BELOVED

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

“Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.” ― Brennan Manning

GOD SEES YOU AS HIS BELOVED CHILD:

1 JOHN 3:1,2 * ROMANS 8:14-16 * GALATIANS 3:26 * EPHESIANS 5:2

JESUS CALLS YOU HIS FRIEND:

JOHN 15:14-15 * PROVERBS 18:24 * JAMES 2:21-24

GOD SEES YOU AS A SPECIAL TREASURE:

DEUTERONOMY 7:6 * EXODUS 19:5 * GENESIS 1:26

YOU ARE SPECIAL & PRECIOUS TO GOD:

ISAIAH 43:4 * I PETER 2:9 * PSALM 149:4;9

GOD LOVES YOU UNCONDITIONALLY (JUST AS YOU ARE):

ROMANS 5:8 * ROMANS 8:38-39 * I JOHN 3:16 * PSALM 103:11-22

GOD ACCEPTS YOU UNCONDITIONALLY (JUST AS YOU ARE):

EPHESIANS 1:5 * ROMANS 8:15

GOD CARES FOR YOU:

 PETER 5:7 (every detail, problem, need, hurt,... in your life)

GOD SEES YOU AS HIS WORKMANSHIP (HIS MASTERPIECE):

EPHESIANS 2:10

GOD SEES YOU AS HEIRS TO HIS KINGDOM:

ROMANS 8:17 * GALATIANS 4:7

Sometimes on a Monday morning we all could use a little healthy and helpful reminding. For life, work, pressure, relationships, expectations, hurts, and lies all seek to dilute or even deceive us into forgetting these powerful TRUTHS! 

Embrace them today.

Commit to looking a few of them up.

Maybe paste a favorite or two on the mirror or fridge as a daily reinforcement!

Remember my friends our love relationship with GOD is our HIGHEST privilege, our deepest honor, our energy and hope!  Apart from Him we are quite frankly left empty.

Psalm 16:2 (ESV)

I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”

So let’s DO as MANNING suggests!

EMBRACE this amazing and privileged identity today; LOVED and wonderfully made by GOD!

“You were deliberately planned, specially gifted, and lovingly placed on this earth by God. In a world that decides your worth by the clothes you wear or the sports you play, let me tell you something—you are valuable because God created you.” ― Max Lucado

…and He DEEPLY loves you… (Jeremiah 31:3)

Have a blessed and LOVED day!

Opportunities for Hope (Champions Charge)

 

SUCCESS

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

 

Beth and I shared our story, “Spongebob and the Professor” earlier this week for a class of Junior Nursing students at Cedarville University.  As a part of our story we share the time in our journey that included a season of “worldly success and prosperity”.

 

When we get done telling the students about the “house, the cars, the trips, the first-class stuff”, we ask them a pointed question, “what defines success?”

 

We get a myriad of answers every time we lecture.  But often the answers include, “getting what you want”, “advancing in the field”, and “recognition”.  And often because this is a Christian university we do get the students that say, “finding and embracing your purpose” or “being used of GOD”. 

 

Yet often, even these kids equate success through the world’s lens.

 

That is why today I wanted to share a little insight from Frangipane regarding SUCCESS; how to really define it.

 

“Our success in life is determined by one primary objective: how functionally transformed into Christ's likeness have we become? If He sees that we were forgiving even when wounded; if He sees in us a heart that holds fast its faith even in times of adversity; if He finds us to be truly repentant and genuinely humble, even when we could boast; and if He sees we are... committed to a life of love, we will have fulfilled the purpose of God. We will receive a great reward. If, however, the Lord sees in us a soul easily offended or that we blame others for our joyless, angry attitude; if He scans our inner man and finds we are self-righteous and judgmental; or if our conscience alternately either accuses or defends ourselves, then we will render an account for our life at the judgment seat of Christ (Rom. 1:29, 2:5; 2 Cor. 5:10; Heb. 9:27).

Thus, it is of the utmost importance that we settle the eternal goal for our lives. - Frangipane

 

The outward man does indeed suffer wear and tear, but every day the inward man receives fresh strength. These little troubles (which are really so transitory) are winning for us a permanent, glorious and solid reward out of all proportion to our pain. For we are looking all the time not at the visible things but at the invisible. The visible things are transitory: it is the invisible things that are really permanent. - 1 Corinthians 4:16-18 (PH)

 

So the true measure of success is fairly clear.

Are we more like Jesus today than yesterday and will we strive to grow more closely to Him and His persona tomorrow?

 

1 John 2:6 ESV

Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

 

So let’s ask ourselves some questions:

Have I bought into the world’s view of success like my fresh faced college kids or am I seeking more? 

How do I handle the tough times?  Am I judgmental or do I walk as He did with grace? 

Do I allow HIS joy to be my strength or do I succumb to the pressures with anger and dissent?

Am I seizing life's opportunities to appropriate Christ or mostly coasting?

Am I focused on the VISIBLE or the INVISIBLE?

 

Today friends let’s set our minds for “real success”. By letting Him…

…become greater and greater, (while we) become less and less. John 3:30 (LB)

 

I love you all!

Have a blessed weekend!

Opportunities for Hope (Champions Charge)

 

STRETCH

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

 

“Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.”

― A.W. Tozer

“The world needs Christians who don't tolerate the complacency of their own lives.” ― Francis Chan

 

Exercise daily in God – 1 Timothy 4:7(MSG)

 

No complacency today.

No just going through the motions.

Time to exercise.

I even mentioned it earlier in the week

 

Shake things up.

Divorce from the routine.

Get out of the comfort zone.

GOD would love to stretch you a little today.

 

Remember?

A saint's life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, and He stretches and strains, and every now and again the saint says--'I cannot stand anymore.' God does not heed, He goes on stretching till His purpose is in sight, then He lets fly. Trust yourself in God's hands.― Oswald Chambers

 

I will quickly admit.  I am a product of routine not a fan of the "stretch".  I wake up most days without an alarm.  The process is pretty rote right up to the time I jump in the truck.  But here of late GOD has been putting me in some situations that are stretching me.  Sometimes GOD has even gone so far as to “interrupt” my calendar in order to provide a lesson, drop me in a circumstance or to get me to think a little differently about where I am going and what I am doing.

 

And like I said, I am not a fan of the stretching.

But I know if I trust GOD the purpose will become clear.

And it isn’t just me.  GOD has been stretching my friends too.

Case in point, Tuesday I get a VERY excited phone call from a Champion from Mason. 

 

She for a nearly a year has been “settling” for her routine.  And mind you her “routine” was nothing bad.  She was and is a faithful servant of Christ.  She is supremely talented and energetic at what she does.

 

Yet here of late GOD has put her in the crossbow. 

First, with a vision for way to serve women differently. 

Then with “an encounter” or two or TWENTY to move the needle further. 

Then an opportunity presents itself and her ARCHER is pulling things tauter and tauter.  Then more encounters; more stretching.

Suddenly there is provision for her dream.  

Then folks start asking her for direction and ways to serve. 

There even is a first donation made. 

Things are getting “tighter and tighter” and the purpose is becoming clearer!

 

She said it herself.  She was “fine” doing what she always did, serving like she always served.  She was comfortable bordering on complacent.  But because SHE TRUSTS GOD so deeply, she recalled and applied this passage…

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" – Isaiah 6:8 (MSG)

 

Man oh man am I inspired by her spirit and courage!  And for what GOD plans to do with her pending “launch”, “THE NEST”, I am very excited to watch and participate!

 

So let me ask:

Is GOD tugging at you today?

Maybe you have been feeling a little restless.  Maybe you too have been trying to stay out of the crossbow.

Perhaps today is the day you ACT; to be “exercised by GOD, to trust GOD that the STRETCHING while uncomfortable will be deeply satisfying and purposeful upon launch.

 

For:

“Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind. So we must stretch…anything less is a sin against both God and man.” ― Leonardo da Vinci

 

I love you all!

Opportunities for Hope (Champions Charge)