Take it into your own hands, or let it slip right through your fingers.

The book of Joel in the Bible has got to be one of my favorite books. I consider it a fly-over book, like a fly-over state... kinda just...there. But after actually digging into it, I found that it is one of the most beautiful books in the Bible. And there has been this burning, itching in my heart to write about this for a long, long time. 

The book of Joel starts with complete and utter destruction. Literally. Locusts are swarming everywhere, people are hysterical, the people are (finally) calling out to God for help. There are thick, black clouds of darkness, the earth quakes and the stars stop shining. 

And suddenly... God shows up. This is why it's one of my favorite books. In one sentence, the book changes. 

Joel 2:12 - "That is why the Lord says, 'Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts.'"

Hope. That's what God is saying in short. "I love you. You messed up, but it's okay. There is still time. Come to me." And this is why it has been a burden on my heart: What if we're meant to be the one sentence in someone's life? Have you ever met someone and they say one thing to you and you never forget? What if we are called to be that person for the Kingdom's cause? 

He's promising hope when in the next verse He says, "Return to the Lord, your God."

Here's where I'm going to challenge anyone reading this: who are you going to help? Who are you going to be one sentence to? Who are you going to help return to the Lord your God? 

Down a little further in verse 22, God starts to talk about plants growing back, hinting at a little normalcy. But I don't think He is promising that kind of prosperity... He's is showing that when we go back to Him He will provide for us. He promises to give us what we need and He of all people knows that our deepest, most 'malnourished' (for lack of a better word) needs are spiritual. 

I connect this to Joel 2:28 ... God says, "Then, after doing all those things, I will pour my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophecy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions." 

After.

No rain, no rainbow. No destruction, no peace. 

My pastor, Miriam, said a reference once that reminds me of this: she talked about how a miner takes a diamond in it's rawest form and literally puts it through fire until all of its impurities come up, then the miner wipes them off and does it again until he can see his reflection in the diamond. 

God said after doing all those things... After putting you through the fire, after wiping the impurities from you, I will pour out my Spirit. After the rain, I will send a rainbow.

Will you show someone how to praise through the fire? Will you show someone that God does things with us in mind? Or is it too much effort. Is the grace of God too near and dear to your heart to share it?

No offense, I know God is a jealous lover for me. He doesn't want to share me with my sin, He doesn't want to share me with the world. But I don't feel that way. I want to share Him to the world... and if that means showing Him to one person, being that one sentence in someone's life, then I will do it. In Isaiah, God asks, "Who will I send?" 

Will you let Him send you?

Will you take it into your own hands, or will you let it slip right through your fingers?

In Joel 3:21, the last verse of this short, but impacting, book, it says, "I will pardon My people's crimes which I have not yet pardoned; and I, the Lord, will make My home in Jerusalem with My people." 

My study Bible points out that Joel started the book with complete destruction and ended it with complete peace. That got me thinking, wow, this is our journey, isn't it? It's hard and rough...we are hysterical, there are thick, black clouds of darkness and the stars stop shining. But as we call out to God, we find more peace. We find more protection. And once He is done allowing us to learn through the fire, He makes His home with us in our hearts. 

Will you show someone that this is the God you serve? Will you show someone there is hope? My heart literally burns with a passion for this... it has been on my heart for the longest time. Will you burn with a fire for God and light someone else's candle? A candle that the cold world has put out?

Will you show someone who God really is, not what the world's blindfold makes Him look like?

Will you take it into your own hands?

Or will you let it slip right through?

Tick tock. 

The Lord is my Shepherd ... BAAAAAAHHHH

I remember being in fifth grade in a private middle school and having to memorize Psalm 23 for religion class. Like John 3:16, Psalm 23 becomes a well known verse everyday, it is milked and repeated constantly, it is spoken at funerals and typically, I say it when I have to walk up my Pastors' scary steps to the attic. 

It's a great chapter in the book of Psalms, but I have to think that we may have taken the life out of the first verse. 

"The Lord is my shepherd, I have all I need." 

I think that is the most underrated verses in the Bible. 

Our circumstances change daily, but the Lord stays our shepherd. Our prayer and praise and worship should not change daily based on circumstance, based on life and what is happening, but they do. Why? Who gave us the bright idea that we should change how we speak to God when He hasn't changed at all? The Lord has been our shepherd since before we praised His name, and He will be long after we stop breathing. 

I have all I need. I don't have enough money, I don't have enough bling on my neck or flowers on my table or enough cars in my driveway but I have my shepherd and therefore I have ALL I need.

My Pastor, Anthony, made a joke once about how it's funny we're always referred to as sheep... they're pretty dense animals. 

Baaaaahhhh

But they're also very dependent on the one taking care of them. They are born and cradled, fed, and led by the shepherd and eventually trust him obediently, not out of habit but because 1) that's where the protection and nurturing is and 2) they are the exact opposite of self sufficient (can't find an antonym for it, bare with me) and are nothing without the shepherd. Had the shepherd not let and protected them, they would get lost and probably become prey for their enemies, who roam around seeking who they may devour. Yup, it's biblical, check it. 1 Peter 5:8.

And the thing is, this is a daily thing to be thankful about. WE change but HE doesn't. 

Yeah but I don't feel like praying... The Lord who strengthens you is still your shepherd.

I got into a car accident and its gonna be so much money to fix it! ... The Lord who provides for you is still your shepherd.

But I've been going through a lot and then ____________ happened to me and _______ broke up with me and _________ walked out of my life and I lost my job and my parents don't get me and I've just not been feeling church lately.... The everlasting Lord your God who breaks chains, heals broken hearts, rains provision and answers prayers is STILL and always will be your shepherd. 

Are you responding?

When a shepherd sees a member of the flock drifting he calls them. Our God, our shepherd, calls us by name when we drift away.

Are we ignoring Him? Are we responding to our shepherd? I've said this before, if you feel distant from God, guess who moved.

Psalm 23:1 is the most underrated verse I've ever read, I think. No matter where you are or who you were or what you'll do tomorrow, the shepherd is waiting for you to make your way to Him, and is relieved and overjoyed to learn He has not completely lost you.


BAAAH

If It Ain't Broke, God Will Fix It Anyway

We all know that as soon as we accept Jesus into our lives, or if you've been a Christian your whole life, really accept Him for yourself, we're going to change. It's that whole, "God loves us the way we are but He loves us too much to let us stay that way." We're told:

"And I am certain of this, that God, 

who began a good work in you, 

will continue His work until it is finally

 completed the day Jesus Christ returns."

God began this work (and thank God, right? We would have never begun the work), and everyday we get a little closer to the day of Jesus Christ. But daily we fail Him and it seems that work never runs out. Dry periods, distant periods from god, falling into one sin, finally controlling that sin and falling into another-- it's exhausting, no doubt about that.

Naturally, we don't think things about us are wrong. But if we don't think it's broke, God will still have a reason to fix it anyway. I don't mean that to be fresh or fed up; just thankful for struggles. But granted these things about us need to be changed. We can only help people as far as we've come. 

God, the Great Physician and, apparently, the Great Mechanic.

I was at the park tonight with my best friend, Marc (it's 2:30 am right now) and we were talking about that. He's my big brother and I really look up to him, and I needed to get him to really grasp what I was saying. He is a civil engineer, so I said something to the effect of:

"When you see big projects, like buildings being built, like really big projects, it's not just one person who starts and completes it to the fullest; it's usually two people or a team. And God starts the work in us because He promised He would, but I believe the effort He will put into the already-begun work is directly proportional to the effort we make to change and better ourselves into the person He wants us to be."

See, when you look at it as deeply as I look at, well, everything, then you'll see that God is God no matter how many times a week we change. And since God is God, He won't change. And SINCE He won't change, He won't break a promise.

He's promised us this good work. He never said when He started or will start this 'good' work in us (remember when you think good is a mediocre word, God created an entire galaxy and said it was good. Don't dumb the word down!) but He does tell us that it happens. He starts it.

He begins it.

Who continues it? Who finishes it?

See, as someone who has struggled with addictions where my mind and heart and body could not all work together, I was confident that God had started this good work in me... I was just wondering where the heck He was when I was giving in to my worst enemies. I know for a fact that He had began the work but I had seriously expected to sit back, be healed, be set free, be whatever and be fine. Be normal. I was not expecting to put work in.

God made the earth and every amazing thing in it in 7 days. He spent 9 months constructing me. I must be special. I must be important that He wants me to change. 

Funny story, I just started putting the work in.... two weeks ago.

It takes one person to have an idea and two people to bring it to life. Or put it to death, if you're thinking about the good work. 

Ranting aside, God begins the work but YOU finish it. That doesn't mean you finish it alone. That doesn't mean you discredit God; when you fail God, but still wake up the next day, that's God wiping the dirt off your knee and telling you to get back in the game, tiger. 

I was sitting in bed last night, really being mopey and desperate and honestly, PISSED at myself for just being me. Hating myself for struggling. Talking myself down because I daily fail a God who sees me as beautiful. But then I thought:

"I don't want to struggle anymore, but if I don't struggle, if I don't suffer, what will I grow from? How will people see Jesus work through me only the way He can if I don't have a hard time sometimes?"

See, when I became a Christian my life didn't get perfect; it wasn't some kind of EZ Pass. People, I feel, think that my life became this perfect little heart shaped bubble. Hear me now, friend, that doesn't mean I was exempt from pain, torture, struggle, addiction or temptation. In fact, I was subject to it. That's not the truth about Christianity. The real truth of Christianity is the shoulder to lean on and hand to hold when those hard times do come and an amazing, never-failing name to praise when those hard times flee. That's the truth of Christianity. 

So my struggles are still there. But I don't see them that way. I see people's lives changed because I decided to put an effort into my own life that God so graciously started for me when I least deserved it. I see God cheering me on like the proud parent He is as I run past a thousand defense-men towards the goal. They are not my identity anymore and it's only because I've accepted responsibility for the fact that I cannot do it alone, but I don't have to. 

PS this is marc <3

It's Been No Bed of Roses

"If you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom."
-James 3:13

If you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it.

Prove it.

Prove it.

Despite my greatest efforts and the not so great ones over the past two years or so, this has been the most challenging thing God recently pressed on my heart.

Prove it.

None of us are perfect, granted, and I've got issues that could scare someone under the table, but who doesn't? We've got till the day of Jesus Christ to complete them, right? One day at a time.

One hour at a time.

One minute at a time.

Recently, three things I've struggled with for years randomly surfaced as issues. I'm not angry, it was an answer to a brokenhearted prayer. I notice, though, that my life is a constant see-saw and that the devil does not play fair.

Gosh. People think I'm disorganized but if you think my car is messy you should see my life.

The first issue was insecurity and being negative. As I started working on that, another issue, number 2, came to the light. I started working on both. I had a meeting with my pastor and another issue came to the light. I was juggling everything so well. It seemed I had outsmarted satan and gotten a good grip on everything. 

And then I looked away for two seconds.

As I worked on one issue, the other became an itch, so I worked on that and all of a sudden I had new issues and things to take care of and KOPDHGSUT904JSGNSLGJSDUT 9WPNTU WIGJSDL

So in James 3:13, it literally challenges you to walk the walk. Be a man. And I'm staring at it like... there's got to be some loophole. There's no way I can just prove it, do you SEE what I'm trying to accomplish here, like turn the expectations down a notch. But what's the point of nodding your head in class like you understand everything and then the teacher puts a test in front of you and you curse them, saying it's their fault and they never taught you? There's a whole book on it. It's your textbook. It's your bible. 

I forgot that also in the book of James, it says that God will not turn you away or rebuke you if you ask for wisdom. Not wisdom/knowledge but like WISDOM: the ability to make a wise choice in a difficult circumstance. And yes, circumstance meaning the net of temptation you accidentally got caught in. Too often I ask for Jesus' forgiveness after I've sinned and not enough times do I ask for His help when I know I'm on the verge of breaking.

He will not rebuke you, He will not forget you and not even for a minute does He forsake you.

I imagine wisdom in a water bottle waiting to be poured to people waiting to take a sip. We want the whole bottle in our hands because we think we can just handle it, but we end up choking. God doesn't rebuke us for wanting wisdom but I can imagine if He would get frustrated that we don't take baby sips to start and work our way up. He's waiting to pour out what we can handle and we just want to chug it down but all that happens is that we get bloated and want to explode. Then we feel alone. Side note, if you feel distant from God, guess who moved?

If you are wise and understand God's ways, prove it.

If you are wise and understand God's ways, ask Him to help you prove it.

On another note, a friend of mine passed away today. Rest easy, Clarrissa, you were a sweet girl, we'll see you soon. Your family is in my prayers. You're in God's hands now. Doesn't get better than that. <3