He Loves Our Love

He Loves Our Love … 

The atmosphere was filled with his presence. Voices raised in worship and adoration. The worship band was taking a few minutes to just soak in the love of God. The chorus continued in the phrase Hallelujah, Hallelujah .. that’s when I saw a beautiful picture of Jesus.

He was standing in the throne room smiling and smiling and smiling and taking in every bit of love that was directed at him. I could feel his heart rejoicing in the moment just soaking up the praise.

It was then that I saw it. He needs our love too! God created us because he was lonely. He created us because he wanted children to share all the love he had. I’ve been in relationships with people who couldn’t  receive the love I had for them. Isn’t having someone receive our love part of the joy?

God want’s a reciprocal relationship with us. He loves to be loved just as we do. The big difference is that he is perfect in his giving and receiving. He gives and receives with out conditions.

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Beauty For Ashes

This is a really good thought for me today. We all have dreams that just fail or explode or just don’t take off sometimes. The only constant in the world is God. He will always be the same even when people let us down. People WILL let us down. Letting go of the broken dream is hard, trusting again can be hard. I love that God is in the redemption business.

I saw this from Joel Osteen today ..

The scripture says, “God will give you beauty for ashes.” Ashes represent our broken dreams, our failures, our disappointments and our hurts. Here’s the key: you have to let go of the ashes before you can receive the beauty. If you won’t let go of the old, you can’t receive the new.

Life Is Not A Competition?

I’ve been bummed lately going on the internet. It seems like every post I see is about someone who has more than me in just about every way. I’m seeing bigger cars, better jobs, more achievement and just people appearing to have more accomplished lives.

I start to feel old too because I see these really young people stepping into huge opportunities that were not available to me at a young age. I feel like my time is over and why keep going.

These are all thoughts from the enemy camp.

In my quiet time today Jesus tells me that time is irrelevant in the kingdom. Our spirit and our souls have no age. He says this is not a competition. Its not about beating out another person to win the prize. Its not about being on top of the mountain and getting the most toys.

He says that your life is a journey. A beautiful special journey that is tailor made just for you. There will be struggles and victories. There will be high’s and low’s. The idea is to just keep going and remember that this life is not just about doing things. It’s about being in a relationship with him. Getting your life from him so that you can be so full that you have so much to give. Everything about God is about getting full to give .. that includes money too. He told me that he does not hate money. It’s what you do with it that counts.

Grace Can Take It All

I’ve had a little battle this week with religion. It’s a nasty little spirit that likes to invade churches and tighten down with a grip of control. the sad part is that most people who are stuck in it, don’t know that they are. Perfection becomes the norm. Perfection and a need to be right instead of understanding.

As I’m spending time with the Lord about it today he showed me a vision. I saw the huge dapple gray horse.

It was the biggest horse I had ever seen. His back was just a little taller than my head. I went up to pet him and he was so strong. I could feel the strength coming off him. Jesus said this was Grace.

Its hard to describe how Grace felt. He was so strong and capable and unmoving. Jesus was sitting up on him. As I was standing there Jesus pulls me up on him. I looked all around me and it seemed that I was way up on a mountain. He said ..  How does it feel to be sitting on top of Grace? It made me cry because I could see that we were above all the anger and hatred and guile of the world. Grace was strong enough to bear everything. All the dirt and every sin of this world. Grace could take it all.

When God Pushes You

Just Let Them Scoff

 Lately God has been opening my eyes to people pleasing. For some reason I get caught in a vicious cycle of not wanting to offend people who don’t agree with me. I have several friends that I grew up with that I love dearly but our views on life have gone drastically different ways.

It’s nothing for them to attack and criticize things that I love but they don’t understand. I’ve wondered about this in my heart and how I should  approach it. Do I pour out grace on them and let them continue to scoff?

I came across this proverb today and it just nailed it for me.

“Do not reprove a scoffer, lest he hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.” Proverbs 9:8

Seems that the answer is yes, pour out grace on them and leave it alone. If they are wise and want to know the truth, then we can have an intelligent discussion. If they want to just continue to scoff and bury their heads in the sand, not much I can do about it. Just leave them be where they are.

Break My Fall, a song about Hitting the Rocks

We all wish that life was simple and problem free. I know I do. But as we go through this life it becomes apparent that things are gonna go wrong. We are going to trust for things to work out the way we want them to and sometimes be disappointed. We are gonna have faith in a relationship or a job or a circumstance  and no matter what we try, it fails.

This can be such a crushing time when this happens. We wonder where God is for us. Many times I have stood on the edge feeling like I was just gonna crash to the bottom. The pain of loss can be unbearable at times. I’ve had some dreams that were crushed as a result of other people’s decisions. We can’t control the will of others. All we can do is forgive and trust God to catch us and restore what the locust have eaten.

Some people think that when you’ve got God in your life that you will never have a bad day. Nothing will ever go wrong .. this is so far from the truth. Jesus says when the storms come not if. Sometimes he is even the one who causes us pain

.. though you slay me I will praise you .. Job 13:15

If anyone knows about suffering when you are not to blame or at fault, it would be Job. He felt the pain of the turmoil that God allowed to be poured out on him and continued to praise Him even though he did not understand. He probably felt abandoned in the storm as well.

This song was written during the worst part of a storm for me. If you are going through a storm, know that God has not left you and will make up to you everything that was stolen … And don’t be afraid to tell him your pain. You don’t have to hold it all in.  It’s in the breaking that you find the greatest love and peace, because he is there to catch you …

BREAK MY FALL

I feel like I’m falling into the abyss

Off the edge of a cliff on a ledge and lost my grip

I’m feeling lost and devastated I can’t stop my heart from breaking

Chorus

Catch me I am falling

Catch me before all is lost

I need you to break my fall, break my fall

Verse

I need a refuge in the strength of your arms

Safely sheltered from harm, cradled into the pith of your heart

I wanna take my deepest breath And dive into your safety net

Chorus

Catch me I am falling

Catch me before all is lost

I need you to break my fall, break my fall

Bridge

And now I feel I’m sinkin down gonna drown

I feel I’m all washed out and empty

But with you in my life that’s when I come alive

I need you by my side come save me