Join us on Facebook this Saturday for the launch of How To Raise A God Wise Kid in a Satan Rich World.
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This Saturday is the Book Launch!
Join me on Facebook to hear more about How to Raise God Wise Kids in a Satan Rich World. This book will be available in print and I am over the moon excited because it turned out great. You will hear more about it on Saturday. This is an online event so that you can catch it from wherever you have internet.
How To Raise God Wise Kids
in a Satan Rich World will be available on Thursday June 1, 2017 on several platforms. I am excited to share this little devotional with you. I know it will help you on your parenting journey.
The print version will be available July 1, 2017.
New Book is Coming
My new book, How To Raise A God Wise A God Wise Kid in A Satan Rich World, will be available on June 1, 2017 in ebook form for Amazon Kindle, Nook, Inktera, iBooks, 24 Symbols, Kobo, Playster, Scribd, and Tolino.
The paperback version will be ready in July of 2017 and will include images to accompany the devotionals.
So one of the lessons I am catching on to is to learn through other people’s experiences. I don’t want to repeat their mistakes to learn their lessons. How the song go? Each one teach one. I am sharing my experience because I have learned a lot.
I am surrounded by people who have helped me learn and I also share the things I have experienced..
In this devotional, I share ideas of how to help your children have a personal relationship with God. Through scripture, art and stories, I share the opportunities I had to teach my own child to get to know God.
The Smells of Heaven
I am sure before Christ’s resurrection the aroma of the sacrifices for sin filled the space. The Bible tells us that the best cut of meat was sacrificed on the altar as an atonement for sin. I think the fragrance of the prayers of the saints overpowered it. I am sure it was amazing to breathe.
Today, I walked through an area where smokers hung out. Not only was the smell of tobacco in the air, but it was stale. I tried to hold my breath until I got past it.
The smell I abhor is walking into a restroom and it smell like urine. As I was hurrying trying to get out of there I thought. “Lord, is this what it was like coming to earth? You left the amazing smells of Heaven for the filthiness of earth.”
I can’t think of anyone I like enough to stay in a situation that smells bad. Yet, I can only imagine what Jesus gave up for His love of us. He went to the depths of Hell for us.
Bulls and lambs are no longer sacrificed. Prayers are still the fragrance of the saints. Jesus offers eternal life to all those who believe. Jesus has only one stipulation to those who want eternity with Him. John 3:16.
Chris Rock Started Singing Circus Afro
in the middle of worship this morning and I couldn’t stop to answer the phone. Yes, Chris Rock is still my ringtone. It is normally my habit to turn the ringer off before I enter the church. I did the same thing today, but it came back on in the middle of church service, but fortunately I was up in the sound booth, and only the folks up there with me heard it.
Another habit I have been practicing a little longer is sacrificing something for Lent. I am not Catholic or any type of Orthodox religion. I just appreciate the season. I was thoroughly amused when a friend asked me what I gave up for Lent. I have been doing this long enough that folks who know me know.
One of the things I chose was to praise God everyday in a very physical way. So on FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, Instagram and here I posted my praise in the form of His Word. It was interesting to see which scriptures resonated with my friends.
I also believe that it is not a sacrifice unless it cost you something. How can I offer to God something that is free to me? How can I offer something that means nothing to me? So I sacrificed things that I valued.
As I approach this last week before Easter, this Holy Week, I am reminded that He is a Holy Uncreated God. Everything I see is created, He is not created. Even though I cannot wrap my finite mind around this, it is true.
I am also reminded as I make my way to the cross this week with millions of other Christ followers, that the way to the cross is not paved in gold bricks and lavished meals.
It was on a dirt road, with a heavy cross and lots of onlookers who were not willing to help. He endured the pain of the cross for me. Praise God.
God Knows Your Heart
so it is no use trying to pretend. I was talking to a friend last night. She was struggling with praying for her enemies.
First of all, she was overwhelmed with guilt for having enemies. But when someone puts a target on your back, that gives them a special status. Jesus had enemies so as his disciples why would we not have them. What I love about Jesus is He had no problem confronting their behavior. In Matthew 3:7 and 12:34 He called them vipers.
When people attack us, we need to be honest with ourselves and with God. We need to pray honest prayers over the situation. I know some folks like to pray good things over their enemies, but baby, I bet they get upset when they see good things happening to them. I have learned to pray from exactly where my heart is. God knows where my heart is so there is no need for me to pretend and pray a bunch of stuff I don’t believe. (just because you say it in a prayer doesn’t make it true)
I will lift up my enemies family situation, their work, finances, relationships, everything God brings to mind. Lord, get them so busy dealing with their stuff they don’t have time to deal with me.
What you do is give God permission to deal with your honest stuff. You have to recognize your stuff before God can change it. Most recently some folks came after some friends and me hard. Sometimes I found the situations to be unreal because the prejudice was so over the top. But we prayed honest prayers and talked each other out of physical violence.
One day of the main oppressor went away. It was awesome. Then the Lord began to deal with the others. He took us from praying “Lord, get them!” to praying “Lord, save them.” We went from wanting to hit them in their throats to praying that God would deliver them from their struggles.
The Lord handled them and healed us. Most people miss the healing part, because they are too afraid to pray those first prayers. They let bitterness take root, and never let God dig it out. They stay in the pretend world of wanting good things to happen to everyone.
I want people who intentionally do evil to others to feel the wrath of God. Many want to emphasize God’s love, but down play His judgment. Jesus has promised that God will protect His sheep, and I am going to hold Him to it. When people come after me, I am going to let God handle it.
I pray over everyone who comes against me. Most situations the Lord has changed my heart on, while there are still a few I should not meet because I will hit them in their throat. I have learned He deals with everything in its own time. We are such a microwave generation that we want to feel better about something instantly, while God will take all the time He needs to work out His plan.
I keep praying until I see Him change a situation. He does. In the process I become a better me, not a bitter me. How about you?
What Makes The Difference For You?
Like many in the world, I have been consumed by the Olympics in Rio this past week. I have enjoyed watching the young and strong compete against each other and the sense of national pride it gives to us who do not have youth and strength. Like life, there have been good moments and not so good moments. All of these moments have made a difference in these athletes lives.
My favorite moment was when Simone Manuel realized she had won the gold medal in her swim meet. That innocent moment of looking up after the race to see where she had finished turned into something epic. Instead of being there to be a part of the race, she was now ready to win the race because she knew she could. (photo by Doug Mills NYT)
What makes the difference for you?
For me it is prayer. God taught me who, what, when, where and how. He gave me several amazing examples, but one that holds my heart is BSF leadership. I remember many a cold morning on my knees praying with these sisters. I don’t think there is anything on this side of heaven like it. Then He strengthen my prayer muscles by having me exercise them. He taught me that to communicate with Him is the best way to live this life.
I have never really thought about being a prayer warrior until someone said something. There are a list of people I pray over daily. Some are life timers, while others are just for a season. (the longer the list, the earlier I have to get up. enough said.) I revisit the list every quarter. Sometimes I move people off, but it is not God’s intention that they are off. For example there is one person I have been praying for, and I moved her off the list because it had been years since I have seen her. But every morning, the Lord brings her to mind. (His way of telling me she is still on the list.)
Another example is my oldest brother. For years I thought he was dead because we had not seen him in years, but prayed for him anyway. I remember praying “Lord, he is with you. Why is he still on my list?” Turns out he wasn’t dead, and obviously needed those prayers.
Tonight, I was having dinner with a fellow empty nester and she said, “You are a prayer warrior.” Kinda like Simone, I looked up at her to see what she meant. Then I got it.
Once you know you are in a race to win, you swim differently than when you are just glad to be in the race. I realized not everyone is called to pray like I pray, but I am going to treat it like an Olympic event. I am going to do it with all I got.
Sometimes God Won’t Reveal His Plan
because He knows we won’t be obedient. God did not tell me His plans for today because He knew I would skip it.
I had been trying to get my small group together for a while, but there were lots of conflicts in our schedules. One of them suggested Harvest America, which was a free concert with several Christian artists and a message from a great preacher. Initially I was leery because it was being held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. I didn’t want to deal with big crowds.
Unfortunately, everyone in my small group wanted to go. Okay. I put the person who suggested in charge of planning. Thought maybe we could all have dinner together and go to the venue. I research the preacher. It looked like he only got crowds of 17,000 to 20,000, I figured we could have some choice seats at AT&T with that few people.
Two days before the one whose idea it was, could not go. WHAT! This was your idea! (not real Christian of me) So discussing the idea with my sister, I suggested the group meet for dinner at 4 then head on over afterwards for the concert and the word. My sister suggested we meet earlier. I relented.
We knew things were going to be crazy when we met to eat because the restaurant was overflowing with people. We thought we might get jumped for our table. One woman had so many people with her I thought she was just going to start sitting them at tables with strangers. Our journey began at Cane’s. (God has jokes)
We finished eating and headed for the stadium. It was incredibly crowded. I told myself it was what 20,000 people looked like. Once inside, the bottom two levels filled up fast. Soon it looked like this. (I knew I wasn’t in Kansas anymore)
When the top tiers filled up I knew this was more than 20,000 people. We watched on FB as people posted about bad traffic in Arlington around the stadium. Good thing we left early.
Now left to my own devices, I would have NEVER attended something with more than 100,000 people. They said people were coming and standing outside to witness what was happening on the inside. They said the fire marshal made people leave because there were too many.
Inside it was Amazing Grace.
It was such a privilege to hear the recording artists and the preacher. I was so blessed by the word. It was a blessing to just see the words roll across the screen and think about the gift of being saved from my sin. It was a blessing to see Lecrae in person. I am a fan.
Chris Tomlin did what He does well. It was freeing. I have been set free.
I don’t know much about Greg Laurie, except he is a man of incredible prayer. He prayed and God answered. You should listen to him for that alone. He preached God’s word simple and truthful.
He held and invitation to invite Jesus into their lives. He filled up the football field and had to use overflow room. God worked miracles and wonders this evening. I am glad I made it in.
I almost missed my blessing. I am glad God outsmarted me.
I’m Off My Game
Sometimes I kid my work partner that he is off his game when things don’t go the way we plan. It doesn’t happen often, but pointing it out helps us understand something we don’t like is happening. Usually we joke about it. He tells me if he is off his game, then I must be off mine.
Currently I am off my Christmas game. Presents still need to be bought, cards need to be mailed, and lots more. I am so behind.
Christmas is my favorite season and it is about to be over before I even prepare for it. The thing that keeps me calm is music. One of my favorites this season is the Christmas Song by Dave Matthews.
I love the words to this song and the beat. As I was listening this week, I thought about Jesus. I mean He knew when he breathed life into Adam that eventually the focus would turn to Him. (And rightly so because He came to save us.) He knew that people would write songs about his life.
I wonder if terms like “less than golden,” “daddy-o” and “jokers” gave Him a giggle. They make me giggle because of the songwriter’s method of telling the story. He uses a vernacular that I am familiar with.
I am not saying the song is biblical, but I do like the theme. I love the idea of showering Him with love while He lay in the hay. I disagree that the blood spilled is of the children all around. I know the blood spilled is of the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Yet that doesn’t limit the song for me. Because as God tries to explain to us what He does for us, we don’t always get it right.
But Jesus loves us. So much that He was willing to come be with us. We will never know the full extent of His love.
Even though I may be off my game, I love being reminded of the trip Jesus made to earth to shower me with love.
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