Thursday, February 9, 2012

Childlike Faith

{This is a video of my son "reading" his Bible. No, he is not reading it for real, and he quotes scripture that is not real, but it just showed me how innocent he is and how much he simply loves the Lord. He wanted to read, and so he did....kind of :)}


"Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it at all”
Mark 10:15

What is “childlike faith”?

How can thinking like a child be good for our walk?

I witness childlike faith every day through my beautiful children. They teach me more about pure, genuine love in Jesus than any adult could begin to teach. They make up songs about how good God is. They make up stories with Dad about God delivering people out of difficult situations. Last night Jaxson said that he missed an Uncle of ours that passed away in Sept. He then said that he looks forward to being in heaven….WOW. This may sound strange to some, but for me, to have a child that longs to be with the Lord, it was breathtaking.

We as adults are so busy and so weighed down with life that we often miss out on some of the most innocent of moments—moments when God is calling out to us to just trust Him.

We have such a problem doing this. I know I do at least. I far too often think I can fix a situation on my own, or see a situation as hopeless when in truth; He has it all under control. Children see this, children GET this!

Jaxson is by far our most vocal about Christ. We can be driving down the road and out of nowhere he’ll make up a song about how good God is. Or he’ll sweetly say, please turn up the radio, I need to hear God.

Melt. My. Heart.

If only we could all be like children and just simply KNOW that He is good, all of the time! If only the weight of our sinful lives didn’t make us question Him, or ourselves. Children don’t have this problem. They have lives that are protected, and they can experience Him in ways that we simply are blind to because of weight we carry around.

I praise God for using my children to remind me that I need this childlike faith—and I don’t want to ever be “too mature” to simply WORSHIP Him!

This song by Chris Tomlin was a sweet reminder as well that our God, He is a GREAT GOD!




How great is our God
By: Chris Tomlin

The splendor of a King, clothed in majesty
Let all the earth rejoice
All the earth rejoice

He wraps himself in Light, and darkness tries to hide
And trembles at His voice
Trembles at His voice

How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God

Age to age He stands
And time is in His hands
Beginning and the end
Beginning and the end

The Godhead Three in One
Father Spirit Son
The Lion and the Lamb
The Lion and the Lamb

Name above all names
Worthy of our praise
My heart will sing
How great is our God

How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God

Monday, February 6, 2012

The girl behind the blog


Thank you to Erin & Ashley for hosting the Girl behind the Blog. I am so excited to share my heart with you all! I am sorry about the glare on my glasses and the shakiness of the camera. This video was so hard to record as I hate the way I look on camera and having to introduce the littles took about 4 attempts. You'll notice that Hayley's lips are glittery and pink probably from her nose to her chin--that would be the lip gloss she is in love with and hasn't quite figured out how to apply. But, no question about the realness of this video I'm sure {wink}

I thank you for taking the time to view my first Vlog




Fatih, Grace, Works


“What good is it my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?”
James 2:14

The age ‘ol argument that our faith is all we need. I have been extremely blessed through a new church that is studying the book of James right now. I love watching God ordain things to our specific life situations and He most certainly led me to this study. I have been blessed on two Sunday mornings to hear the preaching on James and I must tell you, it is exactly what I need in my life at this very moment.

I’ve struggled this week greatly with writing. Every time God would lay something on my heart to write about, I would hear this little voice in the back of my head say, “You know someone’s going to talk about this. You know someone’s going to laugh at you.” So, I did just what satan would have me do, I stopped writing about God in fear of what someone would say…my walk faltered because of the opinion of others.

WOW!

How truly sorry I am for this!

Why did I allow this to happen? I think it has to do with this James verse—my works were being challenged. I am so open about my love for Christ that I am causing a separation between me and the world. People look at my walk and simply don’t understand why I can’t be quiet, they don’t understand the deep intense love that pours out of me because of His saving me. The separation comes because I am not of this world, I am of His kingdom and people see how completely different my beliefs and life is compared to how I used to live.

So often in today’s society we just want to take our faith in God and put it in a box. We want to say we love Him, we want to say that He is our foundation in life, but we do not want to “do anything”. And goodness forbid if someone says we’re not doing something; then the argument comes—“How dare you judge my walk”.

I fell victim to this situation this week and stumbled. But, the beauty of stumbling—HE LIFTS YOU UP. And that is most assuredly what He did for me. He allowed the pain that can be directly and indirectly inflicted by others affect me just enough that I was able to see Him lift me out of a pit. His hands pulled me up, nothing I did myself. I was able to grow, mature, depend upon Him and put aside my fleshly instinct that would have in the past crushed my spirit. He allowed just enough pain that there was no doubt in my mind that I could grow because of this trial, because of this heartache.

It was at that time that I had to evaluate, okay Lord, what do You want me to see? How do faith, works and grace fit together? I understand the faith and the grace, I feel those immensely. Show me how works fits in here and why I feel so strongly that it is imminent in our walk.

Oh how miraculous He is. Oh how beautiful His grace is.

He showed me just want He wanted me to see.

Faith. Grace. Works.

Why and how do they fit together?

Can they work separately from one another?

I do not think so. And I don’t think so because I believe they each play a role in our love relationship with Christ.

Faith—the belief we have in God. The foundation of our life. Without faith, nothing is possible.

Grace—poured out on that cross-by a Man, both fully human and equally God. Poured out to believers once they have acted upon their faith and accepted His death as an atoning sacrifice for their sinful lives.

Works—the outward expression of our faith once we have been blessed with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Once we have the Spirit, we want to serve the Kingdom, there is nothing we want more than to bring glory and praise to His Kingdom. Without His Spirit, works mean nothing to a person because they don’t feel the connection within to serve God.

The essence of what I am saying—we must be born again. We must have a regenerated heart. A woman who goes through labor—she has to work at delivering a child through her womb, a Doctor has to work at taking the child through c-section. But there is real work that goes into birth. The same is true of rebirth in Christ Jesus. Denying our old life and accepting His life is work, it’s hard because our flesh constantly wars against Him.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying by any means that you must “do” something in order to be saved. Baptism is not necessary; it is an expression of faith. No law can be kept in order to get us into heaven. Any person has up until the moment that God takes them from this world to accept Him. {And they will have to accept Him in order to experience life after death}

But, to enjoy a love relationship with Him, to enjoy the blessing He has for His children, this is where I believe faith, grace and works all come together into one concept to strengthen our life. It encourages us to stay IN Him, it strengthens us to CALL upon Him and enables us to crucify our flesh WITH Him.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Hayley Peyton turns 3


My sweet Hayley Peyton turns 3 today. 



Wow!

Where does the time go?

I remember the first time I held her in my arms, what a small, sweet gift I held!

She is a gift from above, a blessing from His gracious and generous hands. I look at her sparkling blue eyes, her fire red hair and my mouth always turns up. She is radiant!

She enjoys playing guns and swords with her brothers, while wearing her princess dress and shoes. She loves lipstick and high heels and the color purple. She love princess movies, Tinkerbell and of course her boy side LOVES TARZAN. 

 She is my wild, independent ray of sunshine. I cannot begin to imagine what my life would be like without her. She brings so much joy into my life. 

 Happy birthday sweet girl, may your years be blessed abundantly by our Mighty God above! May your steps always be directed by His hands and may your heart always be willing to follow Him. May you never forsake the teachings you receive and may you always stand strong in life with His Word as your foundation. You were formed in my womb by Him, set apart for good. I look forward to watching you grow and mature and blossom. 






You are my sweet butterfly princess.