The Word of God Is...

I thank the God of this Universe that the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Growing up in AWANA and Christian schools, I learned Hebrews 4:12 at least a couple of times. But it wasn't until I grew up and really started drawing closer to the Lord that I understood the depth of this verse.

God's Word changes us every day when we let it. It changes me! It is alive! It is not outdated; it is not just a story; it is not only history. It actively helps us judge our thoughts and attitudes. Praise God for His awesome Word, the Bible, and for His active work in our hearts!!!

In my last post, I talked about how God speaks to us in our daily lives. Sometimes He brings His Word to my mind to correct me. Let's face it, it's hard in this world to stay on track mentally. I easily get caught up in rotten thinking patterns. I can read my Bible in the morning and hours later be struggling with worry, fear, pride, striving in my own strength, or impatience.

Recently, I was passively worrying about my upcoming thyroid surgery (this Friday). And out of nowhere, He wrote on my mind, I will keep in perfect peace her whose mind is steadfast, because she trusts in Me. Trust in the Lord forever for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal. (Isaiah 26:3-4, NIV) I knew right away my struggle was trusting the Lord with my life.

It's a tough lesson, Trust. As I get older, and the terms and conditions of this life become more severe, my trust wavers sometimes. I feel guilty about that, because God has been so good to me. Throughout history, He has proven himself trustworthy. And even as I think through that, He brings this to mind: Being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Phil. 1:6, ASV)

More times than I can count, He has reminded me to Cease striving, and know that He is God. (Psalm 46:10, NASB) Because I tend to strive and strive and strive and not to thrive on all that striving. :) And I don't often focus on the second part of that verse, which says, I will be exalted among the nations; I will be exalted in the earth.

A verse like that serves as a great reminder to me that this life is not about me at all. I was put here for His glory. I was made for His purposes--to get to know and love the Author of Me, to love all the people He placed in my life, and to lay down my goals and pick up His.

One day, I was watching Fox News, my favorite fair and balanced news station, but I was sitting there thinking, the world has gone crazy! I know it's nothing to be surprised at, I mean in Noah's time, the world was so grossly full of sin that God chose to wipe out the entirety of what He'd created with a flood covering the entire earth. But, still. Sin is so yucky when it is full grown.

But God, He reminded me of some verses from Philippians 2, and reignited my supply of joy for days. Here's what He said, At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!

I repeated that verse for days. You see, it's all okay. Because in the end, everybody's gonna bow to Him. Every tongue is going to confess that Jesus-Christ-Is-Lord! And wow, those of us who know Him now are richly blessed. The blessings of knowing Christ are certainly not only reserved for Heaven.

Which brings me to another way the Lord speaks through His Word. Sometimes He just reminds us of His greatness, His majesty, His bounty of blessings that is waiting for us if we'll just come to Him again.

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. (Ephesians 1: 18-19)

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies, Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains... (Psalm 36:5-6)

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4)

How awesome is the Lord Most High, the great King over all the earth! (Psalm 47:2)

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart! I have overcome the world. (John 16: 33)

God In Real Life

Have you ever wondered how the Lord speaks to people today? Or if He really enters into our personal lives to speak to us at all? A friend asked me why people sometimes say "God told them" to do this or that. I remember wondering the same thing a while back.

But I've tasted the voice of the Lord in my life. My real, everyday, ordinary, sometimes monotonous, little life. Enter the unmistakable, extraordinary, unusual, redeeming voice of the one and only GOD.

The most common way God speaks to me is by bringing scripture to my mind right at the very second I need it. In my next post, I will share some of the ways God has done that for me. Other times, He prompts me to do things that I hadn't thought of.

A couple of years ago, I was a MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers) Publicity leader at my church. I was upstairs there on a Monday night, setting up for our meeting the next morning, and I sensed that I needed to go downstairs. I had no idea why, and I certainly did not run down immediately.

Because it didn't make sense, and I like sense. Finally, I gave up, and walked down the stairs.

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it." Isaiah 30:21, NIV

Right away, I could see a lady, visibly upset, trying to make a phone call at the information desk. I stopped and asked her if I could help. After some prodding, she broke down in tears and shared some of her story with me. She didn't know anyone from this church, but in her domestic difficulty that very night, she walked in an open door.

Where God wanted little old ME, who didn't have any great words to speak, to meet her, embrace her, listen to her, and pray with her.

I did so little that I felt unworthy of the extremely kind words she presented me when we parted. I felt unworthy of the fullness I carried home with me. I felt full of God's grace and His redeeming power! Full of the rich blessing that follows obedience to God's voice. Full of awe that God chose to use me to do something for His Kingdom.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10, NIV

The devil had deceived me into thinking I was not full of possibilities. I knew God used people to do His work--exceptionally special and amazing people, but not girls just like me. Back then, I found it really easy to hear the devil's voice, even if I didn't recognize it as such.

Sometimes God plasters truth across my deep-down insides, like the night I felt the arms of the Lord around me as I held my baby girl. She was overwhelmingly Perfect in my eyes! Beautiful! Precious! Tears slipped down my cheeks as I stroked hers, and I almost felt Him there, in her little pink bedroom. He said to my heart just then, "So are you, Angela....This is just a taste of how I feel about you."

For I created your inmost being; I knit you together in your mother's womb. You may praise me now, because you are fearfully and wonderfully made; my works are wonderful, and you know that full well. Psalm 139:13-14, NIV

Whoa. He speaks! Before that night, I guess I didn't know that full well.

After that, I remember praying that every single precious woman on this earth would have a little girl so He could tell them the same thing. It was so powerful a message to my heart, and I wanted Him to speak it over every woman's pain.

But God doesn't speak to everyone in the same way. He uses all sorts of creative life experiences, because after all, He created life and He is creative! Through times when He's spoken to me, I've learned He is real, He is personal, and I need to listen to and obey Him.

When I sense God telling me to pray with someone, I usually think, But I don't know what to say! Then I ask Him to give me the words, and He serves up something more delightful than I ever could, on my own. It always amazes me.

How many times do we miss God's voice in our lives…
because it doesn't make sense to us…
because we don't want to obey…
because we're so busy living our lives…
or because we let so much noise enter our days, that we can't hear Him?

God doesn't stop His work because of us! He will fulfill His purposes even when we fail. When I fail—I MISS OUT--on the deep, rich blessing of a full life. Now that I have tasted that, I don't want to miss a thing!

Please don’t miss a thing. Don’t miss the life God made you for. This life is so short! Listen, friends. Listen.

Not Feelin' It

I'm only two months into homeschooling. Not that homeschooling started in June, but rather formal curriculum and calling it Kindergarten began just then. But today, I wanted to research homeschooling ideas on the internet rather than actually homeschool. I wanted to organize a closet instead of doing what I needed to do.

Am I facing burnout already? Is this normal? Or am I just strange?

Don't answer that last one please. It won't matter. What can a person do with that knowledge anyway? :)

So I taught my little guys their lessons and gave them independent work for a bit, while I sat down and watched The Weather Channel. Have you ever noticed that in the mornings, that channel simply repeats itself again and again? I sat for probably 30 minutes, staring at the flashy screen and letting the info flow into one ear and escape out the other, until this thought interrupted my others...Why on God's green earth am I wasting my time this way...and enjoying it?

The answer I landed on: So I can think! Back to that question about strangeness...a person really has to sit down in front of the telly in order to think? Oh yes ma'am, in a house like mine, being a Mom like me, sometimes you do!

Because I'm a Dreamer, with a capital D. One of the many personality tests I've taken for various reasons over the years told me so. According to this particular test, I'm not only a dreamer by orientation, I'm almost 100% dreamer. Through and through, a person who needs to "find" some quiet time within every day in order to process their thoughts. One who will offer their very precious commodity of time up to a little thinkin time, even at the expense of a little fun time, if needed. In order to function efficiently, I apparently need to be able to think. Clearly.

And that, my friends, is why I struggle to be an at-home Mom sometimes. Or any Mom.

See, thinking tends to require aloneness and quiet, and I do not live alone or with anything quiet. I have never acquired my husband's amazing skill of drowning out the little voices that go on and on, and I have zero "quiet" children, that is, if those truly exist.

Last night, in my girl's group, this question arose: Do any of you have a quiet child? You know I didn't ask it! I'm not sure I believe anyone who says they have a quiet child. Or my Mom who says I was a quiet child. Because my three have led me to believe that children do not own property in the land of Quiet. No, they inhabit LOUD. And they own it!

Not only that, but did you know that three children in the same family can all hail from the land of the Strong Will? And the land of Urgent Need, where they find all sorts of things they need Mom to do, get, and be for them during most of their waking hours? As for sibling rivalry, let’s just leave it at we've got it goin' ON!

And yet God made the package that is ME...with a little Dreamer here and a little Quiet there, a bit of strength and a lot of need...And the great Author of the Universe made three beautiful and lively little children (who sometimes feel like six children) and placed them in my care. I am their only Mommy, their question answerer, their need meeter, their tour guide, their life coach, their teacher, their friend.

I wish the way I felt all morning would instantly melt away, now that I've gained some perspective. But my feelings do not dissolve quickly. Instead, I have to tell myself the truth, and keep doing it. And eventually, my feelings follow.

If you are anything like me and you ever wonder why you're not basking in the ever-loving joy of all you get to do with your kiddos each day, stop wondering what's wrong with your situation. Find the truth from God that you need to hear, and tell it to yourself again.

God made me. He made my husband. He made my kids. And He put us all together. (Eph. 2:10)

God loves me, my husband, and my little people. More than I can comprehend. (1 John 3:1)

The circumstances of my life right now are God's will for me in Christ Jesus, and I can give thanks. (1 Thess. 5:18)

He cares for me, and I can cast all my cares on Him. (1 Pet. 5:7)

He is my refuge, and I can pour out my heart to Him. (Ps. 62:8)

How gracious God will be when I cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer me. (Is. 30:19)

I cast my cares on you, Lord, and you sustain me; never let me fall. (Ps. 55:22)

Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. (Ps. 36:5)

Lord, make me lie down in green pastures, lead me beside quiet waters, restore my soul. (Ps. 23:2)

Let me not become weary in doing good, for at the right time, I will reap a harvest if I do not give up. (Gal. 6:9)