The Check Engine Light

                Sometimes I cannot help but wonder why God ever chooses to bless me.  I am nothing.  No matter how much good I do in my life I will still be nothing.  Yet, I still find myself being continuously blessed.  It is a good thing that the fate of the world does not lay on my shoulders because I could never be so forgiving and merciful. 

                Last weekend I went bowling with a group of friends.  We had a wonderful time and I felt so happy to have a night away from school and work to relax and celebrate the end of the semester.  Unfortunately the drive home did not go how I planned.  It was raining and as all the other cars turned to get on the interstate I told my friend that I was going to take the long way because I don’t like driving on the interstate in the rain.  Well, we made it down Taylorsville and Breckenridge just fine, but as soon as we turned on Cannons I heard a ‘ding, ding’ sound and that troublesome check engine light starting blinking.  We found a side road and before we could park we could smell the engine burning.  It was 11:15 at night, raining, and we were just two girls all by ourselves.  I called my mom, then AAA.  AAA finally answered our call and agreed to come and tow my car.  Actually, we spent more time waiting for AAA to answer the call than for the driver to come and take our car.  My friend called her neighbor, who graciously agreed to come and get us, even though it was late. 

                That night I didn’t sleep.  I didn’t know what was wrong with my car.  I didn’t know if my little, old car had finally bit the dust and I would have to buy a new one.  There were just so many things that were troubling me.  Somewhere around 3:30am I got up and prayed so hard that I could rest, because I knew that I would need my church family in the morning.  When I prayed I feel asleep right away. 

                The next morning I went to church and was surprised to see that I had missed a call and had a voicemail during the worship service.  I listened to the voicemail and it was the mechanic.  He had already looked at my car, knew what needed to be fixed, had the parts and a quote ready and was waiting on my approval to begin work.  I would have my car back by mid-afternoon.  I had him talk to my dad since I don’t speak mechanic and picked my car up at 4:30 in the afternoon. 

                On one hand, I could say, ‘what a hassle!’ But on the other hand, ‘what an amazing blessing!’  I have been so stressed out with school and all, and I think God used this incident to get my attention and show me how richly I have been blessed.  First of all, my car broke down in a safe location when I was with a friend.  I could have been half way between Cincinnati and Louisville, or in a bad part of the city, or I could have been driving by myself late at night.  My car could have had a major issue and I could have been forced to buy a new car.  I had a brother and sister in Christ who were willing to give us a ride home, even though it was late and they didn’t even know me!  My sister called immediately in the morning and offered her car to me if I should need it.  I was able to get my car back in less than 24 hours and did not have to miss any work or borrow anyone’s car.  It was a little bit expensive to fix, but I was able to cover the expenses.   God’s blessings in my life have been boundless. 

                My faith is small indeed.  I stressed out about this so much when I should have known that God would take care of me.  It reminds me of one of my favorite verses, Deuteronomy 2:7, “The LORD your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands.  He has watched over your journey through this vast desert.  These forty years the LORD your God has been with you, and you have not lacked anything.” My whole life I have been blessed and I will never be able to thank God enough for all that he has done for me.

The Creator of my Heart

Today I came across Psalms 33:15 and I knew right away that I would just have to share it with you all. Take a minute right now to read Psalm 33 so you’ll get the story behind this verse. 

He Who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. –Psalm 33:15

God made the heart of the most horrible person on this Earth.  That person may have turned away from the truth and denounced God as their King and Savior, but He is still their creator.  He considers their every action and sees potential in them long after the world has given up on them.  It really doesn’t matter how far gone someone may seem to be.  God sees the potential they have carried since the time that He created their heart.  He sees the potential through the plan and purpose He created for them.  Praise God for His forgiveness and willingness to use the most unlikely human.  What can I say?  Our God is good and He amazes me daily.

The Beauty of the Lord

“I have asked one thing from the LORD; it is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the LORD and seeking Him in His temple.”  Psalm 27:4

I came across this verse today while I was on my lunch break and I just had to share it with you all.  I think that God wants us to desire this.  We are constantly failing our God, because we are constantly seeking other sources of happiness.  All that we should desire is God.  We should have the desire to dwell with Him all of our days.  Can you imagine gazing on the beauty of the Lord?  Seriously, Christians we get to do that someday.  That is awesome.  Everything that we are is the Lord anyway, so we might as well give Him our desires as well.  Now you might be thinking that this whole ‘only desire the Lord’ things sounds good but that you would never be able to do it on your own.  That, I feel, is why God gave us the first part of the verse. David is asking God to give him this desire.  There is where I, and probably others, so often fail.  God has great things in planned for me and you.  Someday we are going to go to Heaven and will dwell with the Lord in His temple.  When we are living our day to day lives it is easy to forget this.  But when we ask the Lord for help, he will help us. 

Growth

When does a brush grow best?  After it’s been cut back.  Every fall my mom cuts all the branches off of the brushes in front of our house.  Once, strong, budding limbs become pudgy stumps. They do not look very pretty this way and if you are not a gardener then you might ask why someone would do such a thing.  However, if you are a gardener then you know that this is necessary for growth.  The branches and leaves that die when the weather gets colder need to be removed.  In the spring, the branches will grow back bigger and stronger than ever.  They grow best after they have been cut back. 

This is similar to what happens to us when we go through hard times.  Life is a continuous cycle of ups and downs.  We go through different seasons in life.  When a family member dies we might feel so down that we do not know how we will ever live again.  Or when a relationship is severed we may feel like our live will never be good again.  But, there is always hope.  When we overcome our hardships we grow.  When we look back and see the path that we took and eventually conquered we learn. 

Look at the words of 1 Peter 1:6-7.  

“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

God does not delight in our pain, nor does he enjoy watching us suffer, but he does rejoice in our accomplishments when we emerge victorious from a seemingly impossible situation.   It might seem like a life without all the ‘pruning’ would be nice, but without it we would never grow or learn or change.  So when you start feeling like the sun is never going to shine on you again, just remember that the pain is necessary and that you will be stronger in the end because of what you have been through.   

Romans 10:14

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 
Romans 10:14

That You May Gain

Look over the hills

What is in sight?

Homes scattered around

Glisten in the sunshine bright

So many people

Who’ve never heard

So many friends

Lost alone in this world

What can we do

How can one reach

How can we tell them

Who will come to preach

So many people

How can we look

On so many faces

The task is so large

Make us more than a few

Send us revival

Teach us to follow you

Silence our fears

Make us strong and bold

We must take this task

Your glory must be told

Soon day will end

And night on earth will rise

Through your faithfulness

Let us lessen the cries

So many faces

Have never heard your name

Lead us to their homes

So that through us, you may gain

Written June 20, 2010

Praying for Change

There are two things that I know are true about myself: I know nothing about politics and I believe that little children are extremely important.  So naturally I don’t spend a lot of time keeping track of what the government is doing.  However, recently I came across a court case that has me very, very interested.   This case is concerning abortion and the point at which life begins.  The Ohio Senate is trying to pass a bill that would ban abortion after the first heart beat is heard.  I wish that abortion would be banned completely and that the people of our nation would no longer desire to have abortion as an option to being a parent.  But since we can’t have that yet, I’ll take this ban for now.  I believe that it is a step in the right direction.  This bill is called the Heartbeat bill and is currently being challenged in the Ohio State Senate for being unconstitutional.  I wish I could explain the bill a little bit better but my lack of political understanding has me at a loss.  If you want to know more about the bill just google it!  I was able to find several articles stating the details of the bill and the debate that way. 

This is important to me because I believe that life begins at conception.  Grab your Bible and look up the following verses: 

Psalm 139:13-14: God says that He made us while we were still in His mother’s womb.  We are wonderfully and fearfully made because we are a creation of God. 

Jeremiah 1:5:  God knew who we were going to be before we were even born. Our lives do not happen by chance.  God knows every child that is conceived and has a plan for their lives to use them to bring Glory to His name.  I do not think that God is glorified when one of His children are taken away. 

Genesis 1:27 and Acts 17:28:  God created us to in His own image.  Life is a wonderful and precious gift.  Who are we, as mere men, to take this gift away from someone else?

I will fight for this cause because I believe that God has given us as Christians a command to care for the weak and the helpless.  I may not be able to do much, but I have to do what I can to provide care for those who cannot defend themselves.  In this case, the unborn babies.  Take a look at these verses:

            Psalm 82:3: We are called to defend the rights of those who are weak and maintain their rights in times when they cannot speak for themselves. 

            Proverbs 31:9: We are to speak up for those in need.  This implies that we will need to take action.  Feeling bad about this the loss of an innocent life does nothing.  If we want something to change, we have to be willing to make that change happen. 

            I could go on and on with this, but you get the idea.  We are called to protect and defend. 

Being faced with a situation like this and knowing that I am required to do something about it leads to the obvious question of what can we do?  I had to think about this for a while.  It would be great if I could go to the Senate House is Columbus and ask the senators to pass the law, but I know that this isn’t really possible.  I could get mad and protest at an abortion clinic, but I’m pretty sure that would just make people angry and that might not be the best thing for our cause at the moment.  So, what I am going to do is devote a specific amount of time to praying for this cause every day.  I know that prayer is powerful.  It is a gift from God that we shouldn’t neglect.  Miracles happen when we pray.  Look at 2 Corinthians 10:4: “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”  The greatest weapon that we have is prayer.  If we are really passionate about getting rid of abortion we have to pray.  This issue is being debated in our courtrooms but it is part of a greater battle that is taking place between unseen forces as we speak. 

So what do you say?  Do you really want to see this law passed?  If you do, then I challenge you to spend at least 1 minute in prayer specifically for this cause each day until it passes.  If you want to pray longer go for it!  No matter how busy you are you can spare one minute a day to pray.  Put a post it note reminding you on your keys each night, and don’t leave the house until you’ve prayed.  Even if you are running late, stop and pray, 1 minute is not going to make much of a difference.  Or put a reminder by your toothbrush and pray while you brush.  I don’t think God will mind.  Do whatever you have to do, but make sure that you do it!  I want to see this law pass and I am going to do what I can, but I can’t do it alone.  So please, please, please join me in praying for the Heartbeat bill!

Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow

Today, I just have to take a minute to stop and thank God for all of His blessings.  A few months ago, I was invited to speak at Greenbush Baptist Church and after much planning and prayer I was able to share my experiences living in a Filipino orphanage with them.  The past week has been quite a challenge. Every story I wrote out and every picture I looked at was accompanied by a tear.  It’s been a year since I last spoke about my trip and I didn’t remember how much I miss those kids until I spent a week praying about them and reliving my time with them. 

                I’ll never forget the day that the kids took us to Lake Sampuloc and we almost got attacked my monkeys or the day that we celebrated Joseph’s birthday.  I still remember how much fun it was to have a tea party and dance party on the roof of the church with the girls.  I remember their names and faces and pray that God is keeping them safe.  I look forward to the day when I can be on the mission field once again, caring for God’s children. 

                I don’t know why God decided to use me in this way but I am thankful that He has.  I am not a public speaker but today God used to speak to a group of people who were interested to hear what I had to say, even if I didn’t say it well.  God can truly do amazing things if we are willing to let Him use us.  This afternoon Greenbush had a tea party for their CIA’s, which is their kids program, and they had “Lottie Moon” come and share about her life.  Then I shared about my time in the Philippines.  It was a great evening and I got to meet some very kind people.  God has reminded me of the urgency of spreading the gospel and the great need in the world. 

                Thank you, Lord for all of your great blessings.  I pray that you will continue to use me in my everyday day life and that you will lead me to service in missions. 

                I have now completed my first semester of Seminary. Yay!  I wasn’t sure that I would make it but I did.  I’m working full time at the preschool now that school is out.  This has been a fun experience.  Three year olds truly say and do the funniest things.  Those kids are such a blessing to me.

                Two weeks until Christmas!  In this time of giving I encourage you to remember missions and specifically Lottie Moon.  Pray about giving to the Lottie Moon Offering and ask God how He can use you to further His Kingdom and bring Him glory.    

Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow…