I flew on morning's wing to the far western horizon, You'd find me in a minute--you're already there waiting!

Psalms 139:7-10 (The Message)

Who Is Leading You?

One thing that Dwayne and I, along with Bryce and Kristen, kept saying over and over during our trip to Peru was, “We couldn’t do this without Brittne.” We could not really communicate with anyone. Though they knew some words, it was not enough to communicate. We could have asked where the bathroom was, or how much something cost, or for water; but we needed so much more. I don’t know how many times we asked Brittne how to say something or what someone said or what she said to someone. We had to have driven her crazy! Without her, we wouldn’t have known where to go and where not to go. We wouldn’t have known what to eat and what not to eat. We wouldn’t have known when we were getting ripped off from taxi drivers or market vendors. We couldn’t have ordered off a menu, at least not very well. We wouldn’t have known about some safety issues, like how you have to disinfect all fruits and vegetables to get rid of all the bacteria. We wouldn’t have known to stay as close as sardines in lines because cutting in line is part of their culture. We would have missed out on some great experiences like sand boarding and the park of fountains. We wouldn’t have had some life changing experiences like staying in a hostel, or attending a Peruvian church, or visiting the orphanage. She directed us through our visit to unknown places. She taught us the dos and don'ts of living there. She taught us through our circumstances. She showed us how to have fun. She communicated for us. She gave us a sense of security.
What Brittne was for us is a great example of what God's Holy Spirit is for us. Though she demonstrated so many of His characteristics to us, He is so much more! Sometimes this world we live in seems so unknown to us. Scripture tells us that we are aliens or visitors in this world. God gives us His Holy Spirit to help us during this journey of life in a land where we do not belong. The Holy Spirit teaches us and directs us. He gives us joy. He communicates on our behalf. He comforts us. He interprets life for us at times. He also gives us gifts and fills us with His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. We can feel comforted to know that all we have to do to survive in this world is surrender our lives to Jesus Christ and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. He will help us in all things if we will just learn to follow! Are you going to figure this life out on our own, which is impossible? Are you going to go down the paths you want? Or are you going to trust Jesus to direct you and grow you by the Holy Spirit through this amazing life? Choose wisely!

But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified. Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea of our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications to every detail of our life.

Galatians 5:22-25 (The Message)

What Am I Portraying?

The mode of transportation in Peru was a new experience for me. It is mainly taxis and buses. I have ridden in both, but not quite like I did in Peru. I rode in taxis in New York City where yellow taxis line every street. Their fees are determined by a meter. It is a set fee, plus mileage and time all monitored by the meter. In Peru the taxi system is negotiated, one ride at a time. Since I couldn’t even say ‘buenas dias’, we left the negotiating to Brittne who took on the assignment with great passion. She was determined not to let a taxi driver rip us off; not even one Sole' (which equals 32 cents). Many times five of us would load into a small subcompact car almost the size of a Subaru outback station wagon. Dwayne would sit in the front; Bryce and I would sit in the back in the middle. Brittne would sit on the corner of the seat by me and Kristen would crawl on top of Bryce’s lap, keeping her head ducked because it would hit the ceiling. Sometimes we would splurge an extra 5 sole’s and get a second taxi! During our six day adventure, we ended up riding in 34 taxi’s and 2 buses. It was very frustrating to me not to be able to talk to the drivers and find out about their lives and be of some kind of encouragement to them. I even felt rude by not talking to them. However, each driver did tell me one thing about them self. They would have some kind of object by their mirror or on their dash showing where they put their faith, and trust me, if I drove like they did, I would be putting my faith in something other than me too. The problem was that the vast majority was trusting in something that couldn’t help them. Three taxi drivers had a little shoe on their dash boards. They were shoes of their children to bring them good luck. Twenty-nine drivers had a picture of a Saint or a rosary as a symbol of protection. One driver had nothing. It was very sad to see so many putting their trust in luck and mere humans, or nothing at all. However, three drivers had Bibles. These three were believers in Jesus Christ and was putting their trust in His Word. Besides their Bibles, they would have Christian music on the radio like Hillsong singing in Spanish. It was great! Just think of how many people would get in the Taxi each day and hear songs of praise to the One True God.

It made me wonder about the people that cross my path every day. The ones I don’t speak too but who watch me as I go about my activity. What do I show them about who I am putting my trust in? Do they see me rejoicing in the Lord? Or do they see me stressing over life? Do they see me upset with another person? Or do they see me as a person of love, compassion, and joy? When someone crosses my path, I want to portray the One I claim to serve! As I look back over my encounter with my 36 drivers, I wish I would have learned to say, “God Bless You” in Spanish. Each time I got out of the cab or walked off the bus, instead of butchering ‘buenas dias’, I should have said ‘dios te bendiga’. I let 36 opportunities go by to show who I trust in. I pray I become more aware of what I am portraying to those who travel with me through my daily journey through life.

You are the light of the world....Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven.

Matthew 5 : 14a, 16 (Amplified)

(also, I had to include the Message because I love the wording!)

"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept....Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand--shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:14a, 16

Law or Grace

In case you didn’t know, Dwayne and I along with our son, Bryce and his wife Kristen, traveled to Lima, Peru to spend Christmas with our daughter Brittne. I am back in the states and back to a computer and internet. I had planned on continuing the devotions while I was in Peru but the place we stayed didn’t have internet and when we were at Brittne’s it was too busy and too noisy to concentrate. However, I am home and back on schedule now. Thank you for your patience.
The first challenge we had in getting to Peru was dealing with the luggage. We could check one bag per person and each had a weight limit of 50 pounds. I had our clothes and items in one suitcase and I packed a plastic tub full of stuff for Brittne. It contained her Christmas presents from us and others, food and stockings for Christmas day, and toiletries and food that Brittne had requested. After several attempts to get it all to fit, I weighed it and with frustration looked at the number on the scale that read 58 pounds. I unpacked it again, took out three Velveeta cheeses and a 3 pound box of Bisquick, which of course was on the bottom. Since I took out 9 pounds, I figured the weight would now be less than 50 pounds. I packed one Velveeta and the Bisquick into my suitcase and put the other Velveeta’s into Bryce and Kristen’s suitcase. Then I had to put Kristen’s Christmas present from Bryce in my suitcase. I weighed my suitcase and it said 46 pounds. I didn’t really believe the number because the suitcase was too big to be evenly distributed on the scale but I figured I had 4 pounds as a back- up. When we got to the airport we hauled in all the suitcases and carry-ons and stood in the check in line. After ten minutes, the dreaded time came to weigh in the suitcases. The tub squeaked through but Kristen’s suitcase was a few pounds over and mine was 8 pounds over! We laid out our suitcases open for the all the people behind us to see. We started pulling out things we could stuff in Bryce and Kristen’s carry-ons. Kristen got her bag to the acceptable weight quickly, and after 3 times I finally got my bag accepted because I wore the manager down and he gave me 1.5 pounds of grace. Since the weight limits have been put into place, you have to pay for the over limit weight. I think this process is one of the most stressful parts of traveling anymore. I wish we could go back to the days there was no weight limit. If you could get your suitcase to the airport, it would go.
This experience reminded me of law and grace. We know what sin is. We were given the 10 commandments and not one of us is able to keep those 10. We sure aren’t able to keep all those plus others. However, there are times we think we are doing okay. We look on the surface and we look like a good Christian and feel pretty good about ourselves. Can you imagine being put on a scale to have the weight of your sin measured? How confident would you be in falling below the limit? Oh, I forgot to tell you what the limit is! The limit is zero. Anything above zero is over the limit. How confident are you now? It is a limit that seems hopeless. However, there is an amazing thing that can happen. If you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, His name is now written across you. Now when you step up on the scale that measures your sin, it doesn’t matter anymore. No matter what your sin would have weighed, it weighs nothing now because Jesus Christ has already paid the price for all of your sin! All those that weigh in under the name of Jesus, by His grace, weigh zero! For the Christian, there is no more stress of hoping we can make the impossible sin limit!

For while the Law was given through Moses, grace (unearned, undeserved favor and spiritual blessing) and truth came through Jesus Christ.

John 1:17

Happy Birthday!

In the Spring of 1970, I was 10 years old. My uncle would drive a church bus around town and pick up children for church and he always came to my house first. One night he picked me up to attend a revival service. When I got to church, I went into the sanctuary and sat on the third row from the back and three seats in from the outside aisle. When the preaching began, I did not participate in the normal activity of writing notes and passing it to my friends, I listened intently through the entire message. When the invitational song was in process something started stirring inside of me. For the first time, I realized that even at 10 years old, I needed to commit to live my life as a follower of Christ, or I was going to live an eternity separated from God. I felt the Holy Spirit pick me up and walk me down the aisle. I visited with the preacher and surrendered my life to Jesus Christ as the words, ‘I come, I come’ were being sung. Though at 10 years old my life did not take a huge change in direction, it determined the direction I was going to walk for the remainder of my life. I might not have had to turn from drugs or alcohol but it kept me from it. I might not have had to leave a life of wild parties and self indulgence but it kept me from it. Oh, I still sinned but the grace of God kept me close and forgiven.
The salvation I experienced and hopefully you have experienced, would not have been possible without the most important person of the Christmas story which was Jesus. His love for us drove Him to leave His throne in Heaven where He was in His Father’s presence every moment, where angels were surrounding Him singing praises with every breath, and where sin wasn’t present. He was willing to leave all of this and be born a helpless baby, in a lowly manger. His needs would now be met by a mother and an earthly father. He had surrendered His heavenly position. He grew into a man and then offered His life, through physical abuse and crucifixion, to pay the sacrificial price for our sins and redeem us from the grip of evil. Because of this sacrifice we now can have hope, love, peace, endurance, and joy. We can have the assurance that we will live out our eternal life in the presence of God. All we have to do is accept Jesus as our Savior and be spiritually born again.
Today is the birthday of our Savior. Because of His birthday we can each have a spiritual birthday. Do you have a spiritual birthday? If not, there is no better time to get one!

Giving What You Have!

When we were moving from Montana to Oklahoma, Dwayne and I had to split up to cover different needs. I had a two day drive home with the kids. I decided that if we left as soon as I got home around 3:00 p.m., we could get about 5 hours of driving in which would help us out greatly the rest of the trip. There are three main routes I could choose from. I hated one, liked the other but my favorite route was always through South Dakota. According to my plan, I would arrive in Rapid City, SD around 9:00 p.m. When I had made the turn on my chosen route and traveled far to the point of no return, I realized that my choice was not good. I had forgotten that the annual national biker rally was being held. This is an event where over 750,000 bikers come together in the small town of Sturgis, SD. We are talking bikers of all kinds, from the hard core Hell’s Angels to the 'Wild Hogs'! When I stopped at the hotel in Rapid City (the first large city past Sturgis), I went in with my two children to ask for a room. I do not know how the front desk assistant kept from laughing at me. They must have felt sorry for this stupid mother, traveling through with her kids. I was informed there was no room available (reminds me of a Bible story!). She looked in their computer data base and informed me there was one room available, 500 miles away! I was already tired from lack of sleep the night before and working an 8 hour day. Five hundred miles meant over 7 hours of driving down a long, dark, secluded highway. Definitely something I didn’t want to do but I had no choice but to do. Bryce was 16 so I would let him drive a few times, long enough to get a little rest. I couldn’t sleep with my 16 year old driving but I could close my eyes for a little rest. We pulled into the hotel with the one room available at 5:00 a.m. I do not believe I have ever been so tired. I could not have driven another mile. I had determined that if the hotel had given the room away, I was going to ask them if I could rent three pillows and 3 blankets. I was going to take them and go to the police station and tell them we were going to sleep in the car for a few hours. It was not safe to sleep in parking lots at the hotel or a rest stop because we were still too close to Sturgis. I was so thankful and relieved that they had saved the room for us. I didn’t care what kind of room it was, I just needed a place to sleep.
There are many people in the Bible that I feel we do not treat fairly. One of these people is the innkeeper in Bethlehem. Many times we envision him slamming a door in the faces of Joseph and Mary, saying, “There is no room!” I don’t see him like that. They had obviously been to several Inn’s trying to find a place to stay. Mary was getting closer to delivery and it was becoming more and more critical to find a room. There were no phones to call ahead a have a room held, it was first come, first serve. However, when this innkeeper saw Mary and Joseph, I believe he had compassion on them. He didn't have a room for them, but maybe it was he who offered the stable. Many times they would use caves to keep the animals. Joseph and Mary was in such need, I think they were appreciative to have any place to get warm, lay down and deliver their precious child. Sure, it wasn’t what they thought they would have when they began their trip, but it is amazing how we are willing to give up some of our expectations when we are tired and in need.
Sometimes we think we know what God wants from us. We prepare to give him exactly that and nothing else. Whatever we are not as prepared to offer, we feel is not good enough for Him. It has not been cleaned up yet. The problem is, God wants access to all areas in our life. The nice, pretty, public parts as well as the dirty, crappy places we do not let others go. Are you willing to give Jesus access to every part of you? Do you offer Him all you have, even if you do not think it is good enough for Him? Or do you say, ‘no room’ to Him and send Him on His way?

And she brought forth her firstborn son; and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Luke 2:7

What is Your Heritage?

Families are interesting! Mine is no exception. There is a wide variety of people. In my extended family, I have rich, poor and everything in between. There are athletics and coaches, teachers and drop outs, blue collar workers and businessmen. I have family on wall-street, and in the back hills of Arkansas. I have famous people and no names. I have those that have been married for many years and those that have been married many times. I have those that stayed pure until marriage and those that were free prostitutes. I have homosexuals and heterosexuals. I have Christians and non Christians. I have those that get along with everyone and those that get along with nobody. I have those that have been victims of crime and those that have committed the crime. I have felons and murderers. I have those who have Cancer, Alzheimer’s, Aids, Heart Disease, Diabetes, Emphysema, and MS. The oldest is 88, the youngest is still in the womb. My blood is part Cherokee Indian, Dutch, and German. What is interesting is that I do not know anything about any ancestor older than my great grandparents. I know very little about them. I know many stories on my grandparents and their siblings and I know a lot about my parents and everything about my immediate family (Well, probably not everything but all I want to know). However, if you ask me my heritage, not my nationality, but my heritage, it would be hard for me to know how to answer. I know which people proclaimed to be Christian but I do not know one person’s spiritual journey through life. I do not know their core beliefs, their life passions, and their purpose. That is real heritage and that is what we are missing in our families today. I am hoping that these devotions will provide a way for my children to learn about their spiritual heritage. I want them to know the God of their parents, so they can pass it on to their children along with their stories of faith, and so on and so on.
I think it is interesting that Matthew begins his version of the Christmas story by sharing the genealogy of Jesus. His lineage wasn’t much different than my family. He has Kings and servants; He has great men and great women. He has prostitutes and great mothers. He had the rich and the poor. The one thing which was in Jesus' family was heritage. So many stories of great, faithful, God followers fill the generations of Jesus. Some of my favorites are: David (A man after God’s own heart), Abraham (The Father of Nations), Boaz (The great Kinsman Redeemer), Solomon (The king who built the temple), Joseph (Who saved God’s remnant), Rehab (Who hid God’s spies), Ruth (The widower who was faithful to her mother-in-law but was redeemed by Boaz), etc. His lineage doesn’t just go back four generation, it goes back over 42 generations. Every generation in the lineage of the Messiah is accounted for from Adam to Jesus. That in itself is amazing. His lineage shows us that though He had an overwhelming spiritual heritage, He truly is the Savior of all people and a wide variety of people had a place of honor in the lineage of Jesus!
Do you know your family’s spiritual heritage? If you have those who have walked with God for many years in your family, find out their stories. Pass them on to your children. If your family doesn’t have any spiritual heritage or you do not know it, then start building it now. Talk about the works of God to your family. Share the story of your salvation. Tell them what Jesus has done for you. Share how the baby in the manger whose birthday we celebrate is the Savior of all humanity, no matter where they fall in society or in our families. In the end, it doesn't matter what earthly family we belong to as long as we belong to His heavenly family.

Record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ

Luke 1

Ever Doubted God?

Have you ever laughed at God? I don’t mean the 'haha' kind of laugh, I mean the kind of laugh from thinking, “You have got to be kidding. There is no way that can happen. I must have heard you wrong”! I would like to say I have never had those thoughts, but there have been several times I have felt overwhelmed by what God was saying. Dwayne and I have had many times in our life where God called us to take steps of faith (usually felt like leaps to me) . Some of those steps of faith were:

• Walking away from the life we knew and being willing to follow God’s plan for us by serving Him in the ministry. (FYI- it has been a journey and a blessing beyond words)
• Selling our first home, packing up two children and moving to married housing for Dwayne to attend seminary. (FYI – The best of times, the worst of times, but what a preparation for the ministry and some amazing forever friends)
• Moving our family to a place we had never been, where we knew nobody, we had no place to live, and we were to create and grow a new church we later named South Hills, and built in Montana City, Montana. (FYI- It was seven years and was home to us for all seven years. It served as the core of our children’s childhood, the core of our ministry’s childhood, and a place that gave us a core of friends who walked with us down some amazing paths of God growing our faith that has bonded our hearts for eternity. South Hills is standing strong and is now over 15 years old and debt free)
• Standing beside my husband when he is faithful to be obedient to God and lead a church body to do what doesn’t make sense in the eyes of men. Like building a church when God says begin now, in the onset of a Montana winter, without the full balance of the projected cost in the bank, and no building groups scheduled which is supposed to be done a year in advance. (FYI- building was done by February, with help from plenty of building groups, and money and funding miraculously provided)
• Moving our family back to Oklahoma, to a hurting church which meant; leaving the church we loved and nurtured in Montana and watched grow into their first beautiful building, moving our children during their high school years, and not being able to sell our home in Montana (We grew in our new church and I saw God work in my women's Sunday School in a way that will never be able to be duplicated, He sold our home in His perfect timing, and both Bryce and Brittne has confirmed that looking back, it was a needed move for them, plus Bryce’s wife was waiting for him in Fort Gibson)
• Trusting that we and our children would survive their teenage years and they would claim for themselves their roots of faith. (FYI- we did and they have)
• Following God calling us to leave a church which had been good to us to plant another church and to do so in a new way to reach unchurched, young adults. God had us commit to His calling before we had a plan, a location, financial help, or people willing to come along side to work towards God's given vision. (FYI – Have a growing church that is a place where all feel welcomed, and lives are touched and changed)

Each time, it seemed God was telling us something beyond our comprehension. Yet each time God worked beyond my fear and doubt and blessed me when my faith didn’t merit it. Yesterday, I told you how Zachariah and Elizabeth had wanted a child their whole life and when they were old and pass childbearing years, God answered their prayers and they gave birth to a child God named John. We know him as John the Baptist. I did skip a part in the middle of the story though. When Zachariah entered the Holy of Holies, and the angel appeared to him, he froze in fear. The angel told him not to fear and that God had heard their prayers and Elizabeth would have a child, a son. The angel said they were to name him John and he would achieve great stature with God. The angel said John would turn many Israelites back to God! Zachariah questions the angel and said, “Do you expect me to believe this? We are too old to have a baby!" The angel was Gabriel and he proceeded to tell Zachariah that because he wouldn’t believe God, he would not be able to speak until the baby was born. Zachariah did not speak from then until the birth of John. Yet God worked beyond his fear and doubt and blessed Zachariah even when his faith didn’t merit it. He became the father of the greatest born among men. The Holy Spirit filled Zachariah and he prophesied of God and his newly born son.
I am so thankful that God pours grace on us and He blesses us even when it is not merited due to our fear, our doubt, and lack of faith. God is sovereign and His plan and character cannot be changed by what we do or not do. God is not diminished by our weaknesses. We are the ones that experience the consequences. We rob our self of the blessing of peace which comes from complete trust and faith in the words and plans of God. We can experience peace throughout the fulfillment of His plan by standing firm with unwavering trust. Or, we can live with fear, worry, and doubt. But when God fulfills His plan and we see the blessing of that fulfillment, we will regret all the time we wasted and the lack of peace we experienced because we didn’t trust Him! The next time God tells you to do something that seems beyond your comprehension, remember the God you proclaim to trust is in the business of doing the incomprehensible. The birth of Jesus is incomprehensible yet God did the incomprehensible and He still does the incomprehensible in the lives of His children.

And the angel replied to him. I am Gabriel, I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to talk to you and to bring you this good news. Now behold, you will be silent and will continue to be silent and not able to speak until the day when these things take place, because you have not believed what I told you; but my words are of a kind which will be fulfilled in the appointed and proper time.
Luke 1: 20 and 21

Taking the Love of Jesus Around the World

When my children were in Junior High and High School, I wasn't for sure what choices they would make when they left home. What role would God play in their life? Would they serve Him or ignore Him? I have to be honest and say that my daughter Brittne worried me the most. It was probably because she was more vocal. Every Sunday morning I would hear her standard speech about how when she is on her own she is not going to church every Sunday. It was always followed by, "And I am not going to make my kids go to church either!" I was pleasantly surprised when she found a church to attend her freshman year in college and helped to start a campus ministry. By her junior year she had decided that she wanted to go to a Christian university and enrolled at Southwest Baptist University in Boliver, Missouri. She declared missions as her minor and went on three mission trips to Mexico and one to Egypt before she graduated. Then she surrendered to missions her senior year and she felt God was calling her to the journeyman program with the Southern Baptist Convention. The following September God confirmed to her that she was to serve Him in Lima, Peru. She has been away from home for 15 months now. She has become fluent in Spanish and has traveled by bus, chicken bus, and foot to the uttermost parts of the Andres mountains and to minister to the villages and share the love of Jesus. She has gone 10 days without a shower and has been too cold to sleep. I am so proud of her. I am blessed that God has called her to serve Him in such a special way and that she is willing to be obedient no matter what the cost. However, there is another thing I am amazingly proud of her for. During her senior year in college, she adopted a little 10 year old boy, in Bolivia. She has faithfully sent $38 a month for his care. No matter what her income has been she has never complained about sending that money for him. She writes him and he writes her. She is making a difference in his life. For me, $38 is a casual meal out, or a new sweater. To her friend Omar, it gives him a school to attend and clothes to wear, and a friend to show him the love of Jesus. Since Brittne has been in Peru, I have had to type out the letters she receives from him and send it to her by email. He writes it in Spanish and draws her a picture, and the Compassion organization translates it to English for her. Now she would rather read it in Spanish but I do not type Spanish very well so she gets it in English. His letters have moved me on more than one occassion. In one letter, Omar writes:

Dear Brittne Thompson,
Hello! I send you greetings. First I thank you for the letter you sent me, Congratulations!! You are talented to learn spanish. In answer to your questions, I am fine. Bolivia is doing regular and it is turning cold, sometimes it rains and others we got up and down with ice. My family is fine. I like to cook rice with meat. It makes me happy to know your brother’s wedding was nice. What is the name of the town where you work? It is sad to know you left your friends in Guatemala but you can make new friends in your job, I will keep being your friend. My favorite biblical story is Noah’s. How do you cook “Enrollado de canela” I don’t know it. I want to tell you something. Please come to Bolivia, maybe it is too hard. I’d like to meet you. Thanks because I have a friend who is always thinking of me, who always works as to the Lord, I love you so much and I hope to have your news soon with love.
Omar

What a blessing she is to him and what a blessing he is to her. Brittne has plans to see him before she leaves South America. One of Brittne's gifts from me this Christmas is something she has asked me for more than once over the last two years. I am adopting a child to honor her and to do my part in taking the love of Jesus to the ends of the world.
We might not be able or be called to move around the world and serve God in the foreign mission field, but we can reach out to one child. What are you doing to take the love of Jesus to your community, to your state, to your country, and to your world?

You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Acts 1:8

If you would be interested in sponsoring a child, visit http:www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child.

Celebrating through the Hurt

Christmas is a special time and often it is referred to as a magical time. It generates warm feelings of goodwill and generosity to others. It stirs up hallmark moments and events. If ever there is a time we try to live a picturesque life, it is during Christmas. It is as if we try to build a wall around the Holidays and believe it should keep out all the tribulations of life. The problem is that life still happens even during the Christmas Season. We still have family conflicts, divorces, diseases, illness, death, accidents, financial disasters, theifs, fires, loneliness and job losses. We pay extra attention to the hurts of life when it happens during these days and we always add the phrase, “how horrible, and during Christmas time too!”. Many people have a hard time balancing the celebration and honoring of Christ and the emotional pain from a hurt or a loss. It is hard to be sad when everything and everyone around you seem to radiate happiness. How do we do it?
Horatio Spafford was a man who had to figure out the answer to that question. Life brought Horatio many traumatic events. The first was the death of his only son in 1871.Then after being a successful lawyer, he experienced financial ruin following the great Chicago fire. In 1873, he had planned to travel to Europe with his family on a what we call a cruise ship. He ended up being delayede on business so he sent his family ahead. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with a sailing ship and all four of Horatio’s daughters died. His wife Anna survived and sent him the now famous telegram, "Saved alone." The Spaffords later had three more children, one of whom (a son) died in infancy. If anyone had to learn how to worship God in the midst of extraordinary hurt, he did. How did he do it? He focused on Jesus and the sovereignty of God. How do we know that? Because shortly after the ship sank, as Horatio traveled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write some words as his ship passed near where his daughters had died. Those words were set to music and we know it as the song, ‘It is Well With My Soul.’ Those words, though not in modern language, are:
When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life,
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
But Lord, 'tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul.
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul

I do not mean to devalue the hurt you may be dealing with this Christmas. However, I do know that Christ is the only one that can comfort and give you peace. He is bigger than your hurt. Isn’t that reason enough to celebrate His birth? Take a break from focusing on your trials and hurts and instead focus on Jesus and the season of love and joy. It is healing!

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds (curing their pains and their sorrows).

Psalm 147:3

Does Santa Claus have a Place in a Christian's Christmas?

I was raised watching my parents give to people in need. Not just at Christmas, but especially at Christmas. They would always adopt children from a local children's home for Christmas. One year stands out because a friend, who had just signed withthe Pittsburg Steelers took the football we purchased for our adopted boy and had his teammates sign it. There are some amazing signatures on that football, including Terry Bradshaw. Dwayne and I have carried on that Christmas tradition and we make sure to buy for a family or children who are in need. However, I have to confess, that giving money or buying gifts, though it can be difficult financially, is not the most sacrificial giving. Giving what you have and use is much harder than giving from your abundance. Let me explain. When I was a child my mother decided I had too many toys and my cousin had none. She made me go through my toys and give away a third. All of a sudden every toy was my favorite. It was a very hard thing to do and one that I still remember. Then as an adult, I had a friend who needed some work clothes. I had recently cleaned out my closet of unwanted items and had given them away. God convicted me to give my friends some of my favorite clothes, you know everything hanging in my closet. I went to my closet and pulled out some favorite outfits and gave them to her. That was the most sacrificial giving I have ever done.
Christmas is a time for giving. We hear that every year. Christ gave everything to us and in honor of Him, we give to others. There is another symbol of giving we include in our Christmases, it is Santa Clause. Every Christian battles the question of how much Santa Claus do we allow in our Christmas. It can be a real dilemma. However, when you know the real story of Santa Claus, it can become a meaningful part of your Christmas celebration. I was blessed to know the real story of Santa when the kids were young and we incorporated it into our festivities. Last year, a local radio station put the following story of Santa Claus on their web site and I want to pass it on to you.

The Real Story of St. Nicholas
Maybe we give old St. Nick too much static for the over-commercialization of Christmas. This thought comes to me after reading what Bruce Thielman, Chaplain at Grove City College in Pennsylvania had to say on the subject."At Christmas, when calling us to be manger people, perhaps Jesus might say: Consider, if you will my servant, Nicholas. He lost his parents early in his life in an epidemic, but not before he was old enough for them to help him discover the gift of faith. After that, little Nicholas went to Myra and lived a life full of self offering and giving of himself. His life was full of sacrifice and love in the spirit of Jesus. Nicholas lived such a Christ-like life, that when the town needed a bishop, he was immediately elected. Later he was imprisoned for his Christian faith, but was later released by the Emperor Constantine. Thereafter, many stories of his generosity were collected and spread like wildfire from mouth to mouth. It was told how he begged food for the poor, and how he would somehow get money for girls to use as a dowry so that they could have husbands. The story most often repeated was about how he would put on a disguise and go out and give gifts to poor children. In fact, Nicholas gave away everything he had, plus everything he could get from others. Good Nicholas died in 314 A.D. Later his body was moved to Italy, where his remains are reported to be today. The story of Nicholas has spread around the world. Today, there are more European churches named after St. Nicholas than any other person in the history of the church... aside from Biblical characters. People have done many things to St. Nick. Clement More, the poet, gave him a red nose and eight tiny reindeer. Artist Thomas Nast gave Nicholas a round belly and a red, fur trimmed suit. But, that is not important! What is vital, is that he lived in the mind-set and lifestyle of Christ. Because he lived that way, the life of Nicholas touched the whole world. Now, here is the kicker: that same Christ-like mind-set and lifestyle is supposed to be in and lived by us all."
That is a story we can tell our children. That is an example we can follow. If we made giving a part of our life, how would that touch the lives of others? The thing we need to not do is make St. Nicholas the focus. I don't think he would want that. We can't make ourselves the focus when we give either. We must make Jesus the focus of all giving, for everything comes from Him.

We all live off His generous bounty, gift after gift..

John 1:16 (Message)

P.S. There is a children's book I used with my children called, "Santa, Are You Real". There are also a variety of books that teach about the real St. Nicholas at Barnes and Noble.

Christmas Is What You Make It

One of the best, most unique Christmas presents I ever received as a child was from my grandparents. They owned an old fashion store in a small town in Arkansas. For Christmas, they walked the ailes with a box and threw everything they thought I would like into it. I got candy, toothbrushes, toys, gum, Cracker Jacks, and enough other stuff (my mother said, junk) to fill a large box. I loved it! It was also the last Christmas present I received from them. For religious reasons they stopped celebrating Christmas. After all, they claimed, it really wasn't Christ birthday, it was just a date that man picked.
They were right, it isn't the actual date that Christ was born. Scholars have said that Jesus would have been born in the Spring. It is also true that man has made Christmas very commercial with trees, lights, gifts, parties, food, etc. However, I believe wholeheartedly that Christmas is what you make it. Satan is really good about taking spiritual things and making it into something worldly. So, let's take all the commercialism and turn it into something that teaches our children about Jesus. Let all the 'gifts mania' be a reminder to us of the greatest gift of Jesus, Who was willing to leave all His glory and come to earth to be born a mere man and sacrifice His life in order to offer us eternal life with Him. It may not be his actual birthday but what is wrong with sitting aside a time to remember God's gift of His only Son to us. Scripture is constantly telling us to remember the acts of God. God established many feast and festivals with the Jewish people to help them remember those very things. We should let Christmas, that we set aside to remember an act of God, remind us of God's greatest gift to humanity and also who Jesus is. For example:

• We put up an evergreen in our home and call it our Christmas tree - Jesus is the everlasting Savior who wants to make his home with us.
• We put up lights - Jesus is the Light of the world, a Light in the darkness.
• We hang ornaments on the tree - Jesus gives us His Spirit and gifts and talents that takes our ordinary lives and makes us special, and beautiful.
• We give gifts- Jesus was God's Gift to the world.
• We spend time with family and friends- Because of the sacrifice of Jesus we belong to the family of God.
• We celebrate the birth of Jesus - The angels celebrated the birth of Jesus and proclaimed His glory!
• Santa Clause brings gifts - Teach the story of St. Nicolas (if you do not know it, I will share it tomorrow)

Christmas can be what you make it. If we let everything we do point to Jesus, then we are glorifying Him. Look for ways to teach others about Jesus. Hearts are open this time of year to the Good News. Don't just go through the motions of Christmas which doesn't set us apart from the world. Let the joy of Jesus radiate from you and bless all those around you. Look for every opportunity to focus on and celebrate Jesus. Let it be a season of remembrance. Teach your children and your grandchildren the wonder of Christmas. If Christians don't celebrate the birth of Jesus, who will? The angels sure celebrated the birth of Jesus!

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

Luke 2:11-14

Live Like It Is Your Last Christmas!

During the long Thanksgiving Holiday, we hooked up the old VCR player and my sister and I watched old home movies. We watched previous Christmas mornings when my children were babies. We watched the Christmas when Bryce got his Nintendo and first games; Mario and Duck Hunt. It was amazing to see and hear my little children. I had forgotten what they sounded like. However, it seems like only yesterday my grown adult children, were running to mama to fix whatever was wrong. It has always amazed me how time feels like it is crawling as you are living it but when you look back, it goes in a flash. I can not believe it has been 25 years since I held my first baby! My sister and brother are the same age as my children. Their mother died when they were 14 and 16 years old. Our father died when they were 18 and 20 years old. When we were watching the tapes, it dawned on me that their mother was filming the tapes to record their childhood. Yet, in reality, we were watching the tapes to remember and see their parents. At one point, in the tape viewing, we realized their mother had only 10 more years with her children. She didn't see her children drive, graduate, go off to college, start their careers, She won't see them get married or have children. She was a great mother, but what would she had done differently if she knew she would only have 16 years as a mother.
Today, I have several friends that could be experiencing their last Christmas. It makes me ponder how I would look at this Christmas if it was my last. Actually, it could be! I do not know what tomorrow holds for me or any of those I love and care about. The only thing I know for sure is that one day I will live for eternity with my God and my Savior.
Why then do we live like we are guaranteed to live to be a hundred? How would we live this Christmas if we knew it would be our last? Would we stress less? Would we enjoy our family and friends more? Would we talk more about Jesus? Would we truly focus on the true meaning of Christmas? What gift would we give as our last gift to someone? What kind of impact would we have on people if we lived like there was not tomorrow?

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

James 4 :13-14