Welcome to my blog!

A few friends of mine suggested I start a blog to post my thoughts on God and life and other random things, so here I am writing my first blog!  I’ll mainly be writing about what God is teaching me and what I’m reading or listening to (I should say right now that I’m a big fan of Andy Stanley, so you’ll hear me mention him a lot.  If you haven’t listened to him before, you should look him up – he’s the best!).  You can go here: www.northpoint.org/messages.  You can also subscribe to North Point’s messages on iTunes for free, and each week you’ll get the latest message.

I’ll also throw out some random tips that I’ve found useful, like freezing food or finding good deals or managing finances. 

So, thanks for reading!  Hope you find something useful that you can apply and pass on!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I made this recipe from my mom tonight, and it was awesome!  I will definitely be adding it to the rotation.  Easy to make, too.

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken

15 oz. can diced tomatoes

10 oz. can enchilada sauce (I used mild)

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tsp. minced garlic (from jar)

2 cups water

14.5 oz. can chicken broth

1/2 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. chili powder

1/4 tsp. pepper

1 bay leaf

1 can corn, drained

1 can black beans

Directions:

Boil chicken until cooked, then shred (just pull apart with fingers)

Combine all ingredients into large pot and simmer on low for about 1 hour.

Secret toppings:

Once soup is served, squeeze the juice from about 1/2 of a lime slice into bowl of soup.  Garnish with sour cream and shredded cheese.  (The lime is SO good!)  Mmm!  Eat with tortilla chips on the side.  (I tried putting a few pieces in the soup but actually liked them better just as a side item).

Blessed vs. Blessing

There’s a sermon from Jamey Dickens at NorthPoint right now called “American Dreams: Set the Right Goal.”  He talks about Genesis 12:2, where God says to Abraham, ” I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great…”

Most of us as Americans just want to put a period right there.  However, God doesn’t put a period; he puts a comma.  He says, ” I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.”

The point is that God doesn’t just want to bless us – He also wants us to be a blessing.  Jamey talked about how we often set “blessed” goals, such as getting to a certain point in our career, or living in a certain neighborhood, or having a family.  But how often do we set “blessing” goals in addition to blessed goals?  It’s a really challenging thought.  He gave examples such as: my blessed goal is that I want to be promoted to this position; my blessing goal is that all of my co-workers see Christ in me and know Him.  Other blessing goals can be to give away a certain percentage or amount of money or to share Christ with your neighbors.

For me, I wrote out a list of both blessed and blessing goals, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I only had 2 blessed goals, which means I essentially have everything I could ever ask for in the way of friendships, family, job, and financial security.  My list of blessing goals was much longer, and I’ve been revisiting it often to see if I’m working on those goals.  I realized that I can’t do much to achieve my blessed goals, but I can definitely work towards my blessing goals.

At the end of our lives, we won’t regret not being blessed, but we might regret not being more of a blessing.

I’ll Never Let Him Go

During my trip to Cape Town, South Africa last week, I had the awesome opportunity to attend a church in a township called Masiphumelele (Masi).  By all accounts, Masi is a very poor township with stark living conditions.  However, being inside that church you would have never guessed it.  The people seemed full of joy…they were singing with smiles on their faces, dancing and clapping.  There was really no order of worship – someone would just spontaneously start singing and everyone else would join in, and the music sounded like The Lion King!  It was gorgeous!  I was loving it.  Anyway, at one point, an older woman went up to the front to share, and with a big smile on her face she was talking about how much God meant to her and how happy she was that she had found Him.  And then she said, “..and I’ll never let Him go.”

Those words hit me.  I couldn’t and can’t get them out of my head.  I’ve never talked about God like that.  You don’t hear people in America talk about God that way.  We know that He will never let go of us, but we aren’t determined to never let go of Him.  We don’t cling to Him like that.  It’s because we aren’t that dependent on Him.  In her life, God was everything to her.

It’s a short phrase but it packs so much meaning the more I think about it.  It means He is everything to me, I have nothing without Him, I desperately need Him, I can’t bear to lose Him, my entire future is in His hands, I have found a real treasure, and I’ll never let Him go.  I hope one day I can view God like that.

One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven

I heard about this book a few months ago and thought it would be a great book for me because one of my biggest passions as a Christian is for people to know God more deeply and to know Him for real, no matter where they’re starting from.  I just want to see people “get” who He is and have a real relationship with Him.

I think I was hoping for an easy formula that would take the fear out of witnessing.  Nope, not there.  Unfortunately for me, this guy has no fear.  Throughout the book he shares tons of stories about witnessing to people, and the only time he indicates that he felt at all nervous was when he witnessed to Michael Jordan (yeah).  He seems to talk to anyone and everyone.   I am not joking when I say that his entire life and thoughts are consumed with witnessing to people.  He’s witnessed to thousands of people!  (How many people have I witnessed to, honestly?)

Ok, so what did I think?  Well, at first I really couldn’t believe how often and pervasively he witnessed and was a little worried that he might be doing more harm than good, that people might just roll their eyes at him and walk away.  But three or four chapters in, after I got over the shock of the fact that he is always witnessing (unless he’s sleeping), I realized through all of his stories that people seem to really appreciate his approach and many times end up thanking him for having the conversation.  There are some great stories that are really interesting to read.

More than that, though, this is a really practical book to have, and I would recommend everyone read it and have it as a reference.   Because he has had so much experience and practice with talking to people about the Gospel, he provides some great approaches to witnessing.  I think the hardest part is just getting the conversation started, and he suggests you start by asking people what they think happens when we die, when we walk out of here.  He’s heard every question and argument imaginable during his conversations with people, so he addresses a lot of the most common questions people will ask you, and then he gives you the information to answer.  Right now I’m going back through it and taking notes of some of the key questions and answers.  I loved the section where he “proved” the Bible was true and God was real.  He also gives you several different approaches to take…I think for me it was just really helpful to read example after example (written out in dialogue form) so I could see how he responded to people and how they responded to him.

The more prepared you are, the less fear you will have going into the conversation, so to address my earlier point, maybe he does take some of the fear out of witnessing!  My next step is praying that God will give me the courage to put these things into action.  I need my passion for people to know Him to outweigh my fear of talking about Him.  “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes…” (Romans 1:16)

Can Prayer Change God’s Mind?

I was reading 2 Kings this morning and came across a passage that made me think about this question.  I think there’s a perception or question out there about whether prayer can really change the outcome of a situation.  I’ve heard some pastors or Christians say that prayer isn’t something we do to change God’s mind; it’s something God does to change our minds.  It’s not to bring God closer to us, but us closer to God.  Or it’s just to help increase our faith so that we can see the results of our prayers when they align with God’s will.  Even though these things may be true, does that mean God already has His mind made up so that it doesn’t really matter what we pray for or how fervently?  Is He just going to do what He wants anyway?  I don’t think so.

Based on the passage of Scripture I read this morning in 2 Kings and other passages that I remembered shortly thereafter, it seems like prayer can definitely change God’s mind.  Here are several passages that support this theory:

1.  2 Kings 20:1-6

King Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death.  The prophet Isaiah said to him, “This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”  But Hezekiah wept and prayed to the Lord asking God to remember how he had walked faithfully before Him.  It seems God almost immediately changed His mind…verse 4 says “Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the LORD came to him…’I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you… I will add fifteen years to your life.’”  Isaiah hadn’t even made it out of the palace yet when God changed His mind!

2. Luke 18:1-6

This is the Parable of the Persistent Widow.  Verse 1 starts, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”  Hello, that verse tells us right there that prayer can make a difference.  And the story goes on about this widow who kept pleading with a judge to grant her justice against her adversary.  Initially the judge refused, but finally her persistence wore him down, and he said, “Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!”

3. Luke 11:5-10

I’ll let Jesus tell this one rather than try to summarize.  “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’

“Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness [or persistence] he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

4.  James 5:16

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”  One of my friends said to me once about this verse, “I’m not a righteous man, but Jesus is.”  He lives in us and makes us righteous.  And we know that He prays on our behalf…as Paul said in Romans 8:34, “Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”

I just want to encourage all of us to pray boldly and persistently.  As 1 Thessalonians 5:17 says, “pray continually.”  It does make a difference!  What are you praying for BIG?  Are you praying enough?

Post in the comments if you have any other passages or thoughts on this subject…

Singleness

I was just reading some articles/blogs on singleness and thought I would post a few links to some good ones.

I think mainly we just need to focus on building our ark (to use a Noah analogy).  I think this is so cool…God gave Noah the instructions to build the ark, and then He said, “You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.  Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.” (Gen. 6:19-20) 

Noah didn’t have to go gather all the animals – he simply had to concentrate on the ark and God would bring the animals to him.  As single (or married) people, we just need to build our ark, whatever that is, and let God bring us the things He determines. 

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/456747/how_to_avoid_the_loneliness_of_being.html?cat=41

http://stephaniesmommybrain.blogspot.com/2009/03/living-as-single-christian-woman-guest.html

http://stephaniesmommybrain.blogspot.com/2009/04/dive-in-guest-post-series.html

http://stephaniesmommybrain.blogspot.com/2009/04/live-it-up-guest-post-series.html

I may add more as I come across them, and that way they’ll all be referenced in this one post.

Christ Follower

For the last week or so, I’ve been thinking about this verse:

“Then he said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’”. (Luke 9:23)

It’s followed by verse 24 – “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”

I’ve just been thinking about how I am hardly ever willing to deny myself.  When Jesus called Peter and Andrew to follow Him, the Bible says “at once they left their nets and followed Him” (Mark 1:18).  They denied themselves by dropping what they were doing.  I usually try to follow Jesus by just dragging my net along with me so I can keep doing whatever it is I’m doing and hope that I can still follow Him and pursue my own plans at the same time.

But the thing with following somebody is that if you haven’t denied yourself and your plans upfront, then you aren’t really following them, at least not for long.  You may follow them inasmuch as they’re going where you want to go and you agree with the turns they’re making.   But as soon as they veer off from the direction you had in mind, you’ll keep going your own way and then you’ll no longer be following them.   So if I don’t deny myself and take up my cross daily, then I’m not following Jesus that day.

“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…” (Heb. 12:1-2)

Praying for Co-Workers

I wanted to share something that a few of us in my small group are doing.  It all started a few months ago when we were asking the question, what are you praying for big?  One of my biggest desires is for people to know God personally, for real.  I want them to see how awesome He is and know for themselves.

So I told the group that I was going to pray for 30 of my co-workers, one for each day of the month.  I wrote out a numbered list of their names and began praying for them on the date that corresponded to their name.  Then we decided that I should let them know that I was praying for them.  Wow, that’s a lot harder than just praying!  I just thought, I can’t do that.  Well, meanwhile, two other girls in the group started praying for their co-workers and sending them an email saying something like, “I’m praying for you on the 6th day each month.  Let me know if there’s ever anything specific that I can pray for.  Have a great day.”  (On a practical note, they send the email from their personal account instead of their work account).

It has been so awesome to hear the stories each week of how God is using those emails!  It’s amazing what people will share with you when you ask how you can pray for them.  It may be people you’ve known for years, and suddenly the walls come down.

It was so convicting for me to hear these other stories that I finally decided I had to start sending the emails.  I had just heard or read something, too, about fearing God more than men.   And I thought, who are you going to fear?  You should fear God and no one/nothing else.  So I sent the first email last week, and it was a success!

I want to say thanks to the girls in my group for giving me the encouragement to send the emails.  And if any of you are thinking about doing this with your friends or co-workers, let me encourage you as well.  The majority of people are so humbled and thankful that you would think of them and pray for them.  They aren’t offended.  It’s not like you’re beating them over the head with the Gospel.  You’re just showing them that you care about them.  But it could lead to some great conversations and future opportunities where they ask you about your faith.

And even the ones who don’t respond – maybe someday if they’re going through a tough time, they’ll come to you and ask you to pray for them.

“The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”  (James 5:16)

Giving up your dreams

Last night I was praying and I gave up all my dreams to God and asked Him to replace them, one by one, with His dreams for me. At the end of my life, that’s what I really want. I want to be who GOD dreamed of me becoming, who He had in mind when He created me, not what I dreamed for myself. His way is always better. Always, always, always.

God’s Gifts

I was reading an excerpt this morning from John Piper’s book, The Hunger for God.   He was talking about all of the things that we enjoy in life, such as gardening and reading and decorating and coffee and traveling and investing and TV-watching and internet-surfing and shopping and exercising and collecting and talking.  These are all gifts from God.

He said:

“The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts…they can become deadly substitutes for God.  And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth.  For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.”