I am thankful for the right to vote.
In this month of giving thanks, and in our commitment to give thanks to God before we ask Him for anything, today on voting day, I am thankful for: the right to vote; a free democratic system; the men and women who dedicate their lives in military service to keep us free; the freedom of religion we have; and for the church, who reminds me that there is way more to life than what happens here on earth.
This same week in which we exercise our freedom to vote is the same week we honor the brave men and women who serve in our military service to ensure that freedom. I’ve been blessed to travel to many foreign countries where that freedom does not exist.
I was called to minister there, and I prayed every day for God’s protection, that wasn’t as secure where I was.
We live in America. It is still the land of the free!
Today we exercise our freedom to vote. I urge you to exercise that freedom and trust God to take care of all the details. And on Friday, we honor and celebrate those who give their lives in military service to keep us free. This week emphasizes the privilege of freedom we enjoy. It’s not a freedom to squander. It’s a blessing from God, and we ought to thank Him every day for it.
As my dad’s favorite,
“I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free; and I won’t forget the men who died and gave their life for me.”
So on voting day, I’ll proudly stand side by side with fellow Americans, and cast my vote. God calls me to do my part! And I will trust God for the outcome. I am thankful that my God is in control, and I am not.
We haven’t been here before, but God has been here before!
In the Peanuts cartoon, Peppermint Patty asked Charlie Brown to define security. Charlie replied, “It is sleeping in the back seat of the car, and your mom and dad are in the front seat, driving and taking care of everything.
We are God’s children. He is in the front seat, driving and taking care of us, our nation, and our future. Relax, trust Me. For the follower of Jesus, in Romans 8, God works together for the good of those who love Him. He is going to work it out, no matter the outcome of this—let me emphasize temporary—election. He will still be Lord of all in the days ahead!
So let God drive. Let Him fly the plane. You need to get in the car with Him. You have to get on the plane with Him. You need to show up at the voting booth and do your part. And above all, you need to pray, daily!
TRUTH BOMB

When God’s people humble themselves and pray, God will heal their land.
God says, when my people humble themselves before Me and pray, I will listen, and forgive, and heal their land. Regardless of who wins, let’s pray that our nation truly becomes a nation under God. In everything, God is working today together for good. He is in charge! You don’t have to worry. So have a thank-filled day today, thankful for this great privilege, and go vote.

Speak Truth Love

I love November!

The weather is colder, the days are shorter, the opportunities to wrap up in a warm soft blanket and cuddle up by the fire are more frequent…and the promise of homemade pumpkin pie made from my Grandma’s recipe are in my near future. Every one of these delightful things makes me feel thankful!
November is a month for giving thanks. So I’d like to start it off on the first day–today, November 1st–to a commitment to be thankful.
Thankfulness is a state of mind. It is a realization that although we may not have everything we want, we have an abundance to be thankful for.

“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His faithful love endures forever!” Psalm 136:1

If thankfulness is a state of mind, and I believe it is, and if God is faithful, and I know He is, then each and every day I have something to be thankful for. The sunrise in the morning; a new day; rolling clouds that some days look like big puffs of cotton, and the next day form animal shapes. Songs to sing and lessons to learn. I am thankful for all these things and so much more.
I want to dedicate my blog through the month of November to being thankful: to setting my mind to have an attitude of gratitude.

TRUTH BOMB

Being thankful starts with recognizing to whom the thanks is due.

I am challenging myself that on each day of this month, before I ask God for anything, that I first thank Him for five blessings in my life. I ask you to take this challenge with me. Let’s dedicate the month of November, not to just one day of giving thanks as we gobble down scrumptious turkey and delicious pumpkin pie, but to truly having an attitude of gratitude. Every day of this month let’s thank God before we ask Him for anything.

“Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever!”

Speak Truth Love

“Be still and know that I am God.”
Psalm 46:10

Waiting is not a word we like. Learn, seek, follow, serve, work-all of these come much easier to us and our hard-pushing, pull yourself up by your own bootstraps society we live in. Much deeper is the realization that, not only do we live in this culture that lives by these principles, but we are raised to believe them as our very fiber, morals and values. In some cases, we even believe them to be biblical truth. It feels more like “hurry up and wait.” Like we have some kind of agreement to believe in the Scripture, and wait on God, but more of a tendency to expect it to be a quick “hurry up” process. But is that trust?
If we are truly called to not just “wait on God,” but to “be still and know that He is God”, we can’t leave the “be still” process out of it. God’s timetable is definitely not the same as ours. We get frustrated or even mad if we have to wait two minutes in a fast food line. After all, it’s called “fast” food. If there is a line at our favorite department store, we huff and sigh and turn around and walk out, so we can turn around and return at a time when we don’t have to wait. Or if we go to the bank, and some person walks to the front teller, just as we are finishing our paperwork (like you’re supposed to do), and starts asking detailed questions about who knows what to the only teller who should be serving me by now, then my willing-to-wait- patiently-meter is recently expired! So we impatiently exit to the outside of the bank over to the ATM machine: automatic, quick, fast, immediate, no waiting necessary. And if the machine is out of service, or people are using it in front of us, then we throw our hands up and resort to our smart phones.
The worst of all, in my opinion, is the doctor’s office. I feel at times that I have to be armed with self-defense weapons, because perfectly nice calm people who are left waiting show sides of themselves that no one wants to see. I even secretly think that our society has rewritten the 10 Commandments to include an 11th: Thou shalt never be late. Heaven forbid we leave others “waiting!” In our self-absorbed, self-serving society, we have made waiting for anything or anyone a mortal sin.

But what does God say about waiting? Why does He, in some of our most difficult, stretching and trying times, call us to wait on Him?

God says,
“My ways are not your ways. My ways are higher than your ways.”
How do we know what He is accomplishing through the waiting? My sense of timing is “Right now! TODAY!” God’s sense of timing is “when it is right; when it will be the best for us, and for those around us”.
In our finite minds, we cannot see into the future, not even to the next day. We cannot see what God is going to take care of, arrange, or protect. He is working upstream, we trust in faith, for the good of us and those around us.
So what does He expect of us when He says, “Be still and know that I am God”?
He expects us to seek Him, in His Word and in prayer. He expects us to LISTEN to Him and not just talk to Him with our list of wants and desires. He is also asking us to follow Him, one step at a time, not knowing the outcome fully in advance.
Yes, “Be still and know that I am God.”
What seems confusing, unclear and unsettled now, may make perfect sense a month, or a year from now. God knows all of those developments way ahead of us. He just asks us to trust Him, and to “cease striving”, as one translation puts it.
Truth Bomb

You can fret on worry patrol, or you can rest in God’s control.

So what is it going to be for you? Continue to fret, worry and demand an answer from God now? Or, will you “be still” and trust in His divine plans? Trust that He is mindful of the big picture, even though right now His timing might not sync with your own.

Speak Truth Love

This morning as I pulled out of the driveway to head to school, raindrops were falling on my windshield. The rain had fallen for several hours, and had already covered the ground with damp refreshment, covering all signs of the dust and dirt left behind by months of hot weather. I marveled at the similarity of the refreshment God had brought to my spirit just the day before. Drops of His faithfulness had fallen on my spirit and quenched my seeking for His perfect will for my life and Jim’s.

After months of dryness in seeking out the heart of God, He has brought fresh ministry and it feels as refreshing as the first rains of Fall.
“Then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil.” Deuteronomy 11:14

Just as flowers, trees, and plants need water to grow, so do we! Our Autumn rain came in the form of a new call to minister to God’s people in the beautiful city up north in Sebastopol, Sonoma County. As the call came to Jim yesterday to pastor, and the beautiful rains came today, it was a sure sign of God’s goodness, mercy, grace and faithfulness to all of His living creation. I am so happy to be a daughter of the King, and to be serving Him all the days of my life.
God calls us to not fear, and that He will bring us rain, even when we feel dry and parched. He knows just how to refresh us, and to provide what we need to propel us forward for His Kingdom purposes!
“She does not fear bad news; she confidently trusts in the LORD to care for her.” Psalm 112:17

Truth Bomb

As rain refreshes the land, so God’s faithfulness refreshes our soul.

Is there something in you that is dry, and needs rain and refreshment? God is faithful! He will bring raindrops to your dry places and refresh you. Trust Him and do not fear: He cares for you!

Speak Truth Love

I am not going to lie, Tuesday snuck up on me this week!

Tuesdays are my favorite day of the week; not only is it truth bomb Tuesday, but it’s also Tuesday night women’s Bible study!
But this week, Tuesday has come and it feels like a Monday on steroids! It has hit me hard!
Do you have days like that? Do you have weeks like that? Or even harder yet, do you have seasons like that? Difficult seasons that seem to have no end, when it feels like a Monday with no coffee all the time?
Well, I have not only had I Tuesday like that, today, but I have had a season like that for the last nine months! A season where I know God is moving, where I know He is faithful, and where my heart and spirit literally have no doubt that He is in complete control. The difficulty has been, that He hasn’t chosen to tell me yet what that control looks like.
So today, as I wake up before the sun does, even earlier than usual as I help out a friend by picking her up and taking her to work with me, and I put my feet on the ground and say, “This is the day the Lord has made I will rejoice and be glad in it.” The “I WILL” comes out with a lot more emphasis as I WILL myself to face this Tuesday!
God is still God, and He still loves me even though I don’t feel very lovely today! God is God and He is still in control even though I return from a long weekend away to face a fast and furious schedule at school and I feel out of control. God is still God and He is faithful, even though my faithful friend caffeine, is not coming through strong enough today to take away the dull ache between my eyes!
As I feel my way around a dark bedroom, not lit yet by the rising Sun, I find my way to my closet and view the outfit I will wear today…from the bottom of my toes to the top of my head I will be dressed in pink! Not because it is my favorite color, although it is, but because I am supporting and remembering all those who are battling or have battled cancer!

It’s breast cancer awareness month, and we are never more aware of cancer and it’s impact, then when we go through it ourselves, or go through it with a loved one! The strongest spiritual influence in my life, my grandma, Lela May Switter, was not struck with cancer once, nor even twice, she was struck with cancer three times! After successfully battling that, enduring radiation and chemo multiple times, enduring massive surgeries that cut out huge parts of her body, she was attacked a fourth time and it hit her lungs again! They had taken so much of her lung the first time she had cancer there, that they could not take anymore. She went through radiation therapy and then lived the remainder of her life on an oxygen tank.
The first time cancer hit her body she was in her 40s. After the surgery the doctor came out to the waiting room and spoke to my grandfather, he told him that she would not live through the year. God had different plans! The God who holds onto us and never swerved to the left or to the right, the God who promises that He’s in control and we are not, the God who promises that He has a plan for our lives and only He can determine when the end of that will be, held my grandmother in his powerful hands!

The impact on my life came as I watched my grandmother hold on unwavering to the hope of her Savior who she trusted in completely!
She told the doctor at her next doctors appointment, “As long as God still has something here on Earth for me to do, I will be here, until He calls me home.” My grandmother was only 42 years old when she uttered those words, and she was 72 years old when she met her Savior face-to-face! God had a lot of living for my grandmother to do, and boy did she live!

She poured in to not just her for granddaughters and her beautiful daughter, my mom, she poured into every single person she encountered! Her funeral was attended not only by everyone at her church, but also by everyone in her neighborhood and community!
My grandmother demonstrated to me by the way she lived her life that cancer was not bigger than God! God is in control no matter what our circumstances are!
So here I am, on my favorite day of the week Tuesday, not having a great day. Here I am in a long dry season knowing that God is in control, but still waiting for His full and complete answer! Will I allow God to be bigger than my dry season? Will I hold on with an unwavering hope to the Savior that I profess? Will I allow God to be God, and rise above my circumstances to live each and every day for Him?

Truth Bomb

Even when my circumstances let me down, my God NEVER DOES!

I will, because I know my God is faithful! He is my hope and my salvation even when my coffee lets me down, my body lets me down, and my circumstances let me down, my God never does!
So wear your pink proud! Wear your pink bright! Let it not only remind you to pray for those who are struck with cancer, but let it give you the hope and the assurance that our God is bigger!

Speak Truth Love

Am I dreaming, or did God just bless us with a beautiful Fall day?

God is in control of the weather, and no one else is. Only God can take us from a 97 degree week and bless us with a cool, crisp Fall day! I hope that you, like me, were able to take a walk in this beautiful, low 70 degree weather and feel the cool breeze blow refreshment into your soul.

Tomorrow promises to be even cooler than today. Now that is what I call an awesome forecast!

Today is Tuesday, and the truth is, “Today is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”  

Tomorrow never comes; it is just something we wait for in vain. And too easily, it can become an excuse for not doing something today. Yesterday never really was, so don’t allow it to become a regret. Today is truly the only day we have. And Tuesdays are my favorite!  Why, you ask?  Because they are the best day ever!

It is the day I get together to unite and become one with fellow sisters in Christ. Our age doesn’t matter; there are some who are in their teens; some in their 20’s, just starting out with their families, or embracing single hood. There are some who are in their 30’s, and sending kids off to school has become routine. Finding themselves busy with schedules, homework, games, dance recitals…There are those in their 40’s: kids learning to drive; needing us one minute and not the next.Then there are those of us in our 50’s and beyond: some empty-nesters, some grandparents, some alone. But regardless of our age, stage, profession or giftedness, we are all united with one heart and one purpose: to seek the Lord our God through His Word, and in fellowship with one another, and cheer each other on to growth and maturity in Him.

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” Hebrews 10:24

Last week I talked about “kick starts.”  Needing to be encouraged to take a positive step in the right direction. Maybe the long, hot days of Summer, and the change in a regular routine or schedule caused you to get out of a regular routine in God’s word. Maybe like me, you’re ready to be kick-started back into this spiritual discipline.  God’s word is living and active. It is not just a book we read for knowledge and insight. It has the power to change our very lives!  We have to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds.”

How does that happen?  That doesn’t happen by magic. It also doesn’t happen by osmosis. You can’t simply sit in a church service and expect it to penetrate your life.  You have to take this living truth and put it into your mind and heart. Then and only then can its living power transform you from the inside out. I know that what I speak of is no easy task. Putting one more day or night on your calendar can feel like it is the crack in the dam that causes you to break. But that could be precisely where the enemy wants you to fall.

Do excuses like these sound familiar?

“I went to church this weekend; I’m okay.”

“I listened to a simulcast.”

“I read a Christian book.”

All of these things are good, in and of themselves. What is missing, however, is the “spurring one another on to love and good works.”  It is the encouragement and inspiration that you get from hearing someone else’s faith walk, whether it is a victory or a struggle. It is looking other faith travelers in the eye and encouraging them to keep on keeping on, as they do the same for you. It is declaring out loud your decisions to allow God to be first in your life, and no longer let the voices of this world dictate to you how you should live. You find yourself in good company when you decide to live wholeheartedly to honor God!

Truth Bomb

 Today is the only day you have!  Make it count!

That is why I can say confidently that Tuesdays are THE BEST DAY EVER for me! My kick start, after God’s incredible blessing of a fresh cool start to Fall, is Tuesday night Women’s Bible study!  What is yours?

Speak Truth Love

We’ve all heard of “fresh starts” and “new beginnings” and, while we need those, I think sometimes what we really need is a “kick start.”
For example, we all got “kick started” into the month of September. It is the very first week in a new month that we get a day off. Now I think every month should start off that way! But here we are, presented with a “kick start” into a new month, and into a new season. Summer is now behind us, and Autumn is ahead of us. The long lazy days of Summer are gone, as the morning sun takes longer and longer to peek over the horizon. And yet, it goes quicker over the western horizon to usher in the night.
You don’t have to take my word for it, that it is officially Fall. Starbucks has declared it for us all, with their return of Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Known to all of us fans the first day of the PSL! And speaking of kickoffs, college football is in full swing with their kickoff weekend!
Whether or not you’re a football fan, you cannot help but feel the excitement of team camaraderie and loyal fan hood, with high hopes of a championship season. Aren’t we all looking for a championship season, in our own way? Do we not all want to be winners at this game called life? Do we not want our victories to outweigh our defeats? Victory does not come without effort. And God does not reward without faith and obedience. Our ultimate victory is our eternal home in Heaven with Christ Jesus, so every day should see us making strides in that direction.
Regardless of the time the sun rises or sets, we are each given the same number of hours every day. While Fall brings later mornings, earlier evenings and (hopefully) cooler days, we still have the same amount of hours to utilize.
Jesus said,
“As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” John 9:4
Maybe Fall is the kick start that we need to re-energize committing to and working on fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives. You may be called into a profession where you are able to speak, teach, or pray God’s Word over people daily. If so,

“Do not grow wearing in doing good, for in due season you will reap a harvest if you do not give up.” Galatians 6:9
If you are in a place or profession where Jesus is not a welcome or a comfortable part of the conversation, maybe you need a kick-start to be the only Jesus some of them will ever see. Are you showing them Jesus through the way you do your job, the way you treat others, the way you react to unfair criticism? Jesus said,
“You are the salt of the earth…” Matthew 5:14
Salt does at least two things: it preserves against corruption and decay; and it produces thirst. After people spend time with you, do they seek or desire to live better than they do? And, do they thirst to know your Jesus, the One who makes all things better?
If your influence is primarily at home, where you work to raise a godly family, are you actively pursuing a life that radiates God’s love and gospel Truth?
Do you need a kick-start to realize the importance of the influence you have in your home, your neighborhood and in your kids’ school? Influencing your children, your children’s friends, their parents, and teachers, instructors and coaches they have? A kick-start will activate you toward the right goals with renewed energy!
Pick up God’s word and open it, each and every morning of everyday. It may feel daunting at first. But God will meet you there, in the pages of His word. It is His love letter to you and me.
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and I do believe that is true. So instead of trying to encourage you with words, look at this picture:

Do your obstacles feel three times bigger than you are? Does the morning come with every intention of meeting God in His word, and then the fatigue sets in, or the children demand your attention, or the task at work seems beyond your expertise?
Then maybe they need a swift hard kick! Woodstock isn’t allowing the size of the football to stop him from kicking it. God doesn’t want you or me to allow our issues to become so big that we stand in their shadow, and are afraid to kick them. Nothing is too big for God! Open His word and you will see. He will give you the kick-start you need every time!
Truth Bomb

God offers us a kick start each day, when we meet Him in His word.
Let this new cooler season allow you to cozy up with God’s word, a strong cup of coffee, a delicious cup of tea, or a warm cup of cocoa. Don’t let the enemy discourage you, or keep you from the most important place you can go every day: meeting God, in His word, and allowing Him to kick start your everyday!

Speak Truth Love