Don't fall for the Phish Food!

My husband and I started a little "healthy eating" plan together after Valentines Day. We were doing so well and then out of the blue my husband looses his mind Friday night and comes home with a pint of my very favorite ice cream...Ben and Jerry's Phish Food! I was so mad at him but at the same time didn't take it upon myself to do anything about it other than sit on the couch over the coarse of the last 2 nights and eat the whole container! Last night as I finished it off I thew the container in the trash. This morning as I came into the kitchen before my early morning work out I pulled the container back out of the trash to see just how many calories I had to make up for this morning after sabotaging my "healthy eating" plan over the weekend. That entire container of Ben and Jerry's Phish food had a total of 1400 calories!! I was so mad at myself for sabotaging my weekend eating that I got on my treadmill with the intention of working out as hard as I could and seeing how close i could get to depleting that 1400 calorie deficit. I was on that treadmill for 45 minutes about to kill myself doing intervals sometimes so hard that they would have had me flying across the basement if I had mis-stepped on that belt going faster than the speed of light. I was sweating like never before and in the end as I looked at the calories burned on the display it showed that I had burned a whole whopping 434 calories. Almost 1,000 more to go! Good grief I'll NEVER make it! That darn ice cream tasted so good at the time, but the after effects are nearing impossible to make up for! It was at that moment that I realized that sin is just like that. Sin always seems good at the time but the after effects make you realize that it really wasn't worth it at all. That is what makes our savior so great. He doesn't require us to "burn" off all that sin. If He did we would be hopeless. There would be no way we could ever work out enough to make up for all the sin in our life. Instead, He just wipes it away! Free! Without any "work out" from us. Oh how grateful I am for that. So as with my Ben and Jerry's when we mess up, all we can do is throw out the empty container....give it to Him, start over, and allow Him to help us make a better choice next time! if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1John 1:7

ASCENDED to do His great work!

Following up on what I wrote about yesterday I am SO excited to share what God showed me this morning when I read Ephesians 4

Starting in v. 9 it talks about how Jesus "ascended". In order to ascend he had to "descend" first. He had to be brought to lowly places. (this earth) but because he did v. 10 says he was then able to “ascend higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.”
After writing yesterday about one of the lowliest places I have ever been it was made so clear to me HOW it is that God made beauty out of my mess......He brought me (I descended) to my "lowly" place so that He could ascend me higher and I could then in turn do what he has gifted me to do which is in v. 11&12....be teachers....v.12 "Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ."
v. 10 says that the whole reason Jesus ascended (and left us here to do his work) is so that the entire universe can be filled with himself.....wow!! that's a big job!! But this world is getting uglier by the minute. There is no better time than now to be (v.13) bringing others (starting with our children and then other women) to "maturity in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ." Then if you read on 14-16 it talks about no longer being immature like children but instead "growing more and more like Christ."
That of course.....should be our ULTIMATE goal in teaching. ;)

That's what He called us for....to equip others to do His work and build up the church body and helping them become mature in the Lord.
"He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts GROW, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love."

I am ever so thank full today that He descended me to the pits....so that I could be ASCENDED to do His great work! Instead of feeling defeated and weakened by my trial verse 10 reminds me that my trial was meant to bring me HIGHER than I was before. From all that the Lord taught me over the past 2 years, I know that I have so much to share with others. I am excited about it and can't wait to see what the Lord has in store!

Beauty out of messes

Ever since we moved here this summer I have been struggling to figure out what God's plan is for me and for my time here in Michigan. I am finally settled in and am wanting God to show me where to serve and how to minister. When we were in New Mexico and during the first part of our time in Florida God was really leading me in the way of women's ministry. He was opening so many doors and opportunities to speak, teach, and minister to woman. I enjoyed it SO much and was amazed at the good work God was doing in me and and in the women around me.

About half way through our time in Florida (and during what seemed like the peak of my ministry and walk with the Lord) a lot happened in my life. With out divulging all the details I will just say that I went through one of the biggest trials of my life. My family, my faith and my life as I knew it was forever changed by trial and quite frankly tragedy.

Although with the Lords help the pieces have slowly and prayerfully been put back together, I feel like it has taken me a good almost 2 years to really get to a place where I can think about ministry again. When tragedy hit my life my ministry came to a screeching halt and instead of ministering to others, I spent 2 years allowing God to minister to me and my broken heart.

I'm still seeking Him for the strength and wisdom, but I know that my heart does desire to lead and teach again. When you have been to the lowest of your lows sometimes it is hard to convince your self again that you have anything to give to anyone else from the mess of a pit inside yourself. But God does make beauty out of messes....that I suppose is what He wants us to share the most!

Living in Purity and Holiness

I came across this verse this morning during my quiet time in 2 Corinthians and used it as a prayer for myself.
It is from 2 Corinthians 6:3-4; 6-7; & 10
Lord I want to live in such a way that no one will stumble because of me, and no one will find fault with my ministry. In everything I do, I will show that I am a true minister of God. I patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind.
I prove myself by my purity, my understanding, my patience, my kindness, by the Holy Spirit within me, and by my sincere love. I faithfully preach the truth. God's power is working in me. I use weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense.
Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything.

Lord help me to live in a way that is true to this prayer. I know that I have not always, and I know that even still I will time and again fail, but with your help Lord I want to live a life of Holiness, growing more in my Faith and Righteousness everyday.

Praying for the impossible

My sweet friend in Maryland goes to a great church with sermons that I often listen to on-line. Over the last few weeks the sermons have been on the book of Nehemiah. I have never really studied this book in depth, but as I have been listening to these sermons I have really been thinking about the faithfulness of our God to do great things in our lives when we really seek Him with our everything. A few days ago the Lord prompted my heart to memorize Ephesians 3:20 after hearing it at my Esther Bible study one day. I did and it says Our great God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us Even more than we could ever ASK or IMAGINE!! Isn't that amazing! And here I am half the time too faithless to even ask better yet believe that He could go above and beyond!