Defining Moment

The moments of most intense pressure; the toughest places; the most painful experiences - these determine who we will become. 
The deciding moment comes. 
In that moment, we either break apart and give up 
OR 
we push through, keep going and stand back up again.

The hardest times will define your character - ultimately, you
either a quit OR overcome. 
You either become bitter OR stronger.
I want to be the latter.

We tend to wriggle away from these defining moments. Sometimes it seems some people have more suffering than others, and sometimes I lump myself in with "those" people. I compare myself to others and wish for an easier road because I can't see the purpose in the pain. 

But, I'm in this thing called life and no one escapes unscathed.

The great stories we tell are ones of trial and triumph and none are written without the struggle. 
For without the hardship, the enemies, the obstacles,
there is nothing to overcome. 
The most inspiring stories are the ones of the broken rising, the underdog winning,
the attempt; the belief; the hope.

"Yet a part of you still believes you can fight and survive no matter what your mind knows. It's not so strange. Where there's still life, there's still hope" - Louis Zamperini

Courage. Keep going, your story is being told. 

"If you can't fly, then run,
if you can't run, then walk,
if you can't walk, then crawl,
but whatever you do ,
you have to keep moving forward" - Martin Luther King Jr.  

New Years

2015.
Yes, it's just "another day", just the next second on the clock.
But, that's just it - it is another day.
A new day.
Isn't that what we all want?
A new year gives us this opportunity.
Our perspective changes, we come together to end and begin again. We celebrate it-we take it as a clean slate, another chance, a motivation.

Let us take the chance to make a change as the year flips. But, lets not be held back by the date.
So much more happens in those 365 days that we can anticipate.
But, that year could hold 365 consecutive chances to start again
8,760 hours to make a difference.

It won't be perfect. We won't be perfect, but we're still alive.
Life:
Exhausting and invigorating,
Challenging and rewarding.
Beautiful and tragic.
a gift.

time, time, time keeps moving on.

Time goes by.

Life has a strange way of moving on.

Sometimes we move on with it, sometimes it’s as if we’re stuck

feet planted

standing still

while the world blows by like a gust of wind…

And time passes and hearts harden

sometimes it’s hard to detangle the mess of roots of hurt,

boarded up by confusion,

feeding on disillusion.

Time passes. But we’re not better we’re worse.

Sometimes the hardest decision is trying to figure out if I need to go back to who I was 

(or thought I was) – like I somehow lost truth along-the-way.

OR

If I don’t need to go back at all, but instead, I need to be made completely new.

Because most times, you can never go back. 

You either sit, stay and wallow or go forward. 

falling into SPRING

My new camera is awesome :)

Hello, Spring :)

Slaves to Something

We are all slaves to something... Souls bound, hearts chained, eyes blinded.

Fear. Pride. Insecurity. Addiction. Chaos - Our captors...

Freedom only comes from being bonded (enslaved if you will) to Christ.

"Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him who you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness." Romans 8:16

"Having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose and action." Romans 6:18

We who have been freed (spiritually; emotionally etc) are the ones who are to bring that freedom to others and freedom for those in the bonds of physical slavery. Physical chains and emotional bondage.

In being bonded to Christ we learn to love what He loves and hate what He hates.

Slavery, trafficking - He hates it. So we too, long and fight for freedom for the captive.

Are those who have not experienced the bond of physical chains really so different from those who have? We are all slaves to something...

Take all the compassion, the desire for justice that we have for one so unjustly enslaved physically and compound that 10,000x10,000 and maybe we'll have an idea of how God feels in His great compassion as he looks on those enslaved - soul, heart and spirit.

Take all the anger or pain that touches your heart when you see someone unjustly bound agains their will and power, multiply it again 10,000x10,000 and you'll gain maybe a glimpse of how God feels when He sees His creation enslaved to bondage. Living, not as He would have them.

He did something about it. He's already purchased their freedom. Our freedom. He became a slave to sin and obedient to death so we could be free.

WE, set free from sin and death, it's our job to lead others into His freedom - freedom of heart and body. Life + Soul Free.

Let's take this light and let it shine. Let it shine.

Leaving, going, following, coming...

While some are sad to see me go, some are excited to see me come.

I can swing to either side; time-to-time.

Somewhere in the middle. Not seeing the end of the road, but, hoping, believing.

With You, how can hope be ever lost?

I want to be willing to give up everything-in the good and the bad...

For Your higher ways, Your better ways.

He has overcome all. He sees all, He knows all. Joy is to trust in Him.

so... "Take this life and LET IT SHINE/

I lay me down/I'm not my own/

I belong to You alone/

Lay me down/Lay me down/

Hand on my heart/This much is true/

There's no life apart from You/Lay me down/Lay me down...

It would be my JOY to say/

Your Will! Your Way!/

ALWAYS!"

Following You, Jesus. I'm going from this place, let Your will be done!

Stronger, going out with joy and being led forth with peace...

As long as I go with You, I am okay.

So let them think what they like, you remain unchanged.

Let them say what they may, keep my eyes on your face...

Take this life and let it shine.

Take this life and LET IT SHINE! Wherever you may lead!

Jesus.

Jesus.

For some people it's just another name. For others it's an object of distain.

For a lot of us we claim to have met Him. We say we know Him. We say we love Him.

But do I really know Him? I don't mean to read about Him, I don't mean to have just met Him, not just to believe in His death and resurrection. All of which are vital and important. But, I mean to KNOW Him, so well that I see all too clearly how very OTHER He is from me. To KNOW Him so that I might know when my heart is looking more like His. To feel His passions, His heart...

This "knowing" is not head-knowledge, but heart-living.

It requires time and energy, it requires a thirst for something beyond what many Christians settle into (btw, Christianity was never a "religion" for settling down... but that's another blog.), it requires a revelation of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. And I daresay, it's not a one time experience alone.

What good is the gospel unless we KNOW Jesus?

Today I read this book (all 218 pages) in it's entirely.

It's written by Bruce Marchiano, who portrays Jesus in the film Matthew ( a 4 hour word-for-word film of Jesus life, according to Matthew.)

In the book, like the film, you walk away with "Jesus", way more than you walk away with "Bruce".

Like I said, I read this in one day. I laughed out loud, I cried and then I cried from laughing again.

I would tell anyone to read this book, to watch the film, to do both and gain the full affect... there is so much that is prompted by reading this book. It shows so much insight into the character of God.

The personal concern of God of every aspect of one's life who is following His will is seen, sometimes even in humorous ways.

Oh the Love of God is a main focus, for how could one play the role of Jesus without love?

A Jesus without love is just another man with big talk...

Jesus WAS Love. He is Love. He embodies LOVE in the purest sense of the word, man to man, man to woman, man to child. Jesus Loves people. Really truly loves them.

Bruce tries to convey deepness of the Love of GOD as saying take the person you love most in life (your child, if no children, then whoever you love most) and multiply that a billion times over and then, maybe, just maybe you'll begin to scratch the surface of God's Love for one of His kids...

I don't know about you, but my heart can't handle that, it would literally explode. Just thinking about it, I feel within my chest, I cannot contain it.

Yet, I need to know it, I want to know it.

I want to believe and understand (as best as I can!), with true HEART understanding, not HEAD understanding, His Love.

When something is that big, we think we understand it, because frankly we don't understand it, so most people just tuck it into their brains in the "I know God loves me" part, but if they, if we ever REALLY got His Love. We'd live differently and I'm convinced we'd see every other person differently. This difference is knowledge of the head vs. knowledge of the heart.

Honestly, I don't think our brains will ever wrap around the immenseness of His Love. Oh, until we get to heaven, surrounded in the Love of God, you will not judge your neighbor, there will be no insecurities, no worship of self, or of idols, and there will be no holding back.

Every way in which we can express Love, adoration, affection will be flung towards Him in worship forever. Because the worship never stops, it can't stop... He is so big the revelation of Him will keep coming and coming. Oh the party of a thousand years!

Repeatedly in "In the Footsteps of Jesus", it is written,

"He loves you.

He loves you so much."

Ah.

To be like Him is to love like Him. I cannot love others without a revelation of His love for me and for them. Being anxious about the fact that I have some sort of blockage to understanding or receiving His Love in it's fulness does not solve the issue. The revelation comes from seeking, it comes straight from Him. It's supernatural.

One can sing a thousand times "How He loves us/Oh how He loves us" and still not get it.

But show me a life of someone who knows His love and there is something different. There is something free, because perfect Love really does drive out fear.

To know Jesus, to know His heart - His Love. Isn't that what this is all about anyway?

blown away...

This Christmas

He came.

That is itself amazing.

Just those two words.

If I take the time to stop and focus on each one... the implications are astounding.

First, "He" - THE One. The One who was there from the beginning. The One through Whom all things were made and hold together. He was and is IT. The only One who could create us. The only One who could save us. HE...

"CAME" - He didn't just reach a hand down or just speak a command, He came. He grew in a human form for 9 months and came, flesh of Our flesh, with the breath of God Almighty.

Humble. Lowly. Unrecognized. Purposeful. Divine. Holy. Small but so Great.

Living, breathing, growing, familiar with our struggles from the start. But perfect, Holy spotless, able to take our punishment. HE CAME.

He stepped in. Fully. Lived out a life. Fully.

That night angels came to proclaim the wonder that was taking place. They proclaimed glad tidings to Earth.

*" 'Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, 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 heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Our World today is not filled with peace or "goodwill" towards men. But neither was the world Jesus came into.

He came into a world of scared Kings with murderous hearts. He came to danger, to dirt, to a world that didn't understand, to a world that rejected Him...

He came to a world that has eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear. He came with HOPE-something we all need. He came to *proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor...

So the angels proclaimed peace into what was a turbulent situation. But, God was on the scene, He who IS Peace has COME. Therefore, we have peace, He brought it and He gave it. Not as the World gives**...

Christmas was the night that peace came.

Peace spoken over a world in chaos. Peace for the hearts wandering, empty, lonely, looking for Truth.

On Christmas Peace CAME TO STAY.

Peace Himself came to bridge the gap between us and God. We who accept Him are now AT peace with God. Forever.

Peace was truly "on earth" when

HE CAME.

*Luke 2, Luke 4 NIV

** John 14:27

Alive

I feel alive when I have hope, when I look up, when I have purpose, when I think of what CAN BE.

I feel dead when I seem stuck in a monotonous cycle...Working for what will not last. Living shackled to paper this world blows away.

I want purpose.

I want Hope.

Not glamour, But purpose. Hope.

I want You.

You don't end. Your purposes don't end because of our "failed" dreams.

Your Hope endures forever.

I want to live with Hope, with expectancy, with faith.

Where the past doesn't live in today.

Give me

Give me a life filled with purpose

rather than a life filled with with parties.

Give me a life full of inward vigor

rather than outward glamour.

Give me a life that arouses the applause and rejoicing of Heaven

over the praises of men.