Jasmine's Story

Jasmine was living a happy life as a newlywed and had a clear vision for how she thought her life would turn out. Three years ago a tragedy struck Jasmine's life that would change everything. Life turned out very differently than Jasmine had imagined and after tragedy struck she was lost and longing for a new start in life. Jasmine eventually ended up moving from Denver to Los Angeles and in Zoe Church she found the community she had been longing for. Today Jasmine is happy to serve others through leading the Host Team at Zoe Church LA.

November Joy

Fall has always been one of my favorite seasons of the year. When I grew up we used to spend a lot of time at the cottage with family during Fall which built a love of nature in me. I love going hiking in November. All the bees are dead now and no wasps are chasing me on the hiking trail in November. Going hiking with family is so much fun!

On a rainy November day I like to listen to Kristene DiMarco's new album "Where His Light Was". I love all the songs on this album and Kristene's voice is spectacular!

On windy, rainy and cold November days I enjoy spending time in our warm Family Room. I read magazines and books and light candles with a Caramel Pumpkin Cheesecake scent.

During the beginning of November I try to enjoy the last couple of weeks with colorful trees in our neighborhood as much as I can.

November is also a time of year when I appreciate living in the suburbs extra much. When it gets dark and colder outside I love how cosy it is to have your neighbors close by.

1st of November in North America also means that the Christmas season begins! I'm planning to shop most of my Christmas gifts for friends and family during November. I like to sip on a Chestnut Praline Latte while I do my Christmas shopping, to get into the Christmas spirit a bit. Once it's the middle of November I go all out and start decorating the house for Christmas plus listen to Christmas music daily. It's (almost) the most wonderful time of the year! 

A Day of Rest

I’ve been a lazy and uncommitted Christian when it comes to honoring the Sabbath Day. Although I’ve always been a strong believer in prioritizing time for rest and having one “slow day” every week I can’t say I have been honoring the Sabbath Day. My normal way of approaching the Sabbath would be to go to church in the morning and then fill up the rest of the day with a mix of chores and activities with family.

This fall I’ve been doing an 8-week study called Proven by Jennie Allen together with my friends at church. We get homework every week and one week the homework included establishing a Sabbath Day practice. The guidelines were:

“SUGGESTIONS AS YOU PREPARE FOR A DAY OF REST:

·        Lay out some books to read and peruse, along with a journal to jot notes in.

·        Do not use technology.

·        Prepare the food you and/or your family will need ahead of time.

·        Tidy your house to be free of distractions.

·        Prepare the people in your life to join you or to respect this time.

·        Prepare a playlist of music for your home or Sabbath space.

Now, rest and enjoy.”

Jennie Allen, in her wonderful book “Proven”.

The main reason us humans feel like we can’t take a day of rest every week is because we are too busy. We simply don’t have time to rest. The question we all need to ask ourselves is this: Can we afford to not rest? Burn outs are becoming more common among women every year and the same is true for different types of mental health problems. One of my favorite pastors Craig Groeschel once said: “If you are too busy to have sex 2-3 times per week with your spouse you are simply too busy.” I love that quote! We’re acting like we don’t have time to prioritize our marriages, time with family and time for rest but the reality is that these are non-negotiables in a life of flourishing. Having three different hobbies is optional, writing a blog or having an Instagram account is optional, quality time with our loved ones is not optional.

If we are too busy to have sex, spend time with our families and rest then maybe we need to revisit our core values in life. Do we value money and status at work more than family? Do we value time spent on social media more than having sex? Do we value achievements so much that we spend seven days a week achieving stuff rather than allowing ourselves to rest? Everything we do stems from the core values that we have accepted in life and are currently building our lives upon. Rest is important to God, so it is important to me. I’m grateful that God decided to make rest one of the Ten Commandments. God knew how easy it is for us humans to become workaholics and achievement-addicts. It becomes easier to allow myself A Day of Rest when I understand that God commands me to rest.

It requires some planning to establish a Sabbath Day practice. I must plan ahead of time when I can do all the errands that I used to do on Sundays. No more grocery shopping on Sundays. No more housework or cooking on Sundays. There’s no point in beating ourselves up if something doesn’t go according to plan and we end up needing to take a trip to the grocery store on a Sunday after all, but striving for a full day of rest is a good thing.

It’s been a month since we started celebrating a Sabbath Day in our house and we love it! The day usually looks something like this: we wake up and attend church at the 11:15AM service. We come home and make some brunch after church. We go for a hike or a walk along the beach in the afternoon. Another alternative is that we head downtown to hang out with family who lives there. We come home in the evening and warm up dinner that I cooked on either Friday or Saturday. We light candles around the house, put on some relaxing music and just hang out together. Sometimes I read and journal in the late evening before going to bed.

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".

I'm a Millionaire

This is my favorite weekend song right now! I am loved by an amazing God whose name is Jesus. I am loved by my amazing family members. I am loved by my wonderful caring friends. I'm a millionaire!


Because love is more precious than gold
It can't be bought, no, never could be sold
I got love, enough to share
And that made me a millionaire

How can I love him back?

The ironic thing about life with God is that as new believers we are passionate about figuring out what the purpose is for our life. We boldly ask God questions like: “What’s my purpose?” and “What’s my calling in life? Please reveal it to me!” What happens when God answers our questions? We freak out. The response often sounds something like this: “Aaaaaah! Nooo, I don’t want to do that! That’s too scary and too big for me to accomplish! Don’t get me wrong God, it’s a beautiful plan, but are you sure you have the right woman for the job? I’m not strong enough for that calling. I don’t have enough courage to accomplish what you are calling me to do!”

God’s response to our fears is usually something like this: “I know, and that’s exactly why I chose you. You do not have what it takes, so the only way you are going to be able to accomplish this great task is by letting me do it through you.” God is a great God, and it should come as no surprise that He will call us to great things. Plans so beautiful and big that we get both excited and terrified at the same time when He reveals them to us. We are not the first people in history to have that response to God’s big and beautiful plans for our lives. When God chose Moses to lead the people of Israel Moses was convinced that God had chosen the wrong guy for the job, because Moses had a stuttering problem. But God knew exactly what he was doing, our limitations will not hinder God’s great plans for our lives, but our disobedience can.

The Bible calls us to love God and love other people. We know what we need to do to love other people; prioritize spending time with them and help them out. But how do we love God? It’s simple; we spend time with God through prayer and reading the Bible and we help him out. How can we help God? We help God out when we do what He is calling us to do. There’s something we were created for and when we do what God calls us to do we express our love for Him.

“Do we love God? Do we keep his commands? The proof that we love God comes when we keep his commandments and they are not at all troublesome.” (1 John 5:1-3 MSG)

It’s a joy, not a burden, to get to live this life serving God and follow his purpose for our lives but it’s also scary. Following God will often include the need to face some fears. If I’m only willing to obey God when I’m not afraid, then I won’t do much good in this life will I? There are a couple of different journeys that God is clearly calling me on during this season of my life and I haven’t started neither of them yet. Why? Because I’m terrified! Obeying God would require me to face a couple of my biggest fears. It’s tempting to listen more to my fear than I do to God. But what does that say about my love for God? If I know what God wants me to do during this season of life but I choose to disobey him because I’m afraid, then I don’t love Him very much do I? I’m not surprised that God is calling me on these two different journeys this year. Fear has too much power over my life and God clearly wants to change that. My problem is that I’m too content with life the way it is right now. I’d rather stay stuck and be comfortable than get up and face my biggest fears.

God loves me so much. He has given me so many beautiful gifts in this life since the day I was born. God gave me a loving and warm mother, a loving and protective father, a loving and kind brother and many wonderful friends growing up. God gave me a healthy body with arms and legs that work. I can walk, talk, sing and dance, my body is a beautiful gift from God. I was also gifted with the great honor, responsibility and blessing of being born in a country where I never had to worry about having enough food, clothing or a roof over my head growing up. God has given me so many beautiful gifts throughout my childhood and he continues to bless me every year in powerful and beautiful ways. How can I not love Him back?

I can choose to follow my fear, or I can choose to face my fears and obey God’s call on my life. It’s time to make that jump. I want to love God back! No more excuses. I know God will give me the courage I need for each step of the journey after I take that first step of obedience, so here we go! Step 1, check!

to be continued...

Set Free

“We strive to be seen, to be known, to matter. We’re desperate to believe we are doing a good job at whatever has been entrusted to us. But we are not enough. We are not God. We don’t have all the answers, all the wisdom, all the strength, all the energy. We are finite, sinful beings. And that is okay.

In fact, it is the confession that unleashes the freedom we are aching for.”

Jennie Allen, in her book “Nothing to Prove”

We all long to live our lives free but we walk through life weighed down by burdens. These burdens can be shame, fears, pressures and different types of difficulties. Here’s an example of what our thoughts can look like when we carry around burdens:

“I’m not worthy.

I’m a fraud.

I can’t measure up.

I’m too weak.

I can’t do this.

I don’t know what I should do.

I feel helpless.

I’m going to fail.

People will get mad.

I won’t be liked.”

Fear, pressure, shame, we carry them around year after year and they drain us of energy and steal our joy and peace. We worry that we aren’t enough and here’s the scary and beautiful truth: It’s true, we are not enough, but God is. We don’t get very far when we try different strategies to help ourselves get better self-esteem or more confidence, because deep on the inside we know that we are not enough. Our failures and inadequacies don’t come as a surprise to God. God could have chosen to make us perfect but instead he made us human. Why? Because we were created to function not on our own, but in a relationship with God. We were never meant to live this life alone so when we insist on leaving God out of the picture we end up burdened down by fears, pressures, shame and difficulties that overwhelm us.

There will be no freedom for us until we are willing to say this out loud to God: “I am not enough.” Freedom is only possible after we have named and confessed our failures, fears, pressures and our shame to God. God’s forgiveness becomes available to us immediately once we confess our failures, but until we do that they won’t go away, they will continue to weigh us down. God wants to set us free from the need to measure up, free from all our burdens and free from the pain of never being enough. It starts with our confession. Once we name and confess our burdens we receive God’s beautiful grace.

When we come to God and let him give us His forgiveness, grace and love we become free, empowered and filled with his joy and peace. We can now finally see ourselves the way God sees us, and it makes us completely free. God’s love takes away all our pressures and the need for striving. When we come to God with our failures we receive His forgiveness and the freedom that follows. When we come to God with our fear we receive the courage we need. When we come to God with our difficulties in life we receive the strength we need for each battle. It’s always an exchange, a relationship between us and God.

The fact that every single one of us carry around a feeling of not being enough isn’t a sign that we’re worthless, it’s a sign that we need God. But the pride inside our hearts keep pushing God away. We don’t want to need God. Here’s another truth: every single one of us knows that God is real, we know this deep inside our souls. But we don’t want God, we suppress the knowledge of God. We push God out of our hearts and out of our minds. 

Each one of us wants to be “the God of our own lives” and we understand that if we were to acknowledge God it would change everything about how we live our lives. We don’t want that. We want the throne, so we keep pushing God off the throne, but that doesn’t change the fact that God is still God. I can choose to deny God, but I can’t make God go away. But once you have tasted and felt His love you never want to live separated from Him again. There’s nothing else on Earth like God’s love, nothing else even comes close to being as amazing. God’s love is what sets my soul free.