The Heart's Song Is Never Silent

              Image via : indescribable love.com One of my favorite characters in the Bible is Joseph. He was known as a dreamer, and the dreams he had were God sized dreams. Dreams which were bigger than his current circumstances, dreams which would follow him for years without bearing fruit, but like all God given dreams in the end, at their proper, appointed time they would have to come to pass. Do you have any God given dreams? Maybe ones that are so huge that when you share them with others they laugh ? Or maybe like the case of Joseph's brothers they become envious to the point of plotting your down fall? You see , what Joseph's brothers did not understand- and what Joseph himself did not recognize-was that this dream did not speak about God lifting Joseph up just to be honored , and glorified above his brothers. No, God was going to use Joseph on the platform he would be given to save a nation.   The thing about God given dreams is th...

As a new believer one of the things I struggled greatly with was the idea of affliction, the idea that God would place me in a test, a trial, even a season of pain. After all He is Lord of all, and He loves me right? Yes, enough to die for me, to even take my place on the cross. So, it didn't add up to me why sometimes it seemed like my prayers were bouncing off  heaven's walls, why I had people leave, so called friends betray me, and my world turn upside down. What I didn't realize during those seasons was that I wasn't so much afraid of the trials, and tests but I was more concerned with being uncomfortable, placed outside my comfort zone, and having to walk outside the orderly lines of the cookie cutter life I had designed for myself in my mind. But how can God truly love us and leave us as we are? You see, He sees me not just as I am now, but He sees the me He created me to be, He sees my possibility. James 1:4 says "Let perseverance finish its work so that you...

As this year draws to a close and another one quickly approaches, their is a tendency to rush ahead, after all a shiny new year is up ahead with all the promises of grandeur hidden in it's wings, and I, like many people am so ready for the possibilities that it holds. But their is another side to this desire and it's the potential to move so fast now that I rush ahead of the moment, the place, the season that God has me in,  and worse of all the potential to even rush ahead of God. Proverbs 3 5-6 says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight." That for me is a very telling passage that says so much to my often restless heart. So today instead of rushing ahead and building castles made of air, I'm reflecting back on this year and even on previous years, and in doing so I'm noticing that they all show the finger of God. His handprints are all over my life,...

When I was ten years old I remember my church at the time holding baptisms outside, and how the air was palpable with excitement.I remember the crowd of people gathered around the pool, and the brave few who stepped forward as the preacher's voice boomed over the crowd. I also remember wanting to be baptized, after all I loved Jesus as any good little girl should, but as I thought of the life ahead of me it seemed impossible to me that I could be good all my life and never commit a sin, so my little heart was filled with sadness that day and countless other days over the years that followed. What I wish someone had explained to me was the free gift of grace that Christ desired to give me. The priceless gift  He paid for in blood when He gave His life on the cross. I wish someone had told me of the freedom from sin that would be mine the day I gave my life to Jesus. Therefore now their is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1. It would have been great if so...

There is a love that is stronger than death. A love that reaches across time, distance, your yesterday, and your tomorrow. This love whispers "Not that one, that one is my anointed, that one is my beloved. Touch not one hair on their head." We are in a battle, and this battle is not against flesh and blood, but against evil in high places. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Ephesians 6:12 In this life everything is not as it seems, we have an enemy and he has come to steal, kill, and destroy. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10 And if the story ended their then it would be a hopeless battle, a forever night. But God. God reaches across the chasm formed by sin, and lays His son on the altar ...for us. And if that had been the end, th...

Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction. Isaiah 48:10 I don't know about you, but when I first read those words I wasn't too enthusiastic about them. I mean a furnace? That's not your average fire, that's fire heated several times over, I don't know anyone who would voluntarily enter one, do you? Ok, so I'm not the only one out there who's raised an eyebrow at this verse, at least at it's potential application to my life .  If I'm honest, I'll admit that I'm pretty much a creature of habit, and being comfortable in my surroundings is my preference; I like to play it safe. But sometimes playing it safe isn't all that it's cracked up to be, sometimes never trying new things is a lot like losing. Losing the possibility of what you could have achieved, or what might have been had you stepped out of your comfort zone. God is all about the new, for He says all who are in Christ a...

For God created the world, and all things in the world; He separated light from darkness, man and woman created He them, and when He was finished creating He said it -everything He had done-was good. For God is good, and all that He does is good. God gave one command , not to restrict, but to protect His children: do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But the woman was enticed by the evil one, and the man was weak, and followed her lead. Evil entered the perfect world, toil and sin entered the world, pain entered the world, and it all lead to death. It's not love unless the loved one has a choice to love you back, so God gave the children of man the option to choose Him. Yet they forgot their Creator, but He did not forget them. He sent prophets to warn them to turn back to that purpose which He had created them for, but they would not hear. He sent His own Son, God in flesh : fully God and fully man. Their is no sorrow that man has borne that He is not acquai...