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A Perfect Father Doesn’t Vacuum up His Children

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My oldest is nearly seven and she still has the irrational fear of being sucked up by our vacuum cleaner. As far as I know, nothing has ever happened to bring on this condition. But, every time I wheel it out to the living room she’ll get up (even if she’s already a safe distance away) and either scramble to the very top of the couch like her life is in danger or, more recently, just go and hide in her room. Now let me tell you something, I have a 100% success rate of not vacuuming up any of my children or anyone else’s children. Part of her just doesn’t believe she is safe in that moment and maybe this is the time she’ll disappear into the bag.

Looking back, He has been 100% faithful when it comes to caring for us.

You know who else has a 100% success rate in being faithful to His word? You see, God has never let me down. Never failed to provide for me when I lived with my parents, when I was single and living on my own, or since my own family has been in full time ministry. He has always provided friends, food, cars, laptops, plane tickets, shoes, last minute babysitters, the list goes on and on. It may not always be what I would prefer at the time in all of those areas, but it is always what I needed and what He knew was best for my family. Looking back, He has been 100% faithful when it comes to caring for us.

Yet, even with the facts laid out over and over again before me, I still doubt. I still struggle to have faith – not every time, but often enough for the same question to pop up again: “What if this time is the time it doesn’t work out?”.  How many doubts and worries rise up in those moments that cause stress, bad moods, despair, health issues, overeating, under eating, loneliness, and guilt because I am obviously not cutting it as a ‘good Christian’ when I worry?

The longer I’m alive, the more examples I have of God not letting me down…

The longer I’m alive, the more examples I have of God not letting me down and the more weight that 100% has behind it. But, if you’ve read even a little of the Old Testament you know the concept of forgetting is nothing new. One of the most famous  examples of this is the deliverance of the Israelite’s from slavery, how quickly they forgot God’s faithfulness and therefore spending the next 40 years wandering around in the desert.

WE may never fully understand God’s character in this lifetime, but there are many absolutes the Bible does teach us about our Creator. I don’t have space to list them all here, but faithfulness is one of the big ones.

…perfect Fathers don’t vacuum up their children.

So, even when we doubt, when we turn away, when we give up, He has nothing but grace, mercy, and a new start waiting. That’s what our perfect Father is like. And perfect fathers don’t vacuum up their children. We have nothing to fear as the Bible reminds us over and over again.

Hopefully, one day, my little girl’s brain cells will finally multiply in the right sequence for her fear to fade away. But, until then, that lowly machine that lives in the closet has become a physical reminder to me of God’s faithfulness and to not doubt His promises.

Wanting to learn more about God’s faithfulness?

Come join us for a Discipleship Training School where you can learn about God’s character and experience His faithfulness alongside others

Can One Word Change Your Life?

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God spoke one word clearly during the lecture phase; “Montana.”

When I was 19 I left England and eagerly boarded a plane for The Netherlands to do a Discipleship Training School (DTS) at YWAM Heidebeek. As the oldest of four, I couldn’t wait to finally leave home and do something that was just mine. God spoke one word clearly during the lecture phase; “Montana.” I heard it once again on outreach in India and then in random ways over the next few years.  At the time I had no idea YWAM was even in Montana, this was obviously before the Internet ruled all. Having never been to the USA but being of prime American-movie-watching age, “Montana” conjured up 3 thoughts: rural, cowboys, and borders Canada. I’ve since discovered the other 49 states pretty much feel the same way. Like most young Brits, the USA was the cool aunt you always wanted to live with and I couldn’t wait for my turn. Montana would be as good a place as any to start.

Fast forward four years and the now 23-year-old-me left London again to start the first leg of my journey for what would become three YWAM schools. Fun fact: in July 2005 a one-way train ticket from NYC to Whitefish, Montana was $72. Guess who spent 3 full days riding coach with Amtrack?!

As it turns out, that single word God spoke to me at age 19 in a tiny Dutch village, in a multi-purpose classroom filled with Dutch and international missionaries-in-training, with bi-lingual everything and a lot of stroopwaffels, was a glimpse into over a decade of life I was going to spend in another tiny (but similar) place on the other side of the world. I didn’t fixate on it much, I just knew that one day God would bring me to Montana for some reason and that it was an important part of His plan for me.

That’s what lead me to DTS and then ultimately to Montana, where I still am…

I spent my later teenage years in the church trying to wrap my head around how to live a Christian life that was worth something:  trying to be a world-changer and earth-adventurer while I’m here, and trying to please God and have purpose beyond what my culture was funneling me into (university at the time).  That’s what lead me to DTS and then ultimately to Montana, where I still am 12 years after getting off of that train in Whitefish with 2 suitcases, complete confidence God was going to rock the next year, and needing a shower ASAP.

There are only a few times I remember when I knew I heard God absolutely, and for some reason they have usually been just one word.  If you have ever heard a clear word from God about anything, you know that He exists. And just like working on your health is key to having a body capable of carrying out what you are doing in life, working on your ‘Christian skills’ is also paramount to finding success in your walk with Jesus through everything the world is going to throw at you.

I know that I know that I heard His voice…

DTS changed my life in many ways – those ‘skills’ included learning how to be quiet before the Lord, listening to Him, thinking outside the box through a biblical lens, being part of something greater than myself, seeing God in cultures and people different from me, and that’s just scratching the surface. Mainly DTS changed my life because it was the place I got clear direction from God, which has since silenced any doubts I’ve had about His goodness and grace. I know that I know that I heard His voice then and, although He could have said it any time, He chose to do it in a place He knew I would hear Him and have the faith to wait for that word to be fulfilled. That one word has since transformed into another that will forever mark my life: “Home”.

If you need direction, if you struggle to hear God or even doubt that He’s real, if you long to see miracles, to find people who understand your fears, to somehow have your faith grow and your heart set on a path of healing, I encourage you to pursue DTS. No matter your age or current situation – if all it took was 5 months to bring life-long change, wouldn’t you drop everything and go? It’s worth it all to find out.

TAKE THE LEAP AND JOIN US FOR OUR FALL DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING SCHOOL! 

Starts September 18th

How to Avoid Misusing and Abusing the Bible

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a particular passage in Philippians 4 immediately jumped into my mind. Which states, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Relevant magazine produced an article on The Five Most Misused and Abused Bible Verses in the church. When I saw the title, a particular passage in Philippians 4 immediately jumped into my mind. Which states, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Sure enough, the author stated that verse as the number one most abused passage in the body of Christ.

Here are a few more common verses people seem to abuse.

How about sweethearts quoting Jacob and Esau’s statement to each other that, “The Lord watch between you and me while we are apart”. In it’s original context this is a statement between two adversaries saying, “if you rip me off or do something bad to me while we’re apart, my God himself repay.” It’s not a romantic verse between a courting couple. Of course, the intention is good and they are just wanting to say may God watch between us and bless us as we are apart.

And, of course, there are the people who quote, “For where two or three are gathered in his name, he is in their midst.” The verse actually refers to when two or three people gathered together to discipline somebody for their disobedience to the Lord.

More famously, there is the Romans 8:28 passage that says God makes all things work together for “my” good. When, according to the context, it is for the whole church not the individual. One more example of the danger to interpret scripture based on “me” rather than the original context.

So, why do people go about abusing Bible verses?

Different people would give different answers as to why all of this happens.The relevant magazine article is quite good about context, literary context and the usage of words etc.

Imagine reading Tolstoy or Tolkien and pulling out one sentence from the middle of either of their works…

However, In my mind, the primary reason that people abuse Bible verses is because they don’t read the Bible.  What I mean by this is that people often read the Bible like they read the phone book.  Every verse has an independent meaning apart from the verses around it. Imagine reading Tolstoy or Tolkien and pulling out one sentence from the middle of either of their works and claiming to understand what the author is saying.

My wife and I have been running a Bible school for the last 40 years (called the School of Biblical Studies). At our ministry location our leadership recently instituted a year-long emphasis on Bible reading.

They asked everyone to pray and create a plan for their yearly reading. Further, our ministry leader asked everyone to choose an accountability partner to talk to about how we are doing with our plan.

My accountability partner decided to read through the whole Bible this year. She just told me that she finished the old testament as she had planned even though she just had a baby three weeks ago. After that update, she received a new Bible. And in a text message she told me, “because of my hunger for the Bible, I simply read through the whole Bible – my new one.”

How does that relate to abusing Bible verses?

Plenty. As I said at the beginning of the article, in my opinion, the reason people abuse Bible verses is that they do not read the Bible. And by not reading the Bible, I mean that they do not read the Bible as a book. My accountability partner, the mom with the new baby, certainly read the Bible as literature.

A person can read through the whole Bible in one year if they read just four chapters a day.

Reading through the entire Bible in a week or a month might seem a bit ambitious but, that does not have to be the starting point.  A person can read through the whole Bible in one year if they read just four chapters a day. Taking smalls steps might be the best option for someone who has never read the Bible like this before. An individual can pray and ask God how He wants him or her to be reading through the whole Bible as a beautiful piece of literature.

So, what about people who don’t like to read the Bible? Well, I have two answers.  

First, they need to pray (and ask others to pray) that God will give them a hunger for the Bible. This has always been my basic encouragement to those who have asked me to teach them to read their Bible. I recommend they simply ask God to give them a hunger and then read the Bible. This is how I developed my passion for the Bible – six young men prayed for me regularly for six weeks without me even knowing they were doing it.

My second answer would be to recall John Wesley’s statement to Methodist preachers in the 1700s. He wanted all Methodist preachers reading (both Christian and non-Christian literature ) five hours a day in order to preach sermons that would be “worthwhile.” If a person didn’t like to read, Wesley’s words were, “You need to learn to like to read.” I would say the same thing is true for the Bible:  if you don’t like to read the Bible you need to learn to like to read the Bible.

Kudos to relevant magazine.

How do I answer the question, “what is the best way to prevent abusing and misusing the Bible?”

Read the Bible.

 

HAVE YOU DONE A DTS BUT STRUGGLE TO READ THE BIBLE AS A BOOK? 

COME JOIN US FOR A SCHOOL OF BIBLICAL STUDIES THIS SEPTEMBER TO SPEND 9 MONTHS STUDYING GOD’S WORD AND BEING TRANSFORMED BY IT. 

YOU WON’T REGRET THIS.

The Crux of Self-pity

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Within a rock climbing route, there is often one spot defined as the crux.  The moment of truth.  The technical portion that once one is able to move beyond it, they can be certain no part of the route will be as challenging as what they just passed.  The crux is the critical point of the feature that demands the most of the climber.  As I reflect on the idea of a crux, I am better able to see my current battle: the feature of self-pity.

Self-pity can be easily dismissed by most as a struggle they don’t have, yet I am sure that there are many thoughts we daily entertain which would fall under this category.  I have found self-pity to be perpetually knocking on the door of my mind in small, seemingly insignificant moments. When left unchecked or corrected with Truth, self-pity manifests itself in more critical junctures that affects my perspective on the people and circumstances around me.  The tendril of self-pity sinks deeper into the mind when left to its own devices.

Self-pity is a crux with two spelling variations: “Me” and “I”.

A knock so faint, I barely hear it – the irritation of always finding the garbage overflowing to the floor….so I re-bag the items and clean the mess.  The knock grows louder as situations are brought to my attention of people acting purely out of self interest and harming the group for the sake of themselves.  The knocking becomes more persistent as I dwell on the frustration of seeing people as immature or self seeking rather than self-sacrificing.  And there it is: the doorway is opened and with a fateful swoop “ME” enters the door and sits promptly in the center of the living room in my mind.  Me.  The self-seeking idea that insists, “’I’ deserve more than this, that ‘I’ shouldn’t always be the one mediating, ‘I’ shouldn’t have to parent and lead, ‘I’ should get a break…. I, I, I.”  Self-pity is a crux with two spelling variations: “Me” and “I”.  Both flow fluently through our minds and both find lodging in our hearts.  Both are equally poisonous and spoil how Christ has called us to live.

I find myself, on a route that promises to be incredibly fulfilling, life-giving and maturing, yet hanging on just below the crux.

So, here I find myself, on a route that promises to be incredibly fulfilling, life-giving and maturing, yet hanging on just below the crux.  As I eye this critical point, my practiced understanding of route finding immediately identifies the way to move beyond it:  I need Jesus.  I need Jesus desperately and with all that I am.  I need the richness of God’s mercy to bring this tendril of self-pity to death and bring new life in it’s place.  Self-pity has no place in my heart and mind, and while there are cracks and areas of weakness that it could potentially settle into and take root, I refuse to spread the welcome mat for the destructive vices that would move in with self-pity.

By the rich mercy of God, I have been united with Christ in his death and resurrection, through which I can anticipate and take joy in the life that WILL come forth from this open hearted cry to the Lord. This crux of self-pity will not be a technical feature by which I allow myself to be defeated and thrown down.  No matter the number of times I lose my focus, or my grip weakens and fingers begin to slide off of my place of progress, or legs begin to shake in fatigue from fighting upward, I will look at this crux of “Me” and ask Jesus to raise my eyes higher still.  I believe that through His rich mercy, I will walk in new life and later on find myself looking down at the crux in joy of having overcome it. Then with a deep breath I will continue to climb upward.

Some of my favorite routes are such because of the crux…

There are some climbing routes where the crux is at the beginning, some the middle and others the end.  Some of my favorite routes are such because of the crux, and I choose to climb them over and over until the crux is no longer the sticking point that still causes my adrenaline to race or my mind to fight for a way through it.  With practice, your body knows the demands of the crux and it no longer causes you to exert tremendous amounts of energy to move through it.  The practice of moving through the crux includes dismissing affirmations of others who see your efforts and chide others for their neglect.  Moving through it means that we consistently choose to act through the foundation of God’s love and servitude – who did not come to this world to be served but to serve and give His life as ransom for many (Mtt 20:28).  Will we choose to be conformed to the image of Christ even in painful acts of servitude, which require carrying our cross and dying to self, just as He bore all of our iniquities on the cross that we might have life (1 Peter 2:24). We have a choice to climb and persevere through the route, regardless of how many times we fall back down while attempting to move through it. We have a choice to be a victim or valiant.

I choose to be hopeful that while the crux of self-pity will still exist within my life, it doesn’t have to be a taxing and extremely challenging endeavor to climb through.  I will be able to look at it with victory already shining in my eyes because Jesus has delivered me and He will yet again.  The faithfulness of Jesus far outweighs the anticipation of the crux that presents itself.

 

FINDING YOURSELF STUCK AT A CRUX THAT’S KEEPING YOU FROM WALKING IN THE FULLNESS OF THE LIFE JESUS PROMISED?

COME JOIN US FOR A DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING SCHOOL TO LEARN HOW TO LET GOD HELP YOU THROUGH EVEN THE MOST DIFFICULT ROUTES. 

What If God Isn’t Telling Me What to Do?

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…but as life continues, you realize just how out of control you are.

Life is always full of transition. Whether it’s moving, a new job, relationships changing or ending, or even a perspective shift. Transition is inevitable and in many ways, unwelcome. We enjoy stability and knowing what tomorrow will bring. It brings us security and a sense that we are somewhat in control, but as life continues, you realize just how out of control you are.

As a Christian, at times, God gives you a direction for your life. He will tell you what to study at school, to go on a missions trip, or tell someone about Him. While this can be quite terrifying at times, there is always a sense of peace. It is black or white – you either obey or you disobey. To some, that brings comfort because the decision is made, you simply have to follow.

But what about those times in your life when God doesn’t give you a clear direction? What then? Do you simply continue to live your life or search for something more? These times, I’ve found, are almost crippling. Why would the Creator of the universe give me a choice, or worse, be silent as I seek direction? I am nothing in comparison to Him and yet He would allow me to decide? So In those times the simple question is, “What do I do?”

You never want to hear your mother say she has breast cancer, let alone six days before your wedding.

The past year has been a whirlwind of transition in my life. In the matter of a week, I found out that my mom had a rare form of breast cancer, I got married, and I finally laid down a dream I had had for years. You never want to hear your mother say she has breast cancer, let alone six days before your wedding. You don’t want to lay down your dreams, however, you are also willing to for something better. It made for a long, confusing, scary, and also terrific week.

That time in my life was very difficult and I had to make big choices constantly. Walking through cancer with my family and deciding where that would take me, as well as my new wife, while also grieving giving up my dream that I thought my future would look like. And through all of that, God was letting me decide which steps to take.

I found no clear guidance from my Father in heaven on issues near and dear to my heart – He simply let me choose. Choose what dream I wanted to follow in my life, choose where to live, choose what to do, and choose the kind of life I wanted essentially. One year later, and through many decisions changing, God is proud of what I have decided and I have learned many valuable things through making those decisions.

Letting you choose is God’s way of letting you know that you are mature enough to make decisions for yourself…

The pinnacle of what I learned through this time of stepping up and deciding what I wanted my life to look like is simple:  When God gives you a choice, rejoice. Letting you choose is God’s way of letting you know that you are mature enough to make decisions for yourself and shows that He truly cares what your dreams are. He is such a loving Father that He will let you decide which path your life will take and wants to bless you.

Through these times, always remember that even when God is silent and seems to be absent when you are struggling with life’s choices, He is always there. And the good news is that He will give always be there for you when you need Him, it just might not look like what you think you need from Him.

*Scriptural support comes from Proverbs 1:1-7 and 16:1

ARE YOU IN A TIME WHERE GOD SEEMS TO BE GIVING YOU CHOICES (FOR YOUR FUTURE)?

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Can WE change lives?

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Reaching out.

In the past 6 months, I’ve seen this phrase play out in Scripture repeatedly. In Luke chapter 8 Jesus was on his way to the ruler of the Synagogue’s house to heal the ruler’s deathly ill daughter. As they rushed through the crowded streets to reach the young girl, there was a woman who sought out to find Jesus. She had been sick for over a decade, and as she saw him she reached out for his cloak. This was an act of complete faith. She believed that merely touching the Messiah would bring her healing – and it did. As soon as she touched him, she was healed. Jesus then sought the woman out of the crowd, knowing that someone had touched his cloak.  This story shows us that in the middle of all the busyness, Jesus stops. This woman would have been just as in awe of Him if all she received was healing, but Jesus stopped to acknowledge her, to call her daughter, and to tell her that her faith has made her well.

Reaching out, in its most vulnerable form is sticking out your hand and waiting faithfully for someone to grab ahold of you.

Before my involvement with ministry, my definition of “reaching out” would have been casually saying “Hey I’m here if you need to talk!” But let’s be real, that’s an invitation that, unless said genuinely, is hardly ever taken up on. In the past year and a half, my definition of reaching out has been redefined. I would define it as a bit more literal. Reaching out, in its most vulnerable form is sticking out your hand and waiting faithfully for someone to grab ahold of you.

In Thailand, I experienced reaching out in a way that shook me to my core. While working with the Ruth Center, a ministry committed to investing into the elderly in the slums of Bangkok. Towards the end of my two months in Thailand, I prayed that God would break my heart for what breaks His and that he would allow me to see the Thai people with his eyes. The following morning, I’d almost wished that I hadn’t prayed so boldly because God fulfilled my request in a very real way.

We stood frozen for what felt like hours, hands shaking and hearts breaking for the practically dead woman lying in front of us.

It was a normal day of ministry where we went to the slums and would talk with the elderly people living there. When we were there, my translator pointed to a small shed, telling us that there was a woman there that we could choose to either go see or to keep walking to the next house. I looked at my friend Carly, and without words we both knew that we needed to go see this woman. As we climbed over piles of metal scraps and garbage to this tiny shack, we questioned how it was even possible that someone lived there. We approached the opening of the shed and laying on the ground was a woman. She was naked and frail, her skin was dry and she laid on the hard wooden ground, covered in her own feces. We stood frozen for what felt like hours, hands shaking and hearts breaking for the practically dead woman lying in front of us. In that moment, we had no idea how to pray. We had no idea how to tell this woman that there is hope in Christ and that he wants to save her.

On my own I would have left and run the other way out of fear from what I’d seen…

In one moment I was outside of the shed looking in, and in the next I was on my knees next to her. I tried to give her water but she couldn’t sit up, she choked the water right up and laid coughing in front of me. Out of a total lack of words to say, I grabbed her hand and her blind eyes seemed to have looked right at me… But it wasn’t me that she saw. I believe that the woman saw Jesus that day. On my own I would have left and run the other way out of fear from what I’d seen, but praise Jesus that He is better than I am. He stepped in using my hands and feet to tell this woman that she is loved.

Since this day, the image of her hand replays in my mind. I dream of her and instantly grieve because of her need for Jesus. In studying the Word, God has shown me that this woman is a picture of the condition of which He sees His lost children. He has challenged me to look at the lost in the same way. At some point in each of our lives, we have all been in the condition of this woman in the slums. We are no better than the homeless man down the street, the murderer in prison or the prostitute on the corner because without Jesus we are all in the same condition of spiritual bankruptcy. We are lying in feces, frail, exposed, and absolutely blind without Him.

So what do we do about that? The answer is not all that profound. It’s actually pretty simple. Our response to humanity’s condition without Jesus should be to repeatedly fall face down on the ground in prayer and boldly ask God to show us how He sees His lost children.

Our Father loves us by giving us His time, by the touch of a hand and by speaking truth over us. There are lost people everywhere, some of them are in shacks tucked away behind garbage and others are right in front of our very eyes… Knowing this, we are called to love simply and to know that we are simply loved.

Lend somebody a hand, pray for a stranger and know that God will use the ways you reach out to restore hearts.

Wanting to see lives changed but realizing it’s not possible in your own strength?  

Come join us for a Discipleship Training School to learn how God sees His lost children and then watch as He works through you to restore hearts.

Is Following Jesus Supposed to be This Scary?

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…this has probably been the hardest and most uncomfortable process that I have ever willingly engaged in.

As I learn more about who God is and who I am, I release more and more control of my life. While this is liberating, and I am becoming more of who I was created to be, this has probably been the hardest and most uncomfortable process that I have ever willingly engaged in. Letting go requires trust. Although I do believe that God can at times gift us with faith, He most often draws us to Him through experience and through choice. No miraculous feelings, just one soul choosing to grow ever closer to its Maker as they journey through life in this world together.  

Right now, there are still many areas of my heart where trust still hasn’t been grown by experience. So, I am scared and I worry. Each time God comes through. But, each time I am also presented with the opportunity to choose to trust Him, whether I feel that trust of not. Through this process, I have experienced more anxiety than ever before. Our culture seems to think that all good things come naturally. This idea has seeped into our spirituality and it leaves us doubting that God is good and that He is with us when things get hard.

But, that’s a lie.

Love doesn’t always feel good and it doesn’t always come easily.

If you look through the pages of the Bible, they are filled with examples of people choosing to trust God (or not) in very hard situations. Trusting Him is a guarantee that your life is in the hands of the Living God – who, out of love, sent His Son to die for you. But that’s not a guarantee of ease or a feeling of security. Love doesn’t always feel good and it doesn’t always come easily.

If you are feeling fear or anxiety in the face of an opportunity to relinquish control and trust God, whether that be with transition or relationships or anything else, let me encourage you…DO IT. He will be there. He won’t leave you, even if it hurts in the process.

 

Feeling anxiety over areas of your life you know God wants you to trust Him with? 


Come join us for a Discipleship Training School and build a solid foundation of trust in God that will help you through whatever difficulties life brings.

Are You Willing To Pause If God Asks?

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As I entered into 2017, I felt the Lord ask me to work on one thing this year:  to PAUSE. Pause is defined as “a temporary stop in action or speech” and while it’s easy to hit the pause button on my phone or computer… I’ve learned that it is REALLY hard to hit the pause button on my life.

If I’m being completely honest with you here, I entered 2017 with a lot of wants. I want to live closer to my family. I want a cozy home with a warm fire place. I want a job and a degree. I want to travel and see the world.

This question hit me like an arrow to the heart because I’m so quick to choose the world over the One who created it.

While I sat on my flight back to my life in Montana, God told me to stop and pause. In that pause, he asked me “Molly, what do you want more? Me or the world?” This question hit me like an arrow to the heart because I’m so quick to choose the world over the One who created it. These desires that I have are not bad (I’d say they’re pretty normal), but the one thing that each of those desires has in common is that they are linked to some sort of comfort.  I spend over sixty hours a week in His Word and still I find myself choosing the comforts of the world rather than the promises my Father has given me to be my comforter, my refuge, my peace and my stability.

The Lord gently revealed to me what was in my heart – my idolization of what I do not have and my inability to wait patiently on His promises. The reason that this is so convicting is because I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. I have seen Him heal broken bones, I have seen him grow out legs, I have seen Him baptize people in His love and I have seen Him speak to the hearts of people in Thailand who were seemingly unreachable. Through this heart check, the Lord asked that in my momentary pauses, I would look back on where He has been faithful and I’ve found that this list is never-ending.

I want to live in confidence that because He has been faithful, he will continue to be faithful.

The ways that I’ve seen God’s faithfulness in my life have left me with one desire that triumphs over them all and that desire is for more Jesus. I want to leave each week thinking, “Man, Jesus, you are SO much better than I thought you were!” I want to see the tiny glimpse of His plans that He’s revealed come into full picture. I want to live in confidence that because He has been faithful, he will continue to be faithful.

So as I pause, as I stop and take the time to listen to my Father, I am reminded that He is the King of perfect timing and His plans are seriously so much greater than mine. He restores and redeems. He is light and life. He is sustainer, creator, and friend. He brings reconciliation and forgiveness.  He is worthy of my life and my time.

He is DEFINITELY worth pausing for.

Are you in need of pausing your life to spend time focusing on God?


Take a leap of faith and join us for a Discipleship Training School to spend 5 months discovering how worthy God is of your time and attention.

How do you Find Rest in the Midst of Chaos?

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A car crash. A head injury. A near broken toe. A long to-do list. An unexpected blessing. A teaching on worship. What do these all have in common? Well, they were all a part of a journey that God took me on to find where true rest lay.

In the midst of the chaos, I was determined to find peace and rest.

For the last few weeks, I have been constantly bombarded by things. We have all gone through seasons where almost nothing seems to be going the way you anticipated. This last month was exactly that for me. My first year as a School of Biblical Studies teacher was not ending the way I had anticipated. Instead of a season of great joy, it was full of anxiety and chaos. The list of things going wrong seemed endless; but in the midst of the chaos, I was determined to find peace and rest.

In a happy turn of events, I was teaching the books of Haggai and Malachi. The message in both of these books was to the post-exilic Jewish community in the midst of their disappointment. They had returned to the Promised Land after exile and nothing was going as they had planned. Through my study of this book, God started to reveal to me the necessity of worship in the midst of disappointment and unmet expectations. Unlike the people in Haggai and Malachi, I wanted to respond in worship instead of apathy. I wanted to seek the Lord first instead of later.

In both the good and the bad, I’ve come to realize that worship and prayer are the only responses necessary!

In worship, I would truly find the rest I was seeking because I was seeking the only One who could give me true rest! When I determined to put God first before everything else, only then was I able to cast aside my disappointment and find rest in the chaos. I started a journey of intentionally seeking God in worship and in prayer. In times of overwhelming stress, I would stop and pray instead of letting the to-do list cloud my vision and rob me of my peace. In times of great joy, I would still turn to God in prayer and thank Him for the immense blessings He had given me. In both the good and the bad, I’ve come to realize that worship and prayer are the only responses necessary!

 I stood in awe of God instead of in fear of chaos.

Worship and prayer truly allowed me to get a perspective change. Instead of letting circumstances blind me, I was able to rise above the situation and look into the eyes of my God who never changes. I put my trust in His faithfulness instead of living in the fear and chaos of my situations. I held firm to the promises that were unwavering. As I began to rely on the only One who offers true rest and peace, I forgot all about my unmet expectations and disappointments. None of it mattered in light of the Glory of God. I stood in awe of God instead of in fear of chaos. He spoke peace to my soul and made me whole. Although the chaos around me still raged, I was able to stand firm on the foundation of trust and worship in my Almighty God.

Malachi 2:5 “My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to him. It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me. He stood in awe of my name.”

Are you dealing with disappointment or searching for rest from chaos?  Come join us for a Discipleship Training School to learn how to focus on, and even worship, God in the midst of difficult circumstances!