The real gift

Christmas has always been such a happy holiday to me...the wonder of it all...Jesus...born so long ago in such terrible conditions. A murderous plot, Mary and Joseph traveling so far for government business, no room for them so they must go to a stable and birth a baby among dirty animals, smells, no accommodations; UNCOMFORTABLE. The wise men finding more than they ever realized they were searching for...they come in worship and find their lives changing forever. The shepherds being counted as worthy to go see the newborn Messiah. What a beautiful love story God has given us to ponder on all year and be amazed by our whole lives. Happy birthday, Jesus! The real gift IS You!

I know some people are not so happy during the holiday season. Memories too painful crowd out the joy of the season. Some so lonely they cannot bear to try to find joy. I pray that those thoughts never have to invade my mind. I pray that even as life deals blows (which it will), that I will always keep in mind the real joy I have in Jesus. It IS during these times that I miss my Granny so much. She loved making Christmas special for the grandkids. Her last Christmas she spent apologizing for not making it very special because she was in the hospital. I hope she is celebrating this Christmas with Jesus and that each Christmas she finds more and more joy in Him as He reveals more of Himself to her.

Merry Christmas!

The best experience

I had the best experience as a teacher last week. Two of my six boys submitted their lives to Christ. It was very emotional and something that I will always hold dear to my heart. I have been crying out to God for years that I could be effective for the Kingdom of God. I don't just want to waste time here on earth. I want to be useful for His purposes. I just began talking with them about Kingdom issues, and asking them some questions about where they are with Jesus. During that time, two of them told me that they had not made Jesus Lord and Savior, and one told me, "You know I have, because you were there praying for me when I did!" Honestly, I had to stop and think about what he was saying, and I realized he had gone forward a few weeks before at an altar call at church. I didn't know he was up there to be SAVED, but I did pray for him. That blew me away, too! Here I was praying for him during the most important event of his life, and I didn't even know it! So, I have been able to be involved in three (not just two) of these boys' lives during the most important decision they have ever made. It's very humbling. I cried much that day.

The down side: the battle is ON now. One boy in particular is having a very hard time living righteously. He is in trouble all of the time. Please pray for him. These boys have a major leadership quality that God wants to use in the future, but these are the training ground days for them to figure out how to please God in the little things.

And I am honored to be a part of it, even though sometimes it can be frustrating. I just have to remind myself that I have read the end of the book, and Jesus WILL be victorious.

Testimony: Part 3

We knew that this was to be our church home and that we wanted to really plug in and find our place in the body of Christ. We were meeting all the families and getting to know everyone along with their children. I’ll never forget an incredible sermon we heard about the body of Christ. Each member of the church is like a brick. And we are built together into a wall as living bricks (“stones” the Bible calls us) to build the “church”, because the church is not an actual physical structure--it’s US. If we were not built together, but if we, as bricks, just came together every Sunday in a pile, said hello, sang some songs, and then left to be discarded bricks again, would that serve any purpose? NO! We must be joined together for a purpose. My brick is joined closely to other bricks in the house to build the church and the kingdom. I cannot just be a “lone-ranger” brick and build anything. I need others. And I am naturally going to be more closely connected to other bricks/stones because of our connection or our place in the body, but that brick/stone will be surrounded by other bricks that I am not as closely connected to, etc. This revelation freed me from feeling like I had to be BEST friends with everyone in the body. I can love all, but it is not possible for me to make a “best friend” connection with every brick in the body. But for a perfectionist, this is a hard revelation to grasp. You feel like you are somehow failing some people. In this picture, I realized that those bricks that I touch are reaching out to those that I can’t. But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired 1 Corinthians 12:18.
Relationships are the key. Jesus walked in relationship and so must we. We need each other.
When most people hear the word “accountability” they start getting defensive. With a stiff neck and chin lifted, they chide, “Nobody better tell me how to live my life. That’s between me and God.” Or, “If someone tried to keep me accountable I’d make sure they remembered what they’ve done wrong.”
Biblical accountability is not coming up to a brother or sister in Christ and blasting them with a list of their sins like you are some Holy Ghost hitman. Rather, it is coming alongside them in love, talking with them, relating with them, asking questions, or praying. But it must be with a person that you have already built a strong bridge of relationship with in the past. Otherwise, if you try to hold someone accountable for their actions that you have no relationship with, chances are they will think, “Who do you think you are telling me this? I don’t even know you that well?” It is just too odd and will not produce the benefits desired. Biblical accountability is speaking the truth in love to one another, and sometimes it is not easy, but it is necessary for growth. Sometimes the truth really does hurt, but my true friends have been honest enough with me to say what I have needed to hear out of love for me, and I have benefited from their honesty and have grown in my walk and faith in God. We need each other. Sometimes we go along with life and are blind to things that are hindering our walk with God that other people can help bring to the surface, whether they mean to or not, just by talking with us. Or maybe as they start asking us how we are really doing (not just the casual, “Hi, how are you?”, but really digging in to find out what’s going on in our life) they begin to ask about an area that maybe we don’t want to share with them. It’s at that time that we have to ask ourselves, “Why don’t I want to share about this and be transparent? Is there something I’m trying to hide or avoid about this? Could it be that I need to work on overcoming some sin in this area, and I’m just offended that they’re trying to bring this up?” Your friend is just trying to be a friend. They are trying to help you walk out things in a Godly manner and are there to help you, not condemn you. That is what an accountability partner/friendship is for. It is not always easy. The Bible says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” Proverbs 27:6. Thank God that there are friends that are willing to be true friends and are not afraid to ask the hard questions in order to help us grow up in God!


I know this has been long, and some of it not directly my "testimony", but it is what God has placed on my heart, and I wanted to share it with my readers. May we be faithful to the local church bodies that He has placed us in as we provide our "body" part.

Testimony: Part 1

I was raised in a Southern Baptist church in a small town in Southeast Kansas. I have never lived my life apart from a local church. Whenever the doors were open, we were there. My Dad was the song leader for many of my growing-up years. We had several families that came, and quite a few children. However, as I got older, more and more families left for various reasons, but for whatever reasons, the relationships were breaking down and not being fixed. By the time my sister went off to college, I was the only one in the youth group. It is very hard to press in to know God more and to want to do His will when nobody your age is, and the relationships in your church are not very strong. My church had no vision for legacy. The legacy left, and all that remained were a handful of older people staying together out of tradition and a longing for the “good old days”. The Bible says, “Without a vision, the people parish” Proverbs 29:18. Fortunately, today, that church has a new minister who has birthed a new vision, and some of the people who had left when I was a child are coming back, and so are some of their kids and grandkids. However, I dare say they are not out of danger if the things that they are building upon are not what Christ desires for a local church to built upon: relationships with Him and each other and a vision for legacy.

After I married, we found church after church with the same dilemma: mostly older people, mostly women, few children, and fewer still young people that DESIRED to be there. The little children came with their parents, and most of the older kids came because their parents made them come, even if they were kicking and screaming. They are the youth that sit in the back, arms crossed across their chests, rebellious to any authority, coming to church hoping to find a boyfriend/girlfriend to at least justify “wasting time” there. Even sadder is the fact that people think of them as good church kids just because they fill a pew! Do we really just want bodies to fill space, or are we building a church that would fulfill the purposes of Christ on the earth? After punching our religious timeclock for a few years, Dennis and I came to a point in our lives where we felt spiritually dead. We were longing for relationships, only to find none; we were longing to find a place where God was alive and moving. We kept saying, “There’s got to be more!”
There are two reasons people leave a church: 1) out of purpose 2) out of perversion. If you are leaving for any reason other than finding the purpose of God for your life, then you are leaving for the wrong reason. If you leave because you had a fight with someone, or you just don’t like someone there, or you are not happy with how “they” spent your money, etc., then you are leaving with unresolved sin issues that will follow you to the next church you decide to call home.
After much prayer and desperation, Dennis and I knew we had to find where God was actively moving and where we could begin to have a family. We knew that we did not want to start having babies before finding a place where they could grow up knowing, loving and serving God, not just knowing about God and being religious church kids.
There is a big difference between knowing God and knowing about God. You can gain all the academic knowledge you can about God, be able to recite the Bible forwards and backwards, and yet not have a clue what God’s thoughts and ways are about. How does one know God that way? The same way you know your best friend inside and out. You spend time with Him, talk to Him, be open to Him, share everything about who you are and what you think with Him. It’s called being transparent. When I live an open, transparent life, I’m laying everything out on the table for someone to see. Not just the good, fluffy stuff, but my bad side, too. And we ALL have a good AND a bad side.
We were all born sinners. But just because I have a good side doesn’t make me saved. I’m still a sinner. What makes me saved is the fact that I have acknowledged that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, and because of His blood, I can boldly come before the God of the universe and ask for His forgiveness and let Him be Lord of my life. You see, before Jesus came, people had to sacrifice animals in order to have forgiveness of sins. You see it in the Old Testament and in historical Jewish documents. Sacrifices were made at different times throughout the year in order to cleanse the people of their sins. The animals had to be without blemish, spotless. They had to be pure. No human is pure, so they used the blood of animals. However, history changed when Jesus came into the picture. He was the only perfect human; both absolutely human and absolutely God. The Bible talks about Jesus praying the night before his death for God to take the cup away from him, unless that was what God’s will or purpose had to be. The cup he is referring to is the cup that holds all of man’s sins (yours and mine). He looked into that cup, saw all of the corruption, deceitfulness, lies, lust, sexual immorality, idolatry, murder, and bitterness that we had committed and chose to drink it. He chose to put all of those sins, both present and future, upon himself, even though he was sinless, in order to be the living sacrifice for us so that we would have a way to come before God covered by his pure blood. Before Jesus, only the high priests saw God. They were allowed into the Holy of Holies, a room where God’s presence dwelt, only once a year, and if they were not cleansed and holy, they would die in the presence of God. Once Jesus died for us, the veil between the Holy of Holies and the rest of the tabernacle was split wide open. Jesus made a way for God’s presence to be among us and for us not to die when He is with us. When the reality of that hits us, and we become keenly aware that we have not been in God’s presence in such a way that it has changed us, then we are living as if we know Him, but in reality we only know about Him.

Speaking of Star Wars...

I read a book entitled, "Finding God in a Galaxy Far, Far Away", and there were some great truths in it. Here are some from the end of the book:

In God's story, heroes don't have to be powerful; they simply have to be available.

Jesus reminded us that the true hero's quest lies not in creating new possibilities for tomorrow but in seeing today's possibilities with new eyes.

What if you spent every moment as Jesus did, looking for epic possibilities?

In as much as you see divine possibilities where the rest of the world sees only difficulties and trivialities, you are a hero.

Airplane story

So, I am finally back from all of my vacations...however, I have one more trip Aug 4-6 to Kirksville, MO for a teacher's gathering. (sigh) I haven't had much of a usual "summer break", but hopefully will get accomplished all I need to before school starts. All this traveling makes me wonder if I will. It has been a good summer, though. I would take this any day over remodeling!

I wanted to tell my readers a story about the lady I sat next to on the flight home. She was a very spunky elderly woman. At first, we didn't say much to each other. She had grabbed a book to read, and I settled in next to Molly and grabbed Dennis's iPod to pass the time. We had a very funny flight attendant who came on the microphone and began telling "Steve Haden" type jokes. It was really the best flight I had ever been on because he made it so much fun. After he told a few jokes, the woman next to me began to say how "cute" that flight attendant was and how Southwest Airlines started. They only flew out of Texas, and their stewardesses wore short "hot pants", white cowboy boots and white cowboy hats, and they would line up like a chorus line and "dance" you off the plane. Very funny. They would also throw peanuts to you from across the plane. (Lamberts, anyone?)

She then began to tell me that she is 84 years old. She played tennis until she was 80. She and 5 of her friends all made a pact in their 60's that they would continue to play as long as they could, and they would try to play until they were 80. They all did. Cool.

She used to be a school teacher, so I told her that I am, too. I told her about our church school, and she was very interested. I found out that she has a rebellious streak in her, though. She said that when they outlawed saying the Lord's Prayer in school, she obeyed; however, her superintendent told all teachers to continue saying it. All the other teachers continued except her. He called her into his office and asked her why she refused to say the Lord's Prayer with her class. She told him that it was against the law and she wasn't going to disobey the law. He told her, "I am more afraid of His law (pointing upward) than that law." She told me she still wouldn't do it, and replied, "I've always been a sort of protester."

She goes to a certain denominational church, and she told me a couple of shocking things. She told me that a while back during a church service, a lady got up to speak. "Now, I know that may be normal in your church, but in OUR denomination, you DON'T do that kind of thing." The lady spoke about how she is a lesbian and she has been to several churches, but this church has been the kindest, most non-judgmental church that she had been to and was thanking them. After that lady spoke, a man got up and said how two of his sons are gay and they have said the same thing. This church is a place where they feel more welcomed. The woman on the plane looked at me and said, "Now, I was thinking to myself, 'I don't necessarily think that that is a good thing.' But I'm 84 years old, and I'm too old to go church shopping, so I will stay there, but I'm wondering where we are headed." **Note: I would hope that lesbians and gays would feel the love of Jesus at any church, but if they found a church to stay in, I would hope that someone would challenge them and their lifestyle. I don't believe in being mean-spirited to them, but I would want them to know the truth--absolute truth--of God's Word.

The second shocking thing she told me was that she and 5 of her friends all raised their children in church. A while back they were sitting around and began asking each other how many of their children were going to a church. She said, "Do you know how many of all of our children go to church? Zero. Nobody." She told me how their church has only elderly people, and she doesn't understand where all the young people went. She said, "I know the evangelical churches are really the ones that are growing. They really get out there and are the movers and shakers. I just don't know what happened with my kids. I took them faithfully, and I was raised to be there every Sunday and Wednesday, but my kids and grandkids don't go anywhere." "Wow," I thought. That would be so very disheartening. I began to talk with her about the thinking of this age, postmodernism, etc. How what is right for you may not be right for me...this is the thinking of today. There is no absolute truth. I pray. I pray that my children will never let the thinking of today or tomorrow be their way of thinking. I pray that my children will have such a sure foundation of who Jesus is, that there IS an absolute truth--called God's Word--that they always need Jesus. We all do.

Lord, liar or lunatic?

I am reading an interesting book in my classroom while they do their handwriting. It is called More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell. So far, it is really good. He poses the question, "Who do you say that Jesus is?" Today we read how either Jesus IS Lord/God, or He is either a lunatic or a liar. Lord, liar or lunatic. If He is a liar, claiming to be God and claiming that He is the only way to God, and if He wasn't really, then he would not just be a liar, but he would be very evil. Scratch that off the list. If He states that He is Lord, but really isn't, He would at least be a lunatic. Of all the statements He made about Himself, he would definitely look like a crazy man if those statements were not true. Many people call Him a moral man, good teacher, etc. Could a lunatic be a great teacher? How about people that have had their lives changed by His teaching? Sorry, but He is NOT a lunatic. He either is what He says He is, or He is not. Guess that leaves Lord.

Yes, I believe He is Lord and God. I believe that He is the only way to God. I believe that He saves lives, changes us, wants us to know Him in a real, relational way. I believe that He is coming back someday, and I want Him to always be pleased with me. This is the Jesus that I know. He is amazing!