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Happy Meditation Monday! Today let’s focus on John 14:27.
God Loves You!
It’s Freedom Friday!
“Eve picked the fruit and ate some. And Adam ate some, too. And a terrible lie came into the world. It would never leave. It would live on in every human heart, whispering to every one of God’s children: ‘God doesn’t love me.’ (from Jesus Storybook Bible)
We read this as part of our Advent devotional with our kids last night, and I have to admit that it cut me to my heart. Isn’t this so true? So many of us (even if we don’t say it out loud) feel like this more often than not. It shows up in the not enough, the do mores, the try harders, the move fasters, and the get mores of life.
Here’s the truth, friend. God loves you! He loves you and me and him and her. “You see, no matter what, in spite of everything, God would love his children–with a Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.”
God loves you, and He wants to BE with you. He wants you to BE whole, and He wants you to BE ONE integrated BEing that loves Him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.
In light of this, God has placed a ministry in our hearts. My husband and I have JUST launched a new ministry that is focused on cultivating wholeness for Christian families. We have seen what the Always and Forever Love of God can do to change people, to change marriages, and to change families. We want to share that with others, with you.
I almost didn’t write this post. The devil was whispering “God doesn’t love you–
you’re not equipped to do this” over and over in my ear. But I AM FREE in Christ, so I’m doing it anyway. I believe God’s TRUTH. Please go and “like” our page so that you can keep up with all the good stuff that God is going to use this ministry to do. We are also on instagram @thebeonelife if that’s more your thing.
I love you all! Happy Freedom Friday! www.facebook.com/thebeonelife
Meditation Monday: Episode 2 – Philippians 4:6-7
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Happy Meditation Monday! Today, let’s focus on Philippians 4:6-7.
Meditation Episode 1: John 17:21-23
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During today’s meditation, we will focus on an excerpt of Jesus’ prayer from John 17:20-23.
Beautiful Feet
Isaiah 52:7 “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!”
Do your feet feel beautiful? Whether they are the bare feet on my yoga mat, the feet of John in the wilderness, the feet covered by fancy shoes in the pulpit, the sneakered feet in a fitness class or the feet of missionaries (I could go on forever), they are beautiful if they are bringing the message of peace and salvation that comes through Christ alone.
To all my fellow sojourners and ministers (such a scary word to me) of the gospel, thank you for pointing souls to Jesus. This is the call on our lives as Christians. Join me in prayer for boldness for all of us whose feet are on mission, those who are tip-toeing toward it, and those who will be affected by it.
What is Christian meditation?
Meditation is a spiritual discipline. It is a time of active surrende
r to stillness and the presence of God prompted by the Holy Spirit so that God may dwell in our innermost spaces. God’s dwelling in our innermost spaces slowly conforms us into the image of Jesus.
It is a pondering of and setting our attention on God’s Word and w
hat he is saying through it.
According to Richard Foster,
“Christian meditation, very simply, is the ability to hear God’s voice and obey His Word. It is that simple.”
As a spiritual discipline, meditation requires continual practice to see change. The changes begin from the inside out. Over time, it helps us to remember our connection to God even in our most chaotic, frazzled spaces.
“Meditation resets our awareness of the WITH GOD life. It helps us rediscover the joy that God has chosen to settle in with us, to set up a home in us…” (-Jill Fisk)
Christian meditation is necessary so that we may learn to be ONE with HIM and grow up to look more like our HIM.
How do I Start?
- Show up! Simply meet God face to face.
- Get still & quiet.
- Ask the Lord to show himself to you through His word.
- Listen for what the Holy Spirit as you read.
- Listen to some of our Be One Meditations to help you.
Reverse Warrior for Christ
“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” -Jesus (Luke 6:27-28)
While standing in reverse warrior this morning and focusing on Jesus’s words in Luke 6:27-28, I realized that Jesus is telling me to be a reverse warrior. When I think of a warrior, I think of someone strong, forceful, and skilled at combat. Jesus reverses the concept of being a warrior and tells us to win over our enemies by being loving, kind, and skillful in prayer. Fear tells me that if I approach my enemy this way, I will lose everything to them. However, Jesus tells me that if I put my faith in His way, my reward will be great. It is a sign that I am a child of the Most High. I choose faith over fear; I choose to love, to bless, and to pray for those who are against me (or Jesus). Here I stand as a reverse warrior for Christ.
The Greatest Designer
My wife and our girls grew the plants in this picture from seeds. I’m so grateful that my little ones will know tomatoes come from plants, not the produce section.
As I look at our garden grow each year from seeds to full grown plants that produce fruits and vegetables, I am in awe of the complexity, yet elegance of the process and how it was designed.
As an engineer, I know it is impossible to create even the simplest of machines like a lever without at least a basic design. When I look at everything involved in making a plant grow from planting the right seeds to having the right soil, sunlight, water, and temperature, it is impossible for me to look at all the evidence and conclude that plants were created by chance or billions of years of evolution.
When I buy something that requires assembly, I can’t just shake up the box and out it pops fully assembled–wouldn’t that be nice?
How can something so brilliantly created, not have a designer?
If this was not the process used to grow plants from their creation, how did the interaction between other systems like sunlight for photosynthesis evolve over billions of years? I can barely get my DVR remote and TV to interact together correctly all the time.
I say all this to say, I believe there is a designer of it all. Looking at the love and care He took in designing each plant, imagine how much He must have put into creating you and me. I give praise to the Greatest Designer of All Time for creating us, our plants, our marriages, our families and everything else.
Wives, How to S.H.O.W. Jesus In Your Marriage: Honor Your Current Season
Happy Truth Tuesdays! We’re rolling through our series now. So far we have talked about how important it is for Jesus girls to show Jesus in our marriages. Then we went on to talk about how that begins at home. This week, I want to talk about an issue that many women struggle with.
This is the third post in a series. Click here to read the introduction to the series, and here to read the first topic.
Our society is such an instant gratification society, but is that a Godly way to approach our marriages?
If we are to Show Jesus in our marriages, we MUST honor our current season. Did you realize that our lives go through seasons?
Too many times as women, especially, we do not have the perspective to understand that everything doesn’t last forever. When you are young, or especially when you are in the throes of a difficult season, like young motherhood, everything seems never-ending, am I right? The feeding is never-ending, the changing diapers is never-ending, the watching Frozen and Dora the Explorer is never-ending, the chauffeuring and playdating and teaching and taking care of everyone else is never-ending.
But guess what? It does end. And then something else begins. Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us that “for everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven.”
See, I believe that too many of us spend our time envious of others that are simply in a different season. We spend so much time trying to live in someone else’s season during someone else’s time that we miss the ability to be purposeful in our own seasons.
To SHOW Jesus, we must honor our current season by practicing contentment. We must realize that our current season is where God wants us to be and when he is ready for us to move, He will make it clear.
Spend your current season making a difference where you can be most useful for God. If you have young children, serve with your family, reach out to other young wives and mothers to form strong relationships. Be an encourager as you seek encouragement. Most of all, know that you are useful and that this season is an important one. You are laying the foundation for your marriage and your children.
Most importantly, SHOW Jesus by honoring your current season and making the choice to serve God where you are right now. Remember we are only promised today, so we must make the most of it for ourselves, our marriages and the kingdom of God.
I’m so guilty of not honoring my current season. I have wished time and again that the tantrums and the late night feedings would be over so that I could do ________ (fill in the blank). I realized though, that this particular season is just as important in our marriage as all of the others.
Understanding my Color Type and adjusting my attitude towards my current season can make all the difference.
What about you? Have you ever wished you were in a different season? What can you do today to honor your current season that would make a positive change in your marriage?
Wives, How To S.H.O.W. Jesus in Your Marriage: Start At Home
How do we begin to SHOW Jesus in our marriages?
Happy Truth Tuesday! This is the second post in a series. If you missed the first post (where I talk about how I learned this lesson from my toddler), you can read it here.
Last week I told you that as “Jesus girls,” we are called to show Jesus and His love everywhere we go. One of the places we tend to have trouble doing this is at home. Sisters, let me tell you that HOME is the most important place to begin. In order to S.H.O.W. Jesus in our marriages, we must first: Start at home.
Now notice that I didn’t say we have to stay at home. I said we have to START at home.
When you show Jesus,we recognize that the first church that you are responsible to and for is the church that lives in your home everyday. In using the word church this way, I’m talking about the people in our lives, not the buildings we meet in. Your family, the Christians and Christians in training in your home are the church that you meet with every.single.day. They are the people we have the greatest influence over and the greatest responsibility to in this life.
When we are really showing Jesus, we must first make sure we are ministering to the church in our own homes.
So many of us want to make big changes in the world. We want to go out and make a difference in the lives of our co-workers, our friends and the world at large. We want to matter. Those aspirations are all good, sisters. God calls us to that, too. However, when we are wives, our first responsibility, the first way we show Jesus is to start at home.
We start by showing the love of Christ to our husbands. We start at home by:
- building our husbands up
- encouraging them
- speaking to them in a Christ-like way
- not using the Word of God as a weapon against them, but as a tool that can be used to speak to their hearts.
- focusing on their strengths and not their weaknesses.
Titus 2:4-5 calls us to love our husbands—we love them by showing Jesus to them. We show Jesus in our homes when our lives reflect the Word of God, and our lives reflect the love of Christ each day.
When we fill the people in our homes up with this kind of love, it will then have no other choice but to spill over into other areas of our lives.
Our world needs more examples of Jesus’ love both inside and outside of marriage.
Don’t forget to come back next week for the “H” in how we can SHOW Jesus in our marriages.
What can you do to SHOW Jesus to your husband today?