Obedience and Discipline

Over the last several weeks, I've been praying to for "spiritual wisdom and understanding" (which is what Paul prayed for the early churches in the letters he wrote to them.) I thought to myself, I need that too.

Well, God had different things in store for me! In Proverbs 3:11, it states, "Do not despise the LORD's discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves".

I'll be quite honest, I needed a little disciplining. Enter the word "obedience".

God has been dealing with me about being obedient to Him. Yes, I obey the commandments and I seek forgiveness for my sins, but that wasn't what He was dealing with me about. He was dealing with about "fearing" him, which is "reverent obedience" of which I did not have. Yes, I love the Lord, yes I believe in Him, yes I desire to do the things of God, but was I being reverent in my obedience? No.

Before you can gain wisdom, you must gain fear and obedience. So, in essence I was praying for spiritual wisdom out of order from what God needed from me first.

Today as I was getting ready to bring the girls to school, Elisan came into the bathroom and said to me, "Mom, I know you love me, but sometimes you act like you don't." I was totally taken aback... Who wants to hear that? I was thinking to myself, 'I really need to work on the fruit of the spirit more. '

But then she went on, "Like when you get mad at me and tell me to go upstairs to my room."

I said, "Baby, I do that to show you that your behavior is unacceptable. I do that so you will know how to act... NOT because I don't love you."

I went on, "Doesn't God give us the 10 Commandments? And what do they tell us? They tell us how to act. The tell us how God wants us to be. And when we don't do what God tells us to do, He lets us know. That is why we ask forgiveness, right?"

She answered, "Yes."

And then I went on, "God loves us and he wants us to do the right things... make the right choices. That's all I want for you, baby. I'm not being mean when I have to discipline you. I do that because I love you."

Then she said, "So, you love me all the time, even when I do mean stuff."

And of course I answered, "Yes, baby. I love you all of the time!"

Isn't that just precious? And isn't that just what God wants from us? He wants us to obey Him, but not just His commands. He wants us to fully submit ourselves to Him, not because he is a 'ruler', but because He loves us and we love Him. Because HE knows what is best for us. Fully submitting our obedience to the Lord will only mean the best for us. Isn't that what we want for our children?

Thank you Lord for reminding me of your just ways through my little girl today.

It's all about obedience folks

If you happened to miss my last few entries about obedience, let me refresh your mind...

All I can say is that if you are having trouble hearing from God and knowing his will pray for obedience. Let's face it folks, obedience is NOT a natural response, because hey, we are natural human beings! Remember Adam and Eve? They walked in the garden WITH God... they spoke TO God... they had RELATIONSHIP with God... and yet, they were STILL disobedient to God.

Obedience is hard. But, necessary. Discipline is hard. But, necessary. Anything worth doing well is hard... but necessary.

Driven By Eternity

I very rarely recommend books. I realize people have very different tastes in literature. What I like to read may be a far cry from what you like to read.

However, back in November, John Bevere came to our church one Sunday. He spoke about his new Bible study called "Honor's Reward" and it was awesome.

Fast forward to December... I was making my list (from the online library catalog) of books I wanted to check out at the library. I plugged in John Bevere's name and found a fiction book written by him called "Rescued". I read this book and was riveted. I found myself in shock and disbelief and in tears as the book came to a close.

At the end of the book, John Bevere wrote a note to the reader about a book that he wrote that dealt with the fundamentals of eternity called "Driven By Eternity". Since my library did not have this book, I ordered a copy on Amazon.

I'm about 1/2 way through the book and let me just say... it has changed my life! This book is packed with scriptures that deal with eternity, God's judgement and the fear of God (which is not actual "fear" but reverent obedience to God). It has changed the way I pray. It has changed the way I feel, act, think, behave, etc.

This is not a feel good "everybody goes to Heaven who believes" kind of book because as Bible scripture points out, even the demons believe! The scriptures are clear and the interpretation is straight forward. I strongly encourage ALL Christians to buy or borrow this book.

It is worth reading... over and over again. There is also a Bible study program. I'm going to send this information to a few people at my church and see if we can get a study group going about this very topic. So important!

I've got...

Starting Tuesday, I will officially enter the WORKFORCE! Whoa... that's huge news for me, especially since I haven't worked in... oh... 7 1/2 years!

I'm excited, but the most exciting part is how it all came about. Allow me to share!

For a long time I've 'known' in my heart that God had bigger things for me. Bigger, meaning that I had gifts and talents that were not being utilized to it's fullest potential. I haphazardly pursued God about it, wondering if perhaps my blog would be the outlet in which I would fulfill my potential. I mean, I love to write and I love to design (albeit, it's still just a hobby of mine) and what a better way to minister to others, but through my blog.

But as I mentioned, I haphazardly pursued God about the direction I wanted to go. What I mean by that, is that I 'knew' in my heart what I needed to do, but that was not what I wanted to do. This went on for about a year. But more on that in a minute...

The fall season comes along and I really begin to start to seek God. I still felt that there was more for me out there. I even shared this with several people close to me and what I felt God was telling me to do in order to get there. But, I was still resistant.

By December I was a mess. And finally God and I had a 'sit-down' of sorts and I finally(!) told Him that I was ready to let Him be in control. That it was not about me, but about Him and His glory. (That is why I've been preaching to y'all about obedience!)

So, finally, I told God I was ready to not only be reverently obedient to Him, but to be willfully obedient to Him as well. I finally came to terms with what that meant and I "let go and let God" do His work in me.

First I repented... to God! Then I sought forgiveness from people I felt I may have hurt in my previous ministry experience. There was some garbage out there that needed to be cleared out.

Second, I signed up again to serve in the same ministry that I needed forgiveness in. I felt God was telling me I not only needed to reconcile with people, but with the ministry itself. About that same time, I was asked to head up an organizational project at church for one of my good friends who is on staff at the church. While we were talking, I mentioned to her that if any job became available at church that I would like to know about it. The reason being, was that Randy recently took a company wide pay cut and I knew he was worrying a little about that.

Okay, HERE IS WHERE GOD BEGAN TO MOVE... (I hope you have kept up this far...)

That same week, I was asked to sit in on a marketing meeting at church. My 'assignment' was to give consumer-type feedback on the church's website. I was honored and excited to be invited. I had no idea why I was included, but God did!

The meeting went well. Later I found out that the people in the meeting were impressed with my feedback and thought it was right on target. A week later, my friend on the church's staff called and asked me if I would be interested in interviewing for a job at the church the very next day!

So, Wednesday I interviewed with the executive director of our church and he offered me a job! I'll be doing a variety of things, namely assisting him, but I'll also be working in an aspect of marketing as well. The hours will be part-time, which so totally rocks and best of all, it is at my church! HOW AWESOME IS GOD?!

So, to recap:

• I intentionally sought God!
• I repented!
• I relinquished my independence!
• I became obedient - by reentering ministry!
  
• God rewarded me in a way I never expected!

If you ever think that our God is not an intentional God... think again!