A Morning with the Lord

Sunrise…

A Morning with the Lord…

I have always loved the mornings. For me there is no sweeter, quieter, peaceful, more focused, time. When my household arises….it is another matter 🙂 🙂

Like most of you, I’ve been at home…although it was pre-planned. As essential personnel, soon, I’ll be out of this hiatus and back serving.

The world is fighting a pandemic. The proportions of which I struggle to wrap my head around. Much less my heart…

My heart feels for all right now…and the more I see, the more I realize I seem to always be one layer away from weeping.

Mornings….

This morning God woke me at 3:27am…a bit random, or maybe not 🙂

It is in Him that I find my solace. There are times that I do not know what to say…so I just soak.

 I got to praying. And repentance was on my heart. I know most of us think this as a negative word….as if we have done something wrong.

And we may have.

But it such a love word because it gives us the opportunity to make a different decision and choose Him in whatever area He highlights.

As I was talking with the Lord….these words came out of me that just gave me the sweetest release…

“God, I repent for choosing myself over You.”

Oftentimes we go down a checklist of ‘things’ to repent for…but truthfully, this one may be at the root of them all.

God, we repent for choosing ourselves over You.

So….before your day gets busy and other noises creep in….I ask you to think about, and acknowledge, where you have chosen yourself, your ideas, your preferences etc, over God. And repent.

May those words bless you like they blessed me.

Blessings always.

JC

 

Can you pray for me? Are you living on purpose Part 2

Do you remember throughout your life journey people ‘seeing’ promise and gifts and talents and destiny in you before you ever saw it in yourself? Or rather, before you ever admitted it to yourself?

Things like; ‘your life story is so awesome, you should put it in a book’,

‘your fashion sense is so instinctive you should do something with that’,

‘you make the best cakes or pies or ice cream or whatever, I would totally pay for it’,

‘when are you going to preach?’

‘you are so good with kids’

‘you are so creative, you should do interior design’

I don’t know what your thing is, but I am sure if you took a second to pause and look at the bread crumbs left throughout your life you will see a pattern in your proclivities.

If you are already pursing them, praise God!!

But if not, take that step…write that business plan (again)….

enroll in school….

get that certificate…..

read some books…

find a mentor….

take that sewing class…

take that photography class…

There are so many people waiting for you to serve what only you can serve!

The other day I woke up and commanded my morning that I would have a productive day. Would you know that Satan jumped all over it? I mean all morning I felt like I was wading through molasses!

Around noon I went down to the gym, as I had mapped out for the day, determined to press through. Finished my work out, showered up and was heading upstairs when I ran into a fellow officer. A friend had recently told me that he was in seminary so I stopped to chat. Mind you, I have seen him many times over the years and even worked a case with him, but never knew this.

There are so many servants all around us, we are really not alone in our pursuit for God.

Anyway, we talked for about an hour or so and he told me a quick story that exemplifies the point that I was making in the opening;

Many many moons ago, when he was a young officer, they were attempting to arrest a bad guy who was just a terror to the neighborhood. The plan was for them to drive by in a U-Haul truck and scoop him up before there was any potential for a shootout. He was the driver. The plan was successful and no one was hurt, although several people called 911 stating the guy was just kidnapped. Once he pulled over, after things settled down, he got out of the truck and went to the back of the truck to check on the guy. When he pulled up the garage styled door the guy said ‘Man, can you pray for me?’

He quickly closed the door.

He thought for a few seconds then opened back the door and asked him what he said.

He said again ‘Can you pray for me?’

The officer said, “Of all these other guys why do you want me to pray for you?” The guy didn’t even know. Anyway he asked him what he wanted him to pray for and the guy said that he and his family would be alright. The officer said, I’ll pray for you, but I’m not closing my eyes. And he prayed.

This was just one of many breadcrumbs that pointed to the call of God on his life and he is actively pursuing it now. It’s a beautiful thing to live a purpose driven life!

We chatted some more, exchanged more ‘God’ stories, shared tips, and encouraged each other on this journey.

And, I had a productive day indeed 🙂

Go after that vision and dream that you see, write it down, make it plain and keep it ever before you. Don’t worry about the ‘how’ of it, that’s God’s job….

Have a great week.

Blessings always

JC

 

Voice of the Martyrs….

VOM monthly newsletter…

 

“The hands bearing chains can bless well”

These were words that I wrote down when a Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) representative facilitated the last session of my church’s first Boot Camp a few weeks ago. The organization has been serving persecuted churches since 1967 and she was there to inform us about what was going on with other christians in the world.

Before the first video was even finished I was already sniffling and could barely hold back tears. In one video, based on actual events, there were some christians and non christians traveling on a bus in another country.The bus was hijacked, they were all taken off the bus (men, women and children), tied up and eventually executed. One of the christians started worshiping God and he was shot…his last fleeting thought was that he didn’t get to tell his persecutors about Jesus. Miraculously he survived and was now ministering Jesus to those who tried to kill him!!

 

Another Chance….

So in my quiet time yesterday morning, I asked God for the fodder for my next post. Usually I could feel it brewing already, see the illustrations, the exact photos to use and the word flow……what did He want me to share?

Two weeks ago my coworker and I stopped at a nearby Target because I wanted to get a plaid shirt for a possible trip to the rodeo. We were joking around about getting the hat and boots to complete the ‘cowgirl’ look but as we approached the Express line, my eyes were immediately drawn to the face of the cashier and my joking words trailed off. She didn’t look right; she looked like she was in pain. My eyes honed in on her and I asked “How are you?”.

She said “I’m good”. Trying her best to mirror that statement.

With my eyes still intently on her face I said quietly “You’re in pain aren’t you?”. It seemed like we were in a vaccuum, and she said “Yes, it’s my back”.

All of a sudden the vaccuum went away and I became immensely aware that I was in uniform, in the front of Target, in the Express line with people waiting in line, and my coworker besides me. And I thought to myself ‘Lord, please don’t have me pray for this lady right now’.

I quickly got the bag with the plaid shirt and left; missing a Golden opportunity to be used by Him.

So today as I was teaching noon bible study, wrapping up Acts chapter 2, we were talking about Peter’s bold address at Pentecost. A young visitor brought up Peter’s healing of the man at the gate called Beautiful (Acts 3:1-11). God led me to share my experience.

Where was my “silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I give to thee; in the name of Jesus, get up and walk”?

Oh the transparency of my walk…..I asked HIM for another chance 😉

This is my story to share…

Blessings always

JC

 

Prayer Appointment

Sunset….Turks and Caicos

Today I was sitting in noon day Bible Study and we were talking about Luke 19:45-48. My pastor began speaking on the topic of the church being a house of prayer. We all got to discussing how the church as a whole has lost the effectiveness of prayer as a true offensive weapon. But even in our own prayer lives we don’t seek after God like we should. We don’t make the necessary sacrifices to check in with God for our every move.

We don’t see God in our everything. We don’t yearn after Him to where we want to stay in constant communication with Him. In all honesty, I believe some of us don’t even like to pray. It makes us uncomfortable, we don’t know what to say or how to say it. We’re worried about what it will sound like and even what it should sound like. We have these thoughts that if God knows everything, then why is there a need to pray? We cast that down in the name of Jesus.