Lists....

....I don't like them! I don't like making them, especially for the grocery store. When I go to the grocery store, I like to just roam the isles and buy what catches my eye. Yes, yes, I know! That is NOT the best way to shop! I know that a list helps you make sure you get all you need and not the stuff you don't need, but I feel so boxed in by a list!

If you haven't figured it out yet, I DO NOT get a happy, happy, joy, joy feeling when I mark something on a list complete. I don't like them! But here's the funny thing that is happening to me right now...I've been noticing list in scripture! Almost every scripture that I'm writing has a "list" in it. I'm beginning to think that God is trying to teach me something about list and their importance in life. I do believe He's taking me to a new level in list making. With all of that said, let's look at the scripture that I wrote yesterday.

Colossians 3:12-17 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your heart to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. 

So here goes, the list of what we He wants us to put on....

Compassionate hearts
Kindness
Humility
Meekness
Patience
Bearing with one another
Forgiveness
Love
Thankfulness
Peace of God rule

That list leads to this list....

Let the word dwell in you
Teaching
Admonishing you

Which leads to....

Sing
Thankfulness of heart
Do everything in the name of Jesus

Now this is a list that I can work on! My challenge to you today is this, ask the Lord if you are putting these things on each and every day. Ask Him where you're leaving Him out of the process and ask Him to help you in all these areas.

Father, today we ask that You help us put on all these things. Help us to have compassion on those that need You. Help us to be kind to those we just don't like. Fill us with humility and help us give You our pride. Remind us that being meek is not the same was wimpy. Being weak is walking in Your strength. Help us be patient in the line, in traffic, with our spouses, with our children and as we're patient, we come to the realization that when we are patient it's much easier to bear with them and love them. If we have someone that we need to forgive, help us to be quick with our forgiveness as You were with us. We are so very thankful for You and Your peace that rules in us even when we don't feel like it. Holy Spirit, we study Your word, thank You that You teach and admonish us gently. We sing praises to You. There is no one like You! You are our all in all. Everything we need is in You. We are complete in You! In Jesus Name!

Reminders

Have you ever had a day that didn't quite go the way you planned, however, by the end of that day you can see the hand of God on everything that happened? Yep! I had one of those days on Tuesday, but by the end of the day I realized that it really went the way it was supposed to go.

You see, I've been trying my best to get myself up between 6:00-6:30, get ready, make my coffee and sit down to have my quiet time. Tuesday....well, let's just say the snooze button got a work out! When I finally got up it was 7:15 and got my day started, it didn't start with quiet time. 't started with picking up my dad for breakfast, an 11:00, hour and half meeting, lunch, an impromptu meeting with Pastor Chris, picking up mail at Melissa's, home at 6:00, supper, a little TV and then, finally, at 8:00 my quiet time.  I started to give myself a hard time, at least until I started to write out my daily scripture. This is when God really began to speak to my heart and I'd like to share it with you.

1 Chronicles 16:8-14 Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; tell of all His wondrous works! Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice! Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His presence continually! Remember the wondrous works that He has done, His miracles and the judgements He uttered. O offspring of Israel His servant children of Jacob, His chosen ones! He is the Lord our God; His judgements are in all the earth. 

Wow! What reminders were in this scripture! 

Give thanks! Do you ever get so caught up in the day and what's gone wrong, that you forget to thank Him for the things that went right....or even the things that went wrong? I'm not talking about saying things like, "I'm thankful I was in an accident," but things like, "I'm thankful that no one got hurt." I hope you're following this line of thinking. Not thankful for the wrong, but thankful in it. I am thankful that dad called and wanted to have breakfast. I am thankful for some time with just him. I love my dad. I'm thankful that when he fell the other week, he didn't break any bones. I. Am. Thankful!*****

Call upon His name! Have you ever looked up the many names of God and their meanings? If not, I encourage you to. He has such beautiful names! Adonai....Lord over all. Jehovah-Shammah....the Lord who is present. Jehovah-Rapha....the Lord our healer. Jehovah-Tsidkenu....the Lord our righteousness. Elohim....God is creator, powerful and mighty, Lord of lords. My favorite one is this....I AM. This one, to me, encompasses everything. I am your healer. I am your provider. I am your comforter. I am all you need. I AM!

Make known His deeds! Tell your story of redemption! Tell how God brought you out of addiction and that you are a new creation in Christ. Tell how God saved your marriage. Tell it! Revelation 12:11 says, we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our TESTIMONY! This is how we overcome! Also, don't just tell your own story, make known His deeds in others lives....with their permission of course! Talk about God and what He's done!! 

Sing praises to Him! I can already hear you, "I don't like to sing because I don't have a great voice." So what! God doesn't say only those with great voices can sing to Him. NO! He says sing praises. In case you don't know, I'm passionate about this one. I love to sing and lift high His name and I really don't care what I sound like doing it. Yes, God blessed me with a voice, but there have been days when it sounded like a frog. But when I got in church and the praise team started to sing, I just had to lift my voice. Trust me, you may feel like you are the worst sounding person in the room, by worldly standards. But by God's standards?! Beloved, I believe that when God hears you lift your voice, He turns to Jesus and says, "My Son, listen. Do you hear that beautiful voice singing? Doesn't it sound amazing?" This is not to make Him feel good, but to fill our heart with hope and joy!

Seek the Lord! Seek His strength and His presence! When we seek Him, when we look for Him, He will be found! This is a promise! My favorite way to seek God is worship. For you it might be while you read His word. For others it may be walking in nature. None of these is right or wrong. Just seek Him because with Him comes His sweet healing, saving, joyous Presence and His strength for the days ahead. 

These are just some of the reminders that I found in this beautiful scripture. I encourage you to read it and find the reminders that God would have you be reminded of.

*****If you find that you have trouble being thankful, I challenge you to the Thankful Game! Every time you get in the car...YES, every single time....you say, out loud, three things you are thankful for. There are only 2 rules to the thankful game. 1. Everyone must play. Basically, my car, my rules, you play. Everyone of us has something to be thankful for! 2. No interruptions, or as some would call it, the Wendy rule. Once the thankful game has begun, you must hold any questions until everyone has been thankful. Yes, it is named after me and I own it, because sometimes I get excited and want to know all the awesome details. So, when someone starts to interrupt the thankful game, a loving shout of "Wendy Rule" must be shouted.

I am thankful for my amazing husband!

I am thankful that God gives us sweet reminders right when we need them!

I am thankful for John, Milo, Amos, and Rin...the most amazing grandchildren ever!

A New Heart

Ezekiel 36:24-28 I will take you from the nation's and gather you from all the countries and you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to our fathers, and you shall be my people and I will be your God. 

When you read this does your mind not go straight to Jesus and what He did for us on the cross?! Mine certainly does! John 19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. This word does not tell us which side the soldier pierced, but I like to believe in my heart that it was His left side. Why? Because that's the side where our hearts are.

Ezekiel says I will sprinkle clean water on you and you'll be clean from ALL uncleannesses and from all idols. In Ezekiel, sacrifices had to be done over and over again for this to happen, however, with Jesus, it was once and done because He was the perfect Lamb. The perfect sacrifice! The water flowed from His side to cleanse us!

God promised them that He would give them a new heart. When we accept Jesus, He gives us a brand new heart. His heart, I believe, was pierced so that our hearts, hearts that were once stone, could be made flesh. Sin, unforgiveness, guilt, our past, tends to harden our hearts and turn them to stone so that we don't allow anyone in, we don't forgive, we don't care. But! When we ask Jesus into our lives, He gives us a change of heart! His Spirit begins to live within us and begins to break up those areas of our heart that needs healing.

He also promised them a new spirit. When we accept Christ as our Lord, the Holy Spirit comes to take up residence in us. The person of the Holy Spirit, yes, He is a person, is our comforter, our advocate, our teacher. You know that "nudge" that you get when you "feel" like you're to buy someone lunch, give someone a call or encourage someone? That's the person of the Holy Spirit living within you!

Bottom line....because of what Christ did on the cross, you have a new heart and a new spirit!

Tests, Trials, and Trust

I am currently challenging myself with reading through the Bible in chronological order with my Life Church family, reading a Joseph Prince devotional and with writing scripture daily from Pintrest, and I am loving it! Yesterday, all three collided with goodness! I'm going to start with Joseph Prince and go from there.

Genesis 15:8 But he said, "O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" The devotion started like this...Are you discouraged because a breakthrough that you have been praying for has yet to manifest? Maybe it has been days or even weeks and you are asking, "How will I know that I will get it?" Abraham faced the same situation and asked God the same question. Enter my reading in Job.

In Job 21, Job is basically asking why do those that don't serve God seem to be so blessed? Why do they continue to live like there is no God, and yet, they prosper, their children prosper, their businesses prosper and all I've ever had has been taken away from me? If we're all honest, we've felt those very same feelings, we see people who live like they want to bust hell wide open prosper in their personal life, get promotions that we've been trying to get for years, and we're still struggling. Enter scripture writing.

1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire-may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

Are you catching the similarities? Abraham wondered. Job wondered. We wonder. 

Back to Abraham. When Abraham asked the question, God answered. Genesis 15:9 And God answered, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, and a young pigeon." What kind of answer is that?! It's a God sized answer! As we read further on in Genesis 15, God enters into a covenant with Abraham. Not a contract. A contract is binding only for a period of time, like five years or seven year, or until certain terms are fulfilled. God enters into COVENANT with Abraham. A covenant is perpetual. It is permanent. The only way out is through death. God bound Himself to Abraham with an iron-clad guarantee of His blessings and provision. Abraham still had to have faith that God's promise was going to come to pass through him.

Now we go back to Job. Throughout chapter 21, Job is asking questions of, basically, why. Then in Job 22 we have that "friend" that makes me wonder if the person who came up with the quote, "With friends like these, who needs enemies" had read the book of Job and felt sorry for him. Then we hit the part of Job that is giving me a whole new appreciation for him, Job's recognition of coming out as gold. Job 23:10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. Wow! Job has lost everything, yet his faith is still saying, "I shall come out as gold." The only way gold comes out pure, is to be tested by fire. 

Abraham went through trials, Job went through trials and we will go through trials. As gold gets more pure the more fire it goes through, so does our faith and our faith is more precious than gold! What we can hold fast to through any trial we face, is this...we are in covenant with God through Jesus! 

When that trial hits you, when that question of "why God" is in your life, when you don't see a way out, when you are feeling hurt, remind yourself of two things...1. This trial is but for a season and 2. you are in Covenant with Jesus and His covenant is one of healing, restoration, reconciliation, joy, grace, mercy and overcoming. 

Hinds' Feet ZA

Hinds' Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard is a book that changed my life 15 years ago. It's a beautiful allegory about Much Afraid and her desire to go to the High Places with the Chief Shepherd. It's a story about learning the desires of His heart for her. I read this in the lowest place of my life. In the midst of sorrow and doubt about His love for me. I read it in 2 days, it touched and healed a place deep within my soul. God spoke directly to my heart about who I am In Him. 

With all that said, I am in a place in my life where I want to bound across the craggy mountains and through the lowest valley's on hinds feet and I am learning that the only way to do that is to be in His Word daily. 

On January 1, 2016, I began the journey of reading through the Word with my church, Life Church, Salisbury, and writing down my thoughts. On January 2, I began to write scripture with a group of amazing women and sharing our thoughts on Facebook. The encouragement has been amazing! 

This blog is a place for me to share with you my thoughts and for you to share with me your thoughts. A place to encourage one another through His Word. A place for us to find our hinds' feet....our secure footing in an ever changing world. 

Will you join me? 

Psalm 18:33 He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.