my D-o-g teaches me about G-o-d

Timber teaches me a lot about our relationship with Jesus. I’m Timber’s master; God is our Master. He doesn’t look at me like some despised low-life; He loves me even though I am incapable of reciprocating the kind of amazing love He has for me. He works to teach me how to follow him as I should. When He tells me something and I stare blankly at Him or still trying to do my own thing, He is patient with me. When I give Timber a command that he hasn’t learned yet, and he doesn’t do it, I think to myself, “He doesn’t know that one yet. I can’t be pissed at him for what I haven’t helped him to learn.”

Then God helps us learn, even through conditioning. We reap what we sow. When we are selfish and do our own thing, the result is painful. Sometimes when Timber is trying to run off when we are walking, I have to pull his leash and choke him  a bit so he associates pain with not listening to me. I do it because I love him, not because I’m punishing him. The more often and longer distances we walk together, he gets more used to my stride and walks at my pace. The more time we spend with God and get to know Him, the same is true. Everytime I pull Timber’s leash, he looks back at me. I realize pain is often what God uses to get our focus back on Him. Pain opens our ears to hear God’s voice.

I know he’s just a dog, but I love how he loves me. I have a lot to learn about how I should love my Master. Everytime I come home, Timber is so excited to see me. Every single time! It’s never like “Oh cool, you’re home.” But he is ecstatic! I’m his favorite person! Man, how I enter God’s presence sometimes is just crap considering how awesome He is! Wherever I go in the house, Timber follows me from room to room. He just wants to be wherever I am. When I look at him or call his name, his tail immediately starts thumping! He loves to be close to me.

I can also tell when Timber just wants something from me. When he’s hungry or wants to go outside, the way he follows me around is different. I get annoyed by it actually, because he’s not paying attention to me out of love, but out of wanting his way right away! God can tell when we do this to Him. I bet it annoys Him too. But we don’t just get rid of Timber for doing that, and God doesn’t get rid of us either. He is an awesome Master that meets our needs and even our wants. I was planning on feeding Timber and taking him outside anyway, because I already knew his needs ahead of time! We don’t need to beg God. We should focus on just following him around out of love for Him, not using Him to get what we want.

I Lift Up My Soul

This is my book review of the book “I Lift Up My Soul” by Charles Stanley. I got this book as a member of booksneeze.com.

“I Lift Up My Soul” is a 365 day devotional by Charles Stanley. I was interested in it because my dad has always loved Charles Stanley- I’ll probably give him this book after reviewing it.

I immediately liked the book for the look and feel of it. Hardcover! So that’s nice. I have never been much of a devotional-book-reader, but I have always liked “My Utmost For His Highest” by Oswald Chambers, and I still read that several times a week, but not every day. So I’ll kinda be comparing/contrasting with that. “I Lift Up My Soul” has a similar style to it with focusing on one Scripture for the day and meditating on what that means for our lives. While Oswald Chambers is a lot more intellect-y, Charles Stanley is a lot more down-to-earth and practical. His devotional is really new-Christian-friendly.

I love that he emphasizes how spending time with Jesus is not just the most important part of our day, but the BEST AND GREATEST part of our day. Spending time with Jesus in the morning is more awakening than coffee, more energizing than exercising, more directive than making your own to-do list.

Love, Charleston

This is my book review for Love, Charleston by Beth Webb Hart.

I think I’m just not much of a fiction person. I requested to review this book because I really WISH I were more of a fiction person, but… I’m not. That being said, my opinion of this book may not be worth listening to if you’re a fiction lover.

I was bored after the first couple chapters. I found it hard to identify with the characters, maybe because of their age (late 30’s) and setting (the South.)

Beth Webb Hart does a great job telling a sweet love story, but it was pretty predictable throughout the story. The happy ending put a smile on my face.

I’m gonna pass this book off to one of the older ladies in my church. I’m sure they would love it! and it satisfies that romance stories us women crave, without the wordliness/trashiness.

World-Changers

World-Changers

This is what I got to do last night- talk about God’s Word with these amazing students! You can see it all over my face (click the pic to look more closely!) I’m thinking: “I LOVE this life that Jesus has given me!”

Thanks, Chris, for taking this shot.

Book Review: The Edge of the Divine

I just finished reading “The Edge of the Divine” by Sandi Patty. I thought it was okay. Here are some likes and dislikes:

Dislikes:

• Her sense of humor is more “aged” than I appreciate. Like stuff my mom would think is funny. (I’m 25 for a point of reference.)
• The book was all about her emotions and her life stories more than about God or what God was teaching her
• I didn’t realize the main focus of this book was going to be about her weight loss. But even for a book mainly about that, I didn’t think it was very HELPFUL for people struggling with weight loss.

Likes:

• It made me think about the divine edges in my life (“the point at which something is likely to begin”) and it made me think about what other edges I need to cross over into God’s adventure
• It encouraged me to have “an attitude of gratitude” so that feeling bad for yourself can’t take root
• Some of her stories were really cool! Stories about how God worked everything out so perfectly and on time or about how he confirmed things in such specific ways to her when she was praying for confirmation. I don’t usually pray “for confirmation” the way she wrote about, but those stories were really faith-building!
• I liked that she used the Message version off the Bible when referencing Scripture. 🙂

Like I said, there was some good stuff. Other parts really bored me. I’d recommend this to women 40’s or above (like my mom- I’m probably gonna send it to her now that I’m done with it!)

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com <http://BookSneeze.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

texting while driving?

God detests the prayers
of a person who ignores the law.

Prov. 28:9

DANG!

I know this verse is applying to spiritual law, God’s laws & commands, but God’s law tells us in Romans to follow the laws of our land and submit to government and authorities, etc.

How often do we dismiss as trivial something God actually detests? And the consequence is that even our prayers become detestable to him. That would annoy me too, if someone said they love me but they refuse to acknowledge the fact that they are continually doing something that they know I hate and hurts me… and then they come to me like nothing is wrong and start asking me for stuff.

Really I think all of us have a little “anarchy” mindset in us, where we think because we disagree with the law, we don’t have to follow it. Maybe ignoring speed limits, legal drinking age, etc etc. But the mindset transfers over to God’s law as well. We know it says ____ in the Bible, but that just doesn’t apply to us or is a little too ridiculous.

Jesus said, “If you LOVE me, you’ll OBEY my commands.”

ineffective?

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8

Wow! What a perfect blueprint for discipleship!

Discipleship=obedience to Jesus. We end up looking like Jesus!

What of these qualities are lacking in my life, or evident in my life, or increasing in my life? What about in the lives of those who I am discipling?

My greatest fear is being INEFFECTIVE. I want my life to please God.

If these qualities are yours and are INCREASING, they keep you from being INEFFECTIVE!

offset

Proverbs 4:23

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

This is just like what I’ve been thinking about all week with the theme of your heart becoming the story of your life.

So I’ve been thinking about the theme of my heart and purposefully SETTING the theme as I spend time with God each day. But this verse emphasizes that though you can set the theme, it can EASILY be OFFSET, so we have to guard our hearts.

What offsets a good theme?

1. Corrupt/perverse speech (v. 24)

The words that come out of our mouth show us what’s really in our hearts. But also listening to others’ corrupt speech will get into my heart- gossip, bitterness, complaining, negativity, etc- all destroy a good theme.

2. No Goals/Focus (v. 25-27)

These verses command us to put our focus straight ahead & don’t get sidetracked, for US to MARK OUT a straight path for our feet. This is looking to the future, prayerful goal-setting. Without clear focus & purpose, our heart’s theme EASILY becomes OFFSET by the many distractions the enemy will offer us.

We guard our hearts by guarding our focus. It’s so important to have a godly schedule and not too much free time. Boredom leads us to sin!

love is not a weapon

Psalm 45:1

My heart is stirred by a noble theme
as I recite my verses for the king;
my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.

“The theme of your heart will determine the story of your life.” Brian Houston

What is the theme of my heart?

When I think about being called to Hamtramck, I think of it as a battle. An uphill battle. I want to “take this city for God!” and make progress everyday!

From talking to a beautiful teenager last night, I realized that I view love as a weapon, used to demolish people’s walls. Like with teenagers, I will love them to tear down the walls of hard exterior so they will let Jesus in.

But love is not a weapon. Love is Love.

It’s not that I’m viewing God wrongly. The Bible tells us that God is a warrior, and also that there is spiritual battle. But He is also a God of peace, who wants to bring peace to people’s hearts and minds. It’s BOTH/AND.

(I think we tend to view God through the lens of our own personalities, and we emphasize the character traits in him that are the strongest in ourselves. I’m not much a person of beautiful words; I’m a person to get stuff done.)

The theme of my heart shouldn’t be “uphill battle” but instead VICTORY. Believing the BEST about the future of Hamtramck. It will change the story of my life.

need joy to win souls

Psalm 51:12-13

Restore to me the JOY of your salvation and make me willing to obey you. THEN I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you.

I need JOY FIRST to win souls!

• No one wants what I’ve got unless they see JOY in me!
• We claim to have joy but we need to TELL OUR FACES that!
• Real joy always wins out over shyness or personality!

Joy comes from…

• SALVATION! My own AND seeing others saved! (Psalm 51:12-13)
• KNOWLEDGE from God’s word! (Prov. 2:10)

For wisdom will enter your heart, and knowledge will fill you with JOY.

• OBEDIENCE to God’s commands! (Prov. 29:18)

When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever OBEYS the law is JOYFUL.

Questions I’m asking myselff:

• Do I really have JOY? the kind that takes over ME and people see Jesus instead of me?
• Do I passionately desire salvation for those who don’t know Jesus? Or has it just become “what I do?”
• Do I really know God’s Word and obey it? When no one else is looking, is God pleased with my life?