Sovereignty and Prayer

I believe most Evangelical Christians would  argue that prayer is very important. The reason(s) why may differ from person to person, but we recognize as a whole it is important. I bring this up because I have heard people say, "If God has decided everything, why should we pray, evangelize, or do anything?" To quote Pastor Daniel, "Because God tells us to!" We are told many times to take things to the Father in the Name of the Son, Jesus Christ. 


Jesus says in John 14:12-14 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it."


If we believe in Jesus, we will do the things that Jesus does. He said so! It is the evidences of God's grace and the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Secondly He said whatever we ask for in His Name will be done. I think it is important to see here the order in which these things are said. First we will do the works Jesus does and then He will give us whatever we ask. I do not believe this means we have to get the works right to get what we want, though many interpret these verses like that. What I see is Jesus showing that we have had a change of heart because He has changed our hearts and therefore we do His works. Because He has changed our hearts to do His works, He also changes our hearts of prayer to match His heart. Therefore, if we are praying in the power of the Spirit in Jesus Name to the Father, we will be asking for those things which God intends to do. This might be a bit crazy sounding to you. I still am struggling to wrap my head around it. But I have see things and heard things that are amazing simply because people prayed in the will of God. 


I do want to say here that God wants to hear our hearts. He knows we struggle. He knows our prayers are not perfect. He knows we hurt and wonder because we are only human. He wants to hear those things too! Prayer ought to be a conversation with our Father that is real and genuine. That does not mean that all of our prayers will be answered in the way we think they should be, but be assured, Christian, God hears your prayers and He will answer them based on His glory and will. 


I am still struggling with this everyday. But I am thankful to be struggling through it as it is teaching me to pray and to be bold with my prayers asking for things that I know from Scripture are God's will such as salvation, growth, closeness to Him, reconciliation of believers to the church and each other and for strength, wisdom, grace and mercy for the saints. I still have much to learn on this and as God shows me I hope to share more with you.


Today I challenge those in Christ to pray boldly before the Father. Take all things to Him. And then rest in knowing He will handle it in the way that is best.

Sovereignty and the Exodus

I believe I posted a while back that I had a new found appreciation for the Old Testament and was wanting to study it more in depth. I have been reading slowly and am only now in the beginning parts of Exodus reading through the plagues sent on Egypt by God to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go. The debate of free will is one as old as time and one not easy to let go of, but the more I read in Scripture the more I am convinced that though God's call demands a response, it is ultimately up to Him what happens.

Exodus 10:1-2 says, "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them that you may know that I am the Lord'."

These are the Lord's words. Not mine, not Moses's, not anyone else. The Lord said, I have hardened Pharaoh's heart. This is not the first time this is mentioned. Exodus 7:3,13-14,22, 8:15,19, 9:12,35 all refer to Pharaoh's heart being hardened which is initiated by God and we see it a few more times after this passage in Exodus 10:20,27 11:10 and 14:4.

I have read the story of the Exodus many times, but this time God has shown me this so clearly, I believe, to show me over and over again that He is in control of everything, even the hearts of men. Pharaoh would have been probably the greatest earthly ruler of that time (I am guessing. I am no historian, so I beg forgiveness if I am wrong), and God was in control of His heart. Why? God said it, "that I may perform these signs of Mine among them...that you may know that I am the Lord." It was all for God's glory to show that He is the Lord Almighty. He is in control of all things, even the mightiest of rulers.

The Sovereignty of God

God is sovereign. I have heard this numerous times over the course of my life. I have heard it from numerous people. But what does this really mean? 
The dictionary has many definitions including:
"a person who has sovereign power or authority"
"a monarch; a king, queen, or other supreme ruler"
"having supreme rank, power, or authority"
"greatest in degree; utmost or extreme"
"being above all others in character, importance, excellence, etc."

I am not going to get all technical here. This is just what one dictionary says and I am no study in words, roots and definitions. This is just to see what the world defines sovereign as and to give a starting point. 

It is clear that the word sovereign is often associated with a ruler. Perfect! God is the ruler of the universe. It is also associated with importance. Again perfect as God is perfect. And so we begin to see a picture. God is the perfect supreme ruler of the universe. 

And then what? Here is where it begins to differ from a simple earthly explanation. This is what God has been teaching me. To say that God is sovereign means that He is in absolute control over everyone and everything in the entire universe. This has not been an easy thing for me to understand or swallow some days. Let's face it, we like to be in control. I know I do. I can feel myself begin to lose my temper when things do not go as planned or something interrupts what I want to do. But the more I learn about God, the more I learn that really I am not in control. Not at all. And the more I embrace the truth that I am not in control of everything, the more freedom I begin to experience. 

God never intended us to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders. He does not want us worrying about what may come. He has given us Christ. He has given us instructions and things to do for His kingdom and His glory, but the results are in His hands and are done in His timing. How I long to rest in this truth consistently. God is teaching me step by step how to rest in this truth, how to say everyday "I will do what the Lord tells me and leave the results in His hands". 

So how about you? Are you resting in the sovereignty of our great God, Christian? 

CLOSED!!!!!

Today ended a 6 month process of purchasing a house in Germantown. When moving to Louisville we never expected to be in this position. We assumed we would find an apartment and live there until we left in 5 years. Recently God has showed us that we will most likely be here at least another 5 years and we have been here almost 2 already. So right after Reuben was born we began looking and found a house a street over from Sojourn Midtown. In November we made an offer and it was accepted. Then the process began. Forms, paperwork, signatures, estimates, inspections, etc. It was crazy. We thought many times we were at the end and could close.
And today we did! It is still setting into my mind that we are home owners, but we are. God is gracious and He has walked with us through this whole process. We have learned much about God's timing, God's sovereignty and patience. It has been amazing to see Him working in us and around us as we waited for everything to happen.
We are still in a bit of a waiting process as there are some renovations to be done. The house is over 100 years old and there are some necessary things that need to be done before we move in. We are excited about the renovations and about moving into the house as soon as is possible. There are so many possibilities and we know God has a plan for us in this house. Can't wait to update everyone on how it's going!

Our House!

HE IS RISEN!!!!!

HE IS RISEN INDEED!!!!!

Yes, I realize I am a couple weeks behind. I had intended to write Easter Sunday to break my hiatus, but God had other plans and here I am 2 weeks later writing what I had planned to write then.

It was a much needed break for me as I prayed, evaluated and sought what I need to be doing for the Lord. I am still consistently working to get my priorities in order to have God first, my husband second and my kids third followed by any other ministry and work the Lord would have me do and it is not easy. I have learn a lot about myself in the past couple of months. Most of all I am REALLY lazy and I want to do what I want to do, I believe we call that selfishness. This is me and I HATE it! I hate that my heart so longs to lie on the sofa and watch TV instead of sit at the feet of Jesus. I hate that I want to look at things on the internet that seem so important instead of reading my kids a book. I hate that I want to imagine my perfect house and set up and find all these things to make my house great instead of caring for the home God has given me now. I HATE IT! My priorities are seriously out of whack and I am still wrestling with the Lord to really understand where He wants me to be and what He wants me to do. I am wrestling with Him to put off laziness and selfishness and put on compassion, care, action (God-centered action) and work that comes from a grateful heart. These are things Christ died for and because He is risen they are now locked in the grave! Thank You, Jesus! Thank You for taking my sin and for not leaving me in it, but helping me put it off and put on You! My desire is to be more like Christ. I am learning everyday more of what that looks like and how to trust in the grace of the Lord to save me from myself and put on Christ.

I hope that this Easter did not just slip you by, but that you had an encounter with the True and Living God who saves His people!

Our weekend was incredible. Friday evening we attended Sojourn's Good Friday service where all 4 campuses gathered. It was an amazing time of worship and reflection on what Christ endured for us!
Saturday our family celebrated Passover. It was really neat to reflect on Christ's death and resurrection and the new life we have when we are in Christ from a supper that started many years before Christ came to die but symbolized it. What an amazing feast.
Sunday was a restful and reflective day as we celebrated our Risen Lord at church, rejoiced as one of our Community Group friends was baptized and spent time together as a family. I am so thankful for a weekend to really think and reflect upon our God who is mighty in power and deed, but loves us so deeply He would die for us so we could have a relationship with Him. Who else can say that?

A Month in Skirts

In thinking of things I would like to try, I decided to challenge myself in wearing a skirt out for the whole month of January. Why? Honestly, just to see if I could. And with it being one of the coldest months of the year for us, it is good practice in case I ever live somewhere where I would need to wear skirts and they also have cold winters. It was an interesting challenge for myself. I think the strangest thing for me was that no one noticed. I did not do it to be noticed, but I really only wear skirts to church, so it was funny to me that I was not asked about it. I suppose that is also a good thing as I tend to evaluate the dress of others far too frequently in my mind, and to realize that if people think any thing that they also just keep it to themselves and I would never know.
My strangest incident was being asked at McDonald's one day if I was Mennonite. That I was not expecting, but I found it humorous and thought, "Yeah, I guess I do look kind of like a Mennonite." I have also joked about living with the Amish for 6 months to learn how to do everything from scratch, which added to the humor for me.
Mentally it was good. It made me realize how clothes make you feel. Obviously it does not give the same feelings to everyone, but for me I felt very feminine and "homemakery" (yes I just made up that word) while I wore the skirts. I felt different but in a good way. Because it was a personal challenge I probably over evaluated things while I wore them, but it definitely helped me in knowing I can wear skirts, life can be done in skirts and that they are very feminine. I also discovered if I were to wear skirts continuously I would need to make many of mine ankle length so I do not trip up the stairs. :)
If you are a woman and don't like skirts, challenge yourself and see if it opens up something new for you.

Old Testament

Last semester I took a New Testament/Old Testament Survey class as part of SWI. Unfortunately it is a 6 week class and so we spent only 3 weeks on each part. Might I point out that that is not nearly enough time to cover that much Scripture! But it is what it is. I learned so much in that 6 weeks. I read the whole of the New Testament in about 8 weeks and portions of the Old Testament. This class seriously challenged me in the Old Testament. I have read the entire Bible at some point in my life, but like many Christians just saw the Old Testament as history and not Scripture so much. I believed it was all true but again as history. Dr. Betts pointed out to us that in the New Testament whenever they talked about the Scriptures being good for teaching, rebuking, admonishing, guiding etc, that they were referring to the Old Testament. The New Testament had not been put together! Hello, why had I not realized this before? This has challenged me to go back and read the Old Testament through thoroughly and closely to see what God has to tell us about Himself and about Christ before the New Testament existed. It has been an interesting ride thus far, being challenged and stretched. Learning how the Old and New Testaments work together. I have a lot of questions that I am reading and researching about and discovering more about our "Jewish Roots". I pray for clarity and guidance and that I would live a life pleasing to the Lord. It is a daily battle to know what all that means, but I know it comes back to the greatest commandments, Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.