The Shack

Two weeks ago my husband and I had a movie night together and watched "The Shack". The storyline of the movie is about the biggest question we all have about God: "If God is good, then why is there evil in the world? How can God let bad things happen to good people?"

I thought the movie was very good. It's impossible to understand everything about how God and this world works from a 90-minute movie, but some basic principles about how God works are well presented in "The Shack".

What's Your Impact Story?

The difficulties we face in life can leave us marked with bitterness, frustration and anger, but we can choose to not let that be our story. We will all go through different types of challenges and pain in this life. We have a choice between letting our struggles make our hearts numb, hard and cold or warmer than ever before. We can choose faith, trust and forgiveness in the midst of the challenges that come our way and come out on the other side more compassionate, warm and loving than before. The choice is in our own hands.


In this present world it's impossible to live a pain-free life but we get to choose what will be the end result of our challenges: more love or anger, bitterness and hate. The other side of the coin is that this life is also filled with blessings. We also get to choose what our blessings will do to us. When we receive the favor of God we can either let it make us selfish, arrogant and entitled or humble and loving. Both the challenges and the blessings in life come with a test. Will we choose to let both our good times and hard times in life make us better or more self-centered and prideful?


The key to be able to flourish in this life despite challenges and pain is having a close relationship with God. The key to being able to live a very blessed life without becoming self-obsessed, entitled and arrogant is to know God intimately. If we live our lives without knowing God it is natural for us to become self-centered, entitled and full of pride. Everything we do (or choose not to do) in this life matters. Pastor Holly Wagner from Oasis Church in LA teaches a great message in this video and mentions 3 simple things we can do to make an impact during this life:

1.) Be yourself

2.) Be salt

3.) Be light

Leaders and Followers

There will come a time in life when we need to step up and be a leader, and there will be other times when we need to follow. I wasn’t designed to live this life following other people, but I often do just that. It starts in Elementary school when we learn what types of music we should listen to, what clothes we need to wear and how we should think and feel. As an adult, I’m fully aware of how I should dress, talk, think, work, play etc. Humans live in communities, which means our lives will always be influenced by how other people live. This isn’t necessarily all bad, but we need to understand what makes us unique so we don’t end up living exactly like our friends or co-workers just because that’s what’s expected of us.

I watched a video last Christmas from when I was two years old. I can’t believe how eye-opening it was to watch that video as an adult. I looked at this little girl in the video who clearly wasn’t comfortable in big crowds but who flourished when she got to spend time with her own family. That little girl is me, and guess how I have treated her? Over the years I have forced myself to spend a lot of time in crowded environments, although my whole being prefers calm and quiet. I have tried to live the way I’m expected to live based on all the current ideals my culture holds dear, but many of those ideals don’t fit me. I have thought to myself: “I should be more like this, and less like that.”

The truth is this: God didn’t make a mistake when he created me, I am who he made me to be. I need to stop trying to fit the culture around me and start being myself. I will always have areas where I need to develop self-control, strength and character, but I don’t need to change who I am. My lack of self-control is a problem, my personality is not. When it comes to the relationship between me and other people I need to learn to be a leader and stop being a follower. It doesn’t matter what other people think I should do, I need to be the leader in my own life and stop following other people’s opinions.

My relationship with God is the complete opposite to my relationship with other people. I tend to bow to other people’s opinions when I should take on the responsibility of being the leader in my own life. When it comes to my relationship with God I need to learn o be a follower, but I tend to leave God out of all the important decisions I make. A few years ago, I was still “a baby-Christian” and I honestly used to think that it was unnecessary to read the Bible every week and pray to God before making any big decisions. Fast forward a few years later and it has become crystal clear to me why I need to seek God’s counsel. I could have spared myself from a lot of unnecessary pain and complications if I had taken the time to seek God’s counsel before making my big decisions. Nowadays I try to practice asking God for what I should do before I make big decisions. It’s fascinating how well things work out when I include God in the decision-making process, even when it looks like things won’t work out God literally shows up to move mountains so that things work out after all.

I’m a perfectionist and a control-freak so to let God lead in my life hasn’t been an easy transition, mainly because it’s all about letting go and learning to trust God. The great news is that the more I have learned to depend on God and trust Him the less worried I have become. I used to be very worried about many things a few years ago, today I’m hardly ever worried. Every time I feel worries starting to creep in I pray to God and ask him to intervene in whatever circumstance I’m worried about. When I know that God has it all in His hands I can let go.

Fear is another thing that wants to creep in and hinder us from depending on God and trusting Him. My greatest weapons against fear is prayer and worship. When I’m afraid I pray to God and ask him to bless me with His peace and joy, because I badly need it. If I’m very afraid I turn to worship next and sing a few worship songs to God. As I worship God I can feel the fear lifting off me and peace comes over me. When I’m worshipping God, I’m giving Him control of my situation and at the same time I’m reminding myself of his love for me, his strength and his power. Here’s three of my favorite worship songs that I like to sing to God when I’m afraid:

“You Never Let Go” by Bryan&Katie Torwalt

“Call Upon The Lord” by Elevation Worship

“The War” by Leeland

Why does God want me to be a follower? It’s not because he’s a control-freak or some strict military sergeant. The Bible describes God as “our Heavenly Father”. God wants me to follow him because he loves me and wants what’s best for me. God will not always call me to do things that are fun or easy, but He knows what I need. One year God might ask me to forgive someone when all I want to do is stay bitter. God might ask me to give up some comfort in my life to be able to help someone else. Over the years God has asked me to do both things I just mentioned and countless other things that I did not feel like doing. Sometimes what God is calling me to do will be fun and exciting, other times it will be the last thing I want to do. Did you want to do all the things your loving parents told you to do growing up? Probably not. Are you grateful today that your loving parents taught you many great lessons that developed good character in you? Yes. Following God will not always be easy, but God knows exactly what he is doing, He always has our best interest at heart.

Today I can look back at the last 15 years of my life and see how God used many difficult situations to form me, teach me and grow good character in me. I made some bad mistakes along the way that caused me (and others) pain, but now I know better. The more I learn to follow God and His plan for my life the more joy, peace, meaning and contentment I get to experience in my life every year. Every year I think to myself: “Life doesn’t get better than this” and then it does! The following year I get to experience even more peace, meaning and joy. God truly is the giver of good gifts, when you think life can’t get any better he surprises you with even more blessings!

Heaven on Earth

When we have asked Jesus to come into our hearts and are saved we get to experience Heaven on Earth. Now we know that we will see heaven the minute we die, but we also get the privilege of experiencing heaven right now. The Bible talks about God's Kingdom coming on Earth, God's Kingdom is when it is on Earth as it is in Heaven.

As long as we live in this world we will always be surrounded by war, murder, hate, abuse and all kinds of evil, but on the inside we can still have peace and joy when we are saved. From the moment we believe in Jesus we are filled with the Holy Spirit and the spirit gives us access to peace and joy every day, no matter what the world around us looks like.

In Heaven there will be no more evil, there will only be love and light, but until then we can have peace and joy on the inside even when the world around us is chaotic. We can experience joy and peace daily in the midst of a dark world when we spend time in God's presence, in God there is no darkness, there is only light.

We become saved when we are finally ready to surrender our lives to Jesus, the one true God. The Bible teaches us that we become saved the moment we believe in Jesus in our hearts and are willing to profess our faith with our mouths. We can profess our faith in God by praying a prayer like this out loud:

Heavenly Father, I trust you with my life.
Save me from my sins, forgive me, and make me new.
Fill me with your spirit, so I can follow you, run my race, living for you.
My life is not my own, Jesus I give it to you.
Thank you for new life, now you have mine.
In Jesus name I pray,
Amen.

When we are saved we become "citizens of Heaven". Sheila Walsh and Sherri Gragg talk about what it means to have citizenship in God's Kingdom of Heaven in their book "A Fresh Infusion of Joy":

"One of the things I learned along the way is that there are both certain rights and responsibilities that go along with becoming an American citizen. The same is true for our citizenship in the kingdom of God.
Did you know, for instance, that joy is one of the rights inherent to citizens of God's kingdom? Listen to this description of the kingdom of God from Romans 14: "The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (v. 17).
That is amazing news! Think about it for a moment. It doesn't matter how many mistakes you have made. . . or how much you have lost.
It doesn't matter how much you have (or don't have) in your bank account. . . or what others have to say about you.
As a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, nothing-nothing-can take away your right to joy.
So open your heart wide today, friend. Don't wait until you think you deserve it, or until your circumstances take a turn for the better. 
Receive Christ's joy."

What is Unconditional Love?

What is Unconditional Love? Love that never ends. God loves every single human-being on Earth unconditionally. We can choose to either love him back or turn our backs on him but he still loves us and will never stop loving us. He longs to be with us like in the beginning, like before this world became broken. One day we will be with him forever, if we choose him.

I chose to marry my husband five years ago, nobody forced me to marry him. I fell in love with him so I was willing to commit my life to him fully until death do us apart, because I love him I happily sacrificed being with anyone else but him. But anyone who has been married for longer than three months knows that I won't always feel like loving my husband. Love is a choice and love is an action. Love is a verb.

I choose to continue to pursue my husband and as a result of that our love blossoms. God loves me every day and every second of my life and I can choose to love him back. I love my husband but no human will ever come close to loving me as much as God loves me. Only God could fill that empty hole on the inside of me that was always longing to be loved unconditionally. God is the only one who can love me with perfect love and the more I spend time in his presence the more I learn to love others the same way that he loves me.

I become a better wife from spending more time with God. I become a better neighbor from spending more time with God. I never want to become so busy or distracted in this life that I forsake spending time with God, my creator. His love is the only love that can satisfy the deepest longings of my soul.

How to build a strong and healthy marriage

Craig and Amy Groeschel celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary this year. I'm not surprised that Craig&Amy have a strong, healthy and passionate marriage because they are clearly practicing what they preach about marriage. Love works, if we just commit to live it out. Pastor Craig Groeschel gives some great advice in this sermon on how we can pursue each other in marriage to make sure we stay in love. If you are single this sermon will give you the tools you need to know what a healthy relationship looks like. If you are married this sermon will give you tools to strengthen your marriage.


Craig talks about how when couples feel like they have "fallen out of love" somewhere along the way they stopped pursuing each other. We naturally pursue what we don't have, so we can't wait for a natural urge to do the right thing. If we want to keep our marriage healthy and strong we will need to get intentional about pursuing our spouse. There is no other area in life where we can be lazy and still see improvement. We can't be lazy at work and expect to do well in our careers. Why do we think we can be lazy in our marriages and still have a great marriage? I like this quote by Craig Groeschel: "In your marriage, if the grass looks greener somewhere else, it's time to water your own yard." How can we make sure we continue to pursue each other in marriage? Here's a few guidelines to live by:


1. When you think something good, SAY it.

The Bible calls us to encourage one another daily (Hebrews 3:13). Men and women respond well to different types of encouraging words. Men long for words of affirmation. Us women can gain a lot from restraining ourselves from pointing finger at our husbands faults and weaknesses. When we keep encouraging him with words of affirmation he will be motivated to grow. Pointing finger at his weaknesses won't motivate him to keep growing. Every husband wants to know: Do you believe in in me today?


2. When you think something special, DO it.

"If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them" (James 4:17). Anytime you know something good that you should do to be a blessing, do it. Be creative: fill up the car with gas, write a love note, surprise your spouse by arranging a night at a hotel while the kids are with a babysitter etc. Anything that you know will be a blessing to your spouse.


3. When you want something different, BE it.

Don't complain about what your spouse is not, focus on who God wants you to become. We will never criticize ourselves into a better marriage. Do you want something different? You become something different. You can't change anyone else than yourself. When you change for the better your new behavior will influence and motivate your spouse to change too.

If you don't like what you're getting, look at what you're giving. Instead of complaining about what you are not getting ask yourself: "What can I give to add value to our marriage?" I like this quote from Craig Groeschel: "To get what you've never had, you must do what you've never done." If your marriage was special in the beginning, it can be special again. You know what to do, you did it before. Commit to always pursue your spouse and you will have the wonderful marriage that God wants you to have.

Drugs, Prison & Second Chances

Michael Carroll talks about how from a young age he was carrying around a lot of guilt and shame in life. The trauma that he and his sister went through as children caused Michael to become a very angry young man. He started smoking weed as a teenager and was looking for different ways to numb the pain in his life. At age 16 he became very rebellious, moved away from home and started selling drugs with his friends. Michael eventually got sent to prison which became a turning point in his life, in prison he surrendered his life completely to the Lord and started reading a Bible and getting to know God. Today Michael is serving in ministry and is passionate about sharing a message of hope and deliverance to other people who come from different broken situations.

Brave Women Overcome

Today we had our last session for the spring season of Women's Connect. Six different women shared their testimonies in front of the group of around 50 women. These women are brave! They chose to face their fears and stand up in front of a room full of women and share their very personal stories with tears rolling down their faces. One of my friends shared her testimony of healing. She was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm months ago and our whole group has been praying for God to heal her body. A couple of weeks ago she went to see her specialist as a last step before surgery. The specialist had some surprising news for her, the latest test results showed that the brain aneurysm was gone. Jesus still heals people today, both emotionally and physically.


The other five women shared stories about facing their biggest fears and about a hunger to be the best at something that eventually led to sick leave from work. One of the women shared about her struggle with anxiety and depression that started after she received some devastating news this year. She talked about how God has been showing her that in the midst of the darkness He is good and He will never leave her. I could relate to every single woman's story and every story encouraged me. I was reminded of how even if every individual is unique our struggles are similar. We all struggle with feeling insecure and inadequate. We struggle with letting go of control and trusting that God knows exactly what he is doing in our lives. We are afraid of getting vulnerable with each other because we fear rejection, failure and being judged by others.


Last week Jen Pollock Michael was speaking at our Women's Connect gathering and she said that she doesn't like speaking in front of a crowd because she doesn't like being judged. I thought to myself: "You are an amazing, wise and famous speaker, I don't judge you I think you are great!" Most of the time other people don't think nearly as negatively about us as we think about ourselves. Why? Our spiritual enemy, the devil, has many different strategies to try to ruin our lives but the most efficient one is when he gets to us from the inside. He speaks lies into our souls and gets us to believe that they are true. Here are some of the lies he tells us:
"You are never going to be good enough, you just don't have it in you." 
"Nobody likes you."
"God doesn't love you, not after what you have done. God will never love you."


It's hard to not listen to these lies and believe them. The enemy knows our weak spots and that's where he will strike us. The amazing thing that happens when we get into community with others is that we become very hard for the enemy to break. When we choose to get vulnerable with a group of other Christians we give God an opportunity to use people to speak truth and encouragement into our lives. There has been a couple of times when another Christian woman has spoken something to me that she felt God wanted her to tell me and I had to fight back tears because it spoke right into my current situation. These were private things that I hadn't told anyone about and the woman just shared what was on her heart, having no idea that God was using her to bless me in that moment. This is what doing God's work will look like a lot of times.


God will put people in front of you and if you choose to love them you have no idea what he can do through you. We shouldn't let people use us but the goal is to let God use us. God uses women to carry babies and then to raise up the next generation that will take over the Earth after we are gone. God uses women to love and encourage their friends and family members, even strangers, whenever there's an opportunity. God uses women to go on mission trips and save other women and children from sex trafficking. God uses women to serve meals to the poor in homeless shelters. God wants to use us. Will we let him?


Pastor Holly Wagner's airplane story is a good example. A very mean lady entered the airplane and started yelling at the flight attendant who got tears in her eyes. When the mean lady went to sit down she sat down right beside Holly. Holly felt angry at the lady on the inside and planned to ignore her for the rest of the flight. God had other plans. God started nudging on Holly's heart and asking her to talk to the lady. Holly talked to the lady but only got an irritated answer back. The answer made Holly even more angry at the lady but God kept pulling on Holly's heart, asking her to try again. Holly decided to give it another try and at that point the lady broke down and started crying. After Holly had talked to the lady for awhile she found out that the mean lady had just found out she had terminal cancer. Holly ended up praying for the lady on the airplane and exchanging numbers so that she could continue to help her. The lady got connected to Holly's church and received help to walk through this very difficult last season of her life.


If we choose to stop looking at other people as competitors/annoyances and are open to letting God use us it's mind-blowing what God will do through us. God works in many different mysterious ways but one of his favorite ways to reach people and love on them is through other believers. We are the body of Christ. We are all here on Earth to love God and other people. He never said it was going to be easy.

The Story of the Bible

Jon Collins and Tim Mackie explains the story of the Bible in a very simple way with the help of an animated video. The story of God's relationship with humanity isn't as complicated as we sometimes can assume. We each have a choice to choose good or evil. We can either do whatever we want, or we can choose love. We all adore the word love, but living it out is far from easy. Choosing love will require us to go against our own natural urges many times. We choose to forgive, even if we crave revenge. We choose to practice self-control even when we want to gossip. We choose perseverance even when we want to quit on our difficult human relationships. Love is beautiful but it is seldom an easy route to choose. God helps us do the impossible, to choose love even when our whole being craves going down the evil route.

Overcoming the storms of life

Toronto native, Cheryl Nembhard is an award winning Filmmaker, Playwright and Director who continues to make her mark in the Arts & Entertainment Industry. On Saturday I had the privilege to listen to Cheryl Nembhard speak at the Women's Conference at my church. Cheryl has an amazing story about overcoming pain and hurt in her life and finding freedom and healing through God. Cheryl Nembhard had a very difficult childhood. She was sexually molested by a family friend from the age of 5-12 and as a teenager she had become a very angry and bitter young woman because of all the pain she had gone through. Cheryl joined a criminal gang as a teenger which became a place for her to express her anger.

One day Cheryl was brutally raped by a group of young men and this experience left her completely broken. Cheryl later ended up living on the streets for periods of time and was rescued by the love of God through a street evangelist. The street evangelist would talk to Cheryl as she was living on the street and although Cheryl found him annoying he always reminded her of one thing: " You can run but you can't hide, from God's love for you."

Cheryl eventually decided to visit a church and when she became a Christ-follower she was able to heal from all the pain and hurt she had been carrying around for years. Today Cheryl is very successful in the Entertainment Industry, she is married and has three children. Cheryl is now using her story and her painful past to bring help, hope and healing to other people through her films and musicals and through speaking about God's love at different events.

Cheryl Nembhard talked about how we can overcome the storms in our life at the Women's Conference and I will share some of her tips in this post. Here's two of my favorite quotes by Cheryl:
"Hurt and pain unchecked will manifest into anger and bitterness."

"Do not mistake the presence of a storm in life for the absence of God in your life. He is with you and he will guide you through it."

Cheryl Nembhard talked about how each one of us will face many different types of storms during a lifetime. A life without hardships is a fairytale, it doesn't exist in this world. Storms will come but our God promises that He will be with us in the storm. The book of Isaiah talks about how much we mean to God and how much he loves us.

“Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you.

I’ve called your name. You’re mine.

When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you.

When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down.

When you’re between a rock and a hard place,

    it won’t be a dead end—

Because I am God, your personal God,

    The Holy of Israel, your Savior.

I paid a huge price for you:

    all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in!

That’s how much you mean to me!

    That’s how much I love you!

I’d sell off the whole world to get you back,

    trade the creation just for you."

Isaiah 43:2-4 (The Message)

Cheryl Nembhard also talked about how important it is that we check our posture in the midst of a storm. The "Why me"-posture will never lead to flourishing or to freedom in our lives. Instead we can ask God: "What would you have me learn through this storm?" Storms make great teachers. There is a lesson in every storm. Storms teach us about God, about ourselves and about other people. You will learn more about God than you ever did before during a storm. Storms can tell you what needs to be removed from your life and what areas you need to work on. Storms will show you who your friends are, you will notice who is for you and who disappears when your life gets difficult.

Storms will teach you valuable lessons about life but they will also make you a teacher to others. Once God has brought you through something very difficult you can use your story to help and encourage other people. You can now become "a lighthouse" to others.

What's going to happen when I die?

Atheist and scientist Richard Dawkins was asked what he thinks will happen after he dies and this was his answer:

“What’s going to happen when I die, if I met God in the unlikely event after I died, I think the first thing I would say is well, which one are you? Are you Zeus? Are you Thor? Are you Baal? Are you Mithras?  Are you Yahweh? Which God are you? And why did you take such great pains to conceal yourself and to hide away from us?”

I think Richard Dawkins has a great point. If God is real then why does he not reveal himself? It can seem like there are so many different options out there so how can I know which one is God? When we look at all the different world religions today nobody except Jesus is claiming to be God. Buddha is not believed to be God but considered a great teacher. Mohammad is accepted as a prophet. Christians believe in Yahweh and that he did reveal himself to us by taking on human flesh in Jesus. None of the leaders of the newer world religions claim to be God, except for Jesus. The older types of religions like the Egyptian gods, the Greek gods and Baal on the other hand, they were all believed to be gods.

I have to say that I’m glad that Baal is not the one true God because his followers used to sacrifice their own babies in the fire. Followers of Baal also used to slash themselves with swords for Baal to answer their prayers. I’m thankful that Baal is not God. At the same time the Christian faith does not dispute that Baal or the Egyptian gods had real power. Today we shake our heads at our ancestors who believed in the Greek gods or Baal but Christians know that there are real spiritual powers behind these false gods, and it’s not recommended that you get involved with these spirits. There is only one true God, Yahweh, but there are many different spirits and demons in the universe. The Bible warns people to stay away from magic arts or from taking part in false religions. There are real consequences to getting involved with these spirits and demons, some people have become very sick from being involved with these spirits. People in other parts of the world aren’t as stupid as we like to think that they are. If there was no power at all behind these false religions do you really think that they would keep practicing their religion century after century? People in the West tend to underestimate the powers in the spiritual realm.

Let’s go back to Richard Dawkins question. If God is real then why has he not reveled himself to us humans? This is what we know: so far in history neither Zeus, Thor, Baal or any other god has proven themselves to be real. Yahweh revealed himself in Jesus. He came down, walked on Earth for about 33 years, was killed and raised from the dead. The God of the Bible is reveled to us as being three in one: God the Father, The Son of God and the Spirit of God. Today each believer who comes to faith in God receives the Spirit of God in the exact moment when he/she believes. When we believe in the one true God the Holy Spirit comes to live within us. God is not hiding from us. God reveals himself to anyone who wants him. It’s up to each one of us to open the door to our own heart when God comes knocking on it. God will not force himself upon us, he knocks on the door of our hearts and if we choose to let him in we can develop a personal relationship with him.

We have been given free will by God and therefore it’s possible to live your whole life without knowing God. God has given us that option. I can choose to close God out of my life or to let him into my heart. I have the power to choose. This one choice will be the most important choice I will make throughout my whole life: will I accept God or reject God when he knocks on the door of my heart? 

"When you come looking for me, you'll find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed." GOD's Decree."

Jeremiah 29:13 (The Message)

Christian's story

Christian tells his story about what it was like growing up without his Father present and with a Mom who had to work two different jobs to support her family. Christian developed depression at an early age and later started using different types of drugs and alcohol. He got sent to many different psych wards and rehab centers but nothing could help him get his life back on track.

Christian eventually got sent to prison and he describes this as the best thing that could have happened to him. He was humbled in prison and started reading a Bible for the first time in his life. Today Christian is a believer and he is excited to serve God and help others find the same love and acceptance in Christ that he himself has discovered.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! I’m joyful and excited this week, like a little kid on Christmas Eve. Easter week includes so many fun things to enjoy. Today we had Women’s Connect at church, which is always a fun and encouraging experience. We are usually around 50-100 women per meeting and it’s a powerful thing to see so many women come together to walk through life’s ups and downs together encouraging each other. On Friday, my friends and I are planning to have a picnic in the park after the Good Friday service, hopefully the weather will be nice! On Saturday, we will have family over for Easter dinner and on Sunday we go to church again to celebrate the resurrection. This whole week feels like a party to me.

This week we are reminded of how amazing, loving and kind God is. We serve a God who isn’t a distant God. God chose to come down to our level and walk with us for 33 years. The all-powerful God Almighty himself chose to take on human flesh for a short period of time. What would you do if you had all the power in the whole universe? My guess is you would not use it to walk in humility and love like Jesus did.

If I was God I would be a terrible God, in the garden of Gethsemane I would have given up and said: “That’s it, I’m not doing this. I don’t care if people will go to hell unless I get on that cross to save their souls. I’m NOT doing it!” Jesus was fully human, and at the same time fully God. I’m just human, I’m imperfect. I’m grateful and in awe that God would do what he did for me, that he would give up everything to save my soul. He laid down his life for me and now he is calling me to do the same for others. I’m called to stop living for my own pleasures, wants and dreams alone and to live to love God & love people. We can’t please God without committing to loving people. We can’t love people well without committing to God.

I have a heart that is divided. I’m loving and at the same time I’m selfish and cold. I have strengths and I have weaknesses. I have beautiful gifts and talents but I also have some really messed up issues. I’m a mix of good and evil, we all are. The day I decided to ask Jesus to come into my heart I decided to give him access to my whole heart. I didn’t wake up a saint the next day, I still have my issues to work on, but God started to do a work in my heart from that day forward. God will continue to transform me until the day I die, all I need to do is spend time in his presence and let him soften my heart and make me new. God’s spirit (the Holy Spirit) now lives in me. The more I let God transform my heart the more the fruit of the Spirit will appear in my life.

“But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

Galatians 5:22-23 (AMP)

This week is a very special week, it’s a week when I take the time to go to church twice and praise God for everything he has done in my life and will do in the future. It’s a time when I’m in awe of how holy, righteous, kind and gentle God is. I’m also reminded that although the darkness in this present world is widespread God is bigger. God has the last word. This life will be difficult, painful and overwhelming at times but no matter what I’m going through God will be with me giving me strength to keep fighting the good fight. Life in this present world will be difficult, but it’s temporary. When it’s all over I will stand in front of God and be allowed to spend eternity in heaven, not because I’m a good person but because of Jesus’ work on that cross. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross opened the door of heaven wide open. Today, because of Jesus, anyone who chooses to believe and to ask Jesus into their heart will receive the Spirit of God and be forgiven for all their sins. I can’t think of anything more beautiful than that. God’s love for each one of us is the most beautiful love story of all.

I Have Nothing to Prove

Ever since I read Jennie Allen's book Restless I have loved her writing! Jennie's new book is called Nothing to Prove and I knew right away when I read the title that I wanted to read it. Most of us spend so much energy trying to prove our worth don't we? We work so hard trying to measure up, we want others to see that we are great at what we do and that we can "do it all", preferably at the same time. We risk wearing ourselves out in the process while we are running hard after acceptance, approval, attention and praise from others. We live in a culture that often tends to base a person's worth on things like career status, beauty, prestige and power. It's no wonder we are worn out from trying to live up to our culture's standard of what a successful woman's life is supposed to look like.


Jennie Allen shows us that God has an entirely different view of womanhood than our culture. If we look to the Bible we find out that we are fully accepted, appreciated, valued and loved by God just the way we are. We also find out that there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn God's love. God loved each one of us long before we were born and we neither gain nor loose his love for us based on our actions. When we become saved and are in Christ our souls are secure forever. Do you know what that means? It means that even if we didn't do one more good deed for the rest of our lives we couldn't loose our salvation. It's not our good deeds that saves our souls, it's our faith in Jesus Christ. When we are saved we are free, free to be who we are.


Yes, God will call each one of us to do different things with our lives that will help other people and bring him glory, but his love for us is not based on our actions. We serve God because it brings joy and great purpose to our lives, not because we are trying to be "good enough" for God. God's love for each one of us is a free gift, it's never earned. Once this truth sinks in we can let go of trying to find acceptance, approval and praise from other people, because we know we are fully accepted and loved by God himself and nothing compares to that. We can now love others freely, without trying to get something from them. We no longer love others in order to get attention, acceptance and approval from them but because we enjoy serving and loving others. That is the ultimate freedom.

Excellence

Pastor Holly Wagner from Oasis Church in Los Angeles teaches a great sermon about excellence in this video. Holly talks about how God calls us to strive for excellence in whatever we do. Excellence means we won't do our job half-halfheartedly, we give it our best. It means we won't do our marriage half-halfheartedly, we give it all we've got. This is how God calls us to live our lives: "Whatever you do [whatever your task may be], work from the soul [that is,put in your very best effort], as [something done] for the Lord and not for men" Colossians 3:23 (AMP)


Excellence doesn't mean "be perfect", excellence means we do the best we can in whatever we do. Excellence is about doing better today than you did yesterday, which makes it apparent that excellence will take more than just casual effort to obtain. Mediocre lives and average effort doesn't bring glory to God. God calls us to give our very best to whatever we do. If you are a painter do an excellent job at serving people this way, don't leave any paint stains on the windows and so on. If you are a nurse, do an excellent job at caring for the people who are your patients.


We can ask ourselves a few questions to determine how we are doing in the area of excellence. Are you treating with excellence everything that God has given you? Your job, are you better at it this year than you were last year? Are you giving it your best? If God has given you a family are you treating them with excellence, are you going above and beyond for them? Has God blessed you with a car? Are you treating that with excellence or are you just frustrated that you don't have a better car? When we serve people with excellence it pleases God and brings him glory. God gave everything to us, so how can we give Him anything less than our very best?


God calls each Christian to live a life of excellence. We are called to be examples of excellence in our speech, in loving others, in forgiveness etc. However, excellence will never be easy. Excellence always means stepping into something new. There is always work involved in excellence. We will never experience the life God desires for us from within our areas of comfort. It's not comfortable to change, it's not comfortable to work for excellence, but it's necessary if we are going to fulfill our life's purpose. Whatever you do, give it all you've got!

Marky's Story

Tears were streaming down my face as I listened to Marky's story for the first time at Elevation Church on Sunday. Each one of us will experience a lot of pain during this life on Earth, in one way or another. We can't change that, but what we can do is decide how we will approach this life. We can decide to be fighters facing our fears and the pain in this life with great faith and courage. We don't have to give in to despair and become depressed, we have a great hope in God and we know that although this life is painful it is temporary. Eternity awaits us just around the corner and we don't know how many more days we will get on this Earth, but while we are here we can choose to either live in fear or by faith.


Jesus could endure the pain of the cross because he was focused on the joy set before him. We too can either focus on everything that is wrong right in this moment or we can choose to look ahead. No matter what difficulty we face in this life it's only temporary, eternity is what comes next after this life and that is forever.


When my soul is secure in Christ I can hold on through all the storms of life and know that one day soon there will be no more tears, no more pain, no more death and I will be with God forever. I can keep running this difficult race called life with courage and hope because I know it will soon be over. Once this life is over the only thing that will remain is what I did for Christ. Did I spend my life on complaining and arguing with others or did I take every opportunity I got to serve God through loving Him and loving people? I want to be a fighter like Marky and not waste my time on Earth on complaining about what I can not change, but rather focus my energy on loving God and loving the people God brings into my life.

How to Be Content and Joyful

How can we be content and joyful in life when our dreams still haven't come true? It's easy to assume that when our dreams come true, then we will be happy and satisfied with life. We look at other people and think to ourselves: "She's got everything I dream of, she must be very happy and content with life." The grass is always greener on the other side, even the person who we think has everything doesn't have a life free of struggles.

It's good to have big dreams but problems arise when we become convinced that we can't be happy before our dreams come true, this kind of thinking sets us up for disappointment. If we think that we will finally be happy when our dreams come true we will most likely be disappointed when they do. There are many stories of people from history who have searched the whole world for happiness and come to the conclusion that nothing in this world can truly satisfy the human heart.

It's wonderful to see a dream come true in life but it's not going to keep us satisfied forever, in a little while we will be craving something more again. When we come to know God and develop a personal relationship with Jesus everything changes. The closer we get to God the more we start to experience his peace, joy and contentment. It doesn't make any sense to people looking on, because even if nothing else changes in a person's life but she finds God it changes everything. There are women in this world who have everything: the dream job, money, status, possessions, kids and a wonderful husband, but they are still unhappy. There are people in this world who live in prison or in poverty and still have joy, peace and contentment in their lives. That doesn't make any sense to someone who doesn't know God. When we turn to God and let Him fill that hole in our hearts we can walk through life with joy, peace and contentment every day, no matter what our circumstances look like.

You are loved! Happy Valentine's Day!

Amy Groeschel from Life Church tells a story in the video about how every year in Middle School flowers where given out on Valentine's Day. Every year Amy was hoping to get a flower but she never received even one. Sadly Valentine's Day can sometimes feel more like "Rejection Day". We all have days in life when we feel unloved, unworthy, lonely and insignificant, but no matter how we feel, or how people treat us, we are always loved by God. The problem is that although we know that God loves us we sometimes doubt his love for us. The little voices in our heads start telling us things like: "If God really loves you this difficult season would not have happened to you." or "If God really loves you your car wouldn't have broken down today." etc. Our spiritual enemy, the devil, is always working in our minds to break us down.


We sometimes decide to define God's love based on our current circumstances. If everything is going great in life we assume that God is pleased with us and cares about us and when we run into difficulty we assume that God doesn't love us. This world view is based on the belief that we earn God's love, but the Bible is very clear on the fact that we can never earn God's love. God's love is freely given to each one of us, even before we were born God knew each one of us and loved us. Christ died on the cross to set each one of us free, to make forgiveness available to each one of us. We don't earn God's love it is freely given and there is absolutely nothing we could do to loose God's love for us. We can choose to spend our whole lives running away from God but He will never leave us.


You have God's heart, He is crazy in love with you. You are chosen by him. We are all God's most treasured possession, and it's so unbelievable that we struggle to wrap our minds around this concept. God is constantly pursuing you. You are valued, you are treasured, you are loved, beyond anything that you could ever understand, and won't fully understand while on this Earth.


Every day, all day, we are surrounded by God's love but often we don't recognize it. Every good and perfect gift comes from God. It's important for us to know that we are loved by God. When we don't have a grasp of God's love for us it limits our ability to receive the blessings of God; his comfort, peace and joy. We can't either love others well if we don't first grasp God's love for us in a deep way.


How do you feel when you hold a newborn baby in your arms? Most people are overwhelmed by the love they feel for their own newborn baby, this is how God feels for each one of us. We are made in his image, we are God's children. God adores you, He is crazy about you and there is nothing you could ever do that would make Him stop loving you. Your whole life God will patiently wait for you to come to him, for you to one day decide to love him back.

Jump in The River

Pastor Thomas Hansen from Hillsong Church in Copenhagen preaches a great sermon about trust. Thomas Hansen mentions that we have never been called to fully understand God but we are called to trust him. Our level of trust reveals our faith. However, we all know that it can be hard to trust God sometimes. Our fears can hinder our faith, other times we let our negative self-talk hinder us from trusting God. God calls us qualified, but we start to tell ourselves all the reasons why we aren't good enough.

Thomas Hansen says that we should never let a temporary season in life become permanent. Life becomes really heavy when we let a difficult season in life define us. We will all face different types of painful and difficult seasons in life but we don't have to "set camp" in these places. We walk through the difficult seasons in life, we don't make them our permanent residence. When we "set camp" in a difficult season we start to let our struggles define us. We get hurt by someone and we start viewing ourselves as victims. We get offended by somebody so we let the difficult experience make us bitter. We decide to stay in our difficult season rather than to move on.

I like what Thomas Hansen says: " Your position in life is not as important as your direction." Life is not so much about where you are at right now, it's all about where you are heading in life. Where are you going? We are always moving in a direction. One thing that can hinder us from moving forward in life is labels. Our culture is quick to give us labels; divorced, unemployed, broke etc. Labels define us and restrict us, resist the urge to label yourself. We will all go through difficult seasons in life but we don't need to let these temporary seasons define us, our job is to keep moving forward.

One way we can keep our faith and continue to trust God during a difficult season is by remembering what God has done for us in the past. If God helped you overcome struggle A,B and C in your life you can be sure he will continue to guide you through struggle "D". We can trust our God. The Bible tells us: "So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you. "(Deuteronomy 31:6 NLT)

Sometimes we are at risk of missing out on our breakthrough in life because of a couple of different reasons:
1.) We expect God to bring the breakthrough according to our own personal plan and preference. Sometimes the way forward will look very different than we expected, so we choose to rather stay stuck.

2.) It seems too simple. There are times in life when we can get so focused on our method that we end up trusting our method more than we trust God. We think that if we do things just right we are going to get what we want in life, when in reality a method is just a method. Our God is not restricted to a method. Sometimes we don't want to do what God is asking us to do because it seems too simple.

How we view our problems matters

When we are in a season of confusion and pain in life our perspective becomes very important. God's perspective and my own perspective will be very different. Most of the time I aim for an easy and trouble-free life so it's not surprising that I get frustrated when I hit a roadblock in life. When I find myself in a painful season in life it's always tempting to blame somebody else for my pain, but I can make the choice to let the circumstance make me better rather than bitter. What looks like a problem to me might just be God's provision for my life. What may look like a failure to me might just be what God brought into my life as the training ground where he will make me stronger and better than before.


Pastor Charlotte Gambill from Life Church in England teaches us what we can do when we find ourselves in a confusing and painful season in life. The thing that can save us during a difficult season is the people we surround ourselves with. When we are going through a painful season we are always tempted to isolate ourselves, but in isolation we will only get more angry, more frustrated and more sad. We need to surround ourselves with people who won't only tell us what we would like to hear, but the things we need to hear. It's also important to not let certain people speak into our lives during a painful and confusing season in life. There will always be people who will be quick to tell us why we don't have what it takes to overcome the challenge we are faced with. We need to make the choice to surround ourselves with people who can encourage us during the difficult seasons of life, not people who add discouragement and help us stay stuck in life.


It's important to remember that although the problems we face in life can be really frustrating God's perspective is much bigger than ours.What we view as our life's biggest mistake might just be what God will use to shape us into someone who can help others more than someone who hasn't made that particular mistake in life. What we view as a threat to our plan for the future might just be God redirecting us toward a direction that will bring more good things to our lives than we could ever imagine.


Josef's story in the Bible is one filled with roadblocks but God used all the hard stuff in Josef's life to build incredible character in him. Josef was quite arrogant as a young man but after years of struggle he had become a man of great character and integrity and that's when God gave him a very influential role in the land. Josef's older brothers viewed Josef as a problem and decided to get rid of him, little did they know that the same person they viewed as a problem was going to one day save their lives. Perspective changes everything. If we keep staring at our problems all we will ever see is pain and hardship. We can choose to lift our eyes and trust that God is working in all things for the good of those who love Him. What the enemy sent our way to try to destroy us God can turn around and use it for good.