Ephesians 3:20 To Him be the glory

At 2:01 on August 25, 2014, what would be my first day of my 2nd year of teaching, I lie restless. With mixed feelings. Mixed thoughts. Mixed emotions. 

After not writing in weeks, not wanting to pick up pen paper ipad anything, I get the nudge to write.

Like I normally do with my journal open, I flip pages praying that something jumps off the pages from the past and grabs my attention.

Tonight it did. 

February 15, 2014

"Because the Father has given ME full sufficiency in Him alone, as a thank you, I need to fulfill my ONE purpose to be used and spend every bit of my mental, nervous, and spiritual energy to disciple men and women to The Lord Jesus Christ. I am to do this no matter where I am. Church, classroom, or work."  

The joy of this is that I found these words after writing...

"Because sometimes, just sometimes, The Lord has to open the door to allow things into your life to remind you that you, you aren't I'm control and that no matter how hard you try you will never be able to plan it all out, and you won't ever have it all figured out. 

That something can be something awful bad or it could be awful good. I'm a firm believer The Lord has a sense of humor, but I'm even firmer believer that He knows what's best. So no 10 year 5 year or 1 year plan you could ever imagine will come to be. Some of it might, but most of it won't. Scripture tells is that there is nothing that can ever separate us from the perfect love of The Father, and because of that He has great plans for us that are FAR greater than anything our imperfect human minds could imagine. 

He knows best. His ways are higher.

To the one who can and will do immeasurably more, to HIM be the glory (Eph 3:20)." 

I find so much comfort in both of these, and I love as I sit here asking why to many things that just don't make sense in any way, The Lord has given me the answers right here, and both start with the word "because" 

Praying that this meets you where you are. Praying that you aren't also awake at 2:15 am seeking and searching, but if you are know that He has a plan.

To Him be the glory.

B

Isaiah 43:1 You are mine.

<sup>Pray for a clear heart, and a clear mind. Ask what The Lord needs to reveal to you, and jump on in the boat for the story.


John 21
3</sup> Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
⁴ Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵ Jesus said to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” They answered him, “No.” ⁶ He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish. ⁷ That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. ⁸ The other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards^[a] off.
⁹ When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread. ¹⁰ Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” ¹¹ So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn.
¹² Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. ¹³ Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. ¹⁴ This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Jesus and Peter

¹⁵ When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”


Now for those of you that have read this story a time or two (thousand because it is often used to talk about the different types of love) know that there is more to it. 

But I am stopping right there. At that last word. These.

These

T͟Hēz/ Plural form of this

So in this story, the these or this Jesus is referring to is the 153 fish Peter caught that day. Those fish which required a lot of time and a lot of effort because He had been fishing a while that day. He had fished, and he had fished, and caught nothing. Then, he cast his net out again and caught a net "full of large fish, 153 of them." I do believe this is a fisherman's dream. 153 large fish all together in one net, in one swoop. Can you imagine Peter's excitement here? 

Ladies, I know that whole fish reference may have just passed you by and you cannot understand why 153 large smelly fish are exciting. So bear with me. Think of the one thing that would make you more excited than anything. What is your number one want right now?

Peter wanted those fish, bad. So think about that one thing you want, bad. 

Jesus asked him, do you love me more than these 153 large fish you really badly wanted?

Because I don't know what your "these" may be that God might be asking you do you love Him more than, I am going to replace that word with "fish." Don't get distracted though. I'm sure you love God more than you love fish. but there is something significant in your life that you really want and God is trying to have you stop focusing on it and turn fully and whole-heartedly back to Him. 

Your fish may be the craving for a new job, a bigger pay check, a husband, a new job, a baby, or something more. 

At times we get so focused on the fish in our life that we lose sight of God. We forget who we are and whose we are. It is so easy to get distracted these days living in a world where the focus is always on the next big thing.

I want to pull in some more scripture from Isaiah 43 that can be a great help for turning that focus from the fish Jesus is asking, do you love HIM more or that? 

Isaiah 43:1 says that He who created you, and formed you says "you are mine." The rest of 43 goes on to say that He will never leave you nor forsake you, that no matter what you go through He will be there. 

Jesus wants to know if you love Him more than your fish, because He knows that when you pass through the waters He will stay with you, not your fish. He is trying to assure you that if you go through any sort of waters in your life, your fish will be gone. 

Fish (remember your these) in the water (trials of any kind in life) are gone. They cannot sustain you. 

So just as Jesus was asking Peter, which do you love more those fish, or me, He is asking you the same thing.

If you get nothing really from this, let The Lord whisper this in your life

"Do you love me more than these? (John 21:15) Because you don't belong to those things. I created you. I formed you. You are mine (Isaiah 43:1). Your identity is not found in that thing you want really badly that you may or may not have. Nothing can come close to how much I love you and nothing else can ever define your identity like I can. Remember that. You are mine."

 

  

Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are you waysmy ways, declares The Lord.

This time next week I will be in Concord, NC attending the SheSpeaks2014 Conference. Those few short days are packed full of trainings, teachings, workshops, worship, and fellowship to help me sharpen the writing and speaking skills The Lord has blessed me with. That being said, I (knowing this when I registered back in early 2014) am to take with me a writing piece to have peer edited. As I have been praying, thinking, searching, and re-reading my old posts, I feel led to write a brand new post to take with me. So as you read this, I ask that you join in prayer for my time next weekend.



When you put God in a box, and He puts you in Franklin.

Let me share with you a little background before I share with you the heart of the story.

I graduated high school in four years, then went off to attend college. At Appalachian State University I spent four years studying Middle Grades Education. At 21 years old I began my career as a teacher. At 22 I began my career in ministry.

I know, that is a lot of life covered in four short sentences, but the backstory is not as important as the story story. Keep reading, and you will see how that little snapshot is relevant.

In that one year as a Middle School Teacher, I felt called to ministry. I just knew that teaching NC state curriculum was not supposed to be the limit on my teaching. I love to teach, but I wanted to teach a little bit more than 6th grade science.

I also will tell you I knew what that ministry would be too. I would be in Young Adult Women's Ministry working with Middle School age all the way to women in their mid 20s. I was just so sure in my heart of hearts that I was going into ministry, so I was just so sure that is what it would be.

Funny how we can be like that, huh? Maybe it's not you, maybe it's just me. By "that" I mean that we can be so convinced of one thing that we get this false confidence that we know all.

I cannot tell you how many times I prayed specifically for the position I knew The Lord wanted me to be. So much so that I eventually became frustrated with the fact no doors opened. I mean, I was so good at what I was doing. I was so good working with teens and women my own age. People around me commented on how they could see things in my past that had prepared me for that sort of ministry. I eventually put myself in a box, and in a box along side me I placed God.

By "putting God in a box" I mean I forgot how big, powerful, and sovereign He really is.

I told Him what He had prepared me for instead of really having an open mind to what He was preparing me for. I told Him what doors He should open for me. Again, funny how we get like that, huh? That false confidence creeps in and we start telling The Lord what to do.

I had limited my prayers to what I had wanted. I limited what God could do to what I wanted. I put God in a box. Needless to say, in this season of life I have started a career in ministry, but it is not Young Adult Women's Ministry. In this season of life, the Lord has placed me in Children's Ministry. I won't even begin to try to tell you why, or how God place me here. Knowing my tendencies, that false sense of confidence might creep back up if I try to figure it all out.

I put God in a box, and He put me in Franklin.

Hear me when I say that being in Franklin is not a punishment. Children's ministry is not a punishment. God did not scold me for putting Him in a box. He did however prove Himself to me, yet again. He is God, and I am not. He knows what He is doing, I do not. He is not surprised, I am (easily I might add).

He has things in store for me that are far greater than anything I could ever fathom. He has things in store for you that are far greater than anything you could ever imagine!

Join with me to make the decision to not place God in a box, not to shrink Him down and limit our prayers to our wants but pray boldly for The Lord to allow you to be part of what He is blessing.

If you're surprised by what the outcome is, remember that God isn't and His ways are better than ours.

It's only been a few short weeks but I can say that I love that God placed me in Franklin.

-B

Matthew 25:45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

Matthew 25:45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

And the rest of the story, Matthew 25:31-46 of the final judgement was truly just a story until Saturday May 31, 2014.

Many things can be and will be said about social media, but it can be used for good. One day thumbing through I came across a post from a friend Katie Owen sharing what I saw as an opportunity to serve a ministry who was short on volunteers. Little did I know how that one share, and that one thought, and that one story would change my heart and unveil my eyes to something so real. 

Not knowing what I would be getting myself into I signed up to join this ministry and volunteer that coming Saturday. I called a couple of girlfriends too and when Saturday morning came, we woke up a little earlier that desired, and were on our way with little to no idea of what was to come.

Sometimes not knowing is best because it opens up the "anything is possible door." 

I don't want to give every detail, because like a good movie or book, if it's all shared others won't experience it for themselves.  I will tell you though that working with the LOT (least of these) ministry was one of the most amazing things I have been a part of. You think you are giving 2 hours of your morning to bless others, but the people who come to eat breakfast will bless you more than you could imagine. To see the joy on their faces pouring out from their hearts is something unforgettable. It will humble you, and put you back into perspective. The people you serve with and the people you serve are unlike any people you will find. 

I will also tell you that once you serve once, you will be back. The people, the love, the stories, and the body of Christ coming together outside of the Church walls will have you hooked. 

You may not have Jesus knock on your door and ask for food, but He will surely place opportunities at your feet to serve another. 

By serving others, you have served The Lord. I won't beg you to experience these Saturday mornings, but I can tell you if you do, you won't leave the same as you came. 

Proverbs 15:22 Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.

The first thing before anything else, I would like to praise The Lord. He has moved in huge ways in such a few short weeks.

From getting to go and be the hands and feet in Baltimore Maryland for the Southern Baptist Pastors Conference, to camp in the middle of no where with hundreds of students hungry and broken for The Lord, to doors opening for me to relocate to follow my call into ministry. The Lord is good. 

Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent. 

During all these opportunities and open doors, looking back the most important thing I had through it all is the counsel of older godly women I have in my life. Without them, there is no way I could stand strong through this. Spiritually, mentally, emotionally, or physically. 

Because God is Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent, He uses other people to speak into our lives. 

That being said, if I could give you only one piece of advice for life, I would say that you should have a mentor or two in your life and a group of women (or for guys, men) who can give you advice both for the world and for your faith walk. 

In Baltimore I was blessed by about 7-10 women who have been walking with The Lord much longer than I have. I had the opportunity to ask them that same question I just answered for you "if you could give me only one piece of advice for life, what would it be?" That one question blessed my life.

I got some awesome answers, which I had no idea that I could or would need to use so quickly in life. 

Ask questions.

Be adventurous.

Put your hope in The Lord only. 

Be still and wait on The Lord. 

God is not surprised, remember that. 

All of these answers came from women that I can now go to for anything. That one simple question bridged my heart to theirs and it opened the door for more godly guidance and counsel in my life. 

If you try to walk through your Christian life alone, you will surely fall. There is a real enemy seeking to stop you every second of every day, and you cannot defeat him alone. 

Many of you have a counsel of people in your life that are close in age to you, and that is great, but nothing is sweeter in those struggling moments then having somebody who has walked through them walk with you, tell you how they got through it and how you will too. 

If you don't have a mentor, seek one. Not an earthly family member, but an older spiritual mother (or father, guys) in Christ. It will be one choice you will never regret. Also, seek counsel from older women (or men, guys) and ask them questions. Ask them that one question, "if you could give me one piece of advice for life, what would it be?" I promise it will bless your life. 

Praying that mentors will be found and counsels will be set into place, because without counsel plans fail but with many advisers they succeed. 

-B