Such a Strange Way To Save the World, Monday, December 14, 2009 - For His Glory

I cannot imagine what Mary and Joseph had racing through their minds when they became ABUNDANTLY aware of the amazing plan they had been asked to be part of. Me? I'm INCREDIBLY human and I think my response would have been something like "ARE YOU KIDDING??" I do that now! I hear the Holy Spirit speaking to me and although I know that God just asks me to be obedient, there are million things running through my head other than simply "Yes, Lord." but that's what Mary and Joseph did. In spite of what I'm sure were a million things running through their minds - including the thoughts shared with us in the Gospels - they said "Yes, Lord." There's a precious Christmas song that the group "For Him" put on an album years agao and part of the chorus says:

"Now I'm not one to second guess

What angels have to say . . .

But this is such a strange way

to Save the World."

Yeah, it was but thankfully, dear ones - if there had been no Christmas there could be no Cross. And I am so thankful that more than 2000 years ago our amazing God delivered His one and only so that WHOEVER believes in Him shall be saved. I'm not always confident in my ability to do what God has for me to do but I am asking Him to give me the courage to be obedient and, like Mary and Joseph, to simply say "Yes, Lord." No Christmas, no cross. No Cross, no crown. Praying Christmas blessings on you now and the whole year through! AA

"My Grown Up Christmas List" (C) - For His Glory, Friday, December 11, 2009

Do you remember me

I sat upon your knee

I wrote to you

With childhood fantasies

Well, I'm all grown up now

And still need help somehow

I'm not a child

But my heart still can dream

So here's my lifelong wish

My grown up Christmas list

Not for myself

But for a world in need

No more lives torn apart

That wars would never start

And time would heal all hearts

And everyone would have a friend

And right would always win

And love would never end

This is my grown up Christmas list

As children we believed

The grandest sight to see

Was something lovely

Wrapped beneath our tree

Well heaven only knows

That packages and bows

Can never heal

A hurting human soul

No more lives torn apart

That wars would never start

And time would heal all hearts

And everyone would have a friend

And right would always win

And love would never end

This is my grown up Christmas list

What is this illusion called the innocence of youth?

Maybe only in our blind belief can we ever find the truth

(there'd be)No more lives torn apart

That wars would never start

And time would heal all hearts

And everyone would have a friend

And right would always win

And love would never end,

oh This is my grown up Christmas list

This is my grown up Christmas list (C)

What a Precious Promise - For His Glory, Thursday, December 10, 2009

In the Gospel of Luke we receive what some believe to be the most accurate telling of the coming of Christ. Mary, the young woman chosen to give birth to the Messiah, was engaged to Joseph but she was not married. Upon being visited by the angel she was astonished that God would choose her. Not only that - she wasn't married and to be unmarried and "in the family way" 2000 years ago was scandalous to say the least. Yet, we learn that Mary magnified and glorified the Lord

And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me-- holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers."

Exactly 21 years ago I too learned that I would give birth to a child. My marital state was precarious at best and a short six weeks after learning that I was pregnant, I was widowed. Driving home one day, weeping in my car - in the days before cell phones - I was forced to pull off the road and remember vividly crying out to God - "I trust you. I don't know why this has happened but I trust you. Use this for your glory!" Many have been the times in the life of the son I gave birth to, have I cried out to God - "Holy are you, Oh, God and your mercy extends to me. You HAVE performed mighty deeds and you have not forgotten me." Jesus came to seek and save those who were lost - you and me. And the God of the Universe knows full well always what He is doing and what He is allowing and ordaining in our lives. He simply asks that we trust Him and praise Him anyway - even when we don't understand. The precious promise that Mary received was that God had chosen her and what He brought her to, His grace would bring her through. And it did. I can assure you, dear ones, that what God brought me to 21 years ago, His grace is still sustaining me through and that is His precious promise to you and me too! Trust Him with your heart and life and soul and strength and claim HIS precious promises! Loving you, with His Love and praying that ALL I do is For His Glory! AA

Black Friday

Today in the retail world is Black Friday - a day that retailers hope will bring their spreadsheets from the "red" - an indebted state of affairs - to the "black" - where they are actually showing a profit. Today is black Friday in our house for a different reason. The blackness of sin has permeated the peace of our home and it is strangling the occupants within. Our oldes has, for some time, been involved with drug use and abuse. The company he has been choosing to keep furthers this lifestyle. We do not. When he came to us four months ago, he had been away from home for two years and while we knew of the choices he was making, we did not know the depths to which those choices had taken him. Now, four months later -we're learning. I was awakened from sleep hearing my son loudly screaming death threats at a drug dealer and I could not believe my ears. Oh, Father God - what have we done wrong that our son would be so low in his estate. Oh Father God - wasn't it this same sin of each of us that brought you to the cross that Black Friday more than 2,000 years ago? While the "Black Friday" that we have come to know and understand in earthly economy gives retailers hope for their businesses to end on a good note, the Black Friday that Jesus knew gives us a future . . . and a hope. For God so loved THE WORLD that He gave HIS only begotten Son that WHOEVER believes in Him shall not perish but SHALL have everlasting life. As the holy season of Christ-mas is on us, let us not lose sight of the Hope that was born, lived among us, knew our pain and bore our sins on His Black Friday so that we ALL - regardless of our sin - could have an eternity with him.

Trusting God

I am learning, dear ones, that what Satan intends for evil, God WILL use for our good and for His Glory. We see this play out time and time again in the Word. With Jonah, Nehemiah, Esther . . . Job. Mind you, I am not typically fit to stand in the company of these saints but I claim the promise of God's Word that if ANY man (or woman) be in Christ, he (she) is a NEW creation.
I can honestly say that I have loved Jesus all my life. As far back as I can remember, the cinema depiction of the sweet face of the Master touched me to my very core. Even before I truly understood what Jesus had done for me on the cross, seeing Him hang there hurt my heart. If you know me, you know I have been singing since I could practically open my mouth. Not that it was always a good sound but my precious parents, at the urging of a friend, enrolled me in classical voice lessons when I was 14 and I took them for four years. By the time I was 18 I had been learning to sing - either through school, church or private lessons for 12 years. I have to tell you that it was not until I truly entered into a relationship with Jesus Christ on January 1, 1998 was the anointing of the Holy Spirit on my voice. Someone I was talking with recently asked me if I was a singer. I told her I was and she told me she could hear the song in my voice. Friends - I trust God and the song in my voice is from Him! With all my heart, soul, mind and strength and I KNOW that I KNOW that I KNOW that nothing Satan ordains - NO weapon he forms against us shall prosper and with my voice and in my heart I will sing the praise of Jesus and I will trust the Almighty God to be my voice, to use my voice to minister HIS love and mercy and HIS truth. Things get tough some times and things happen we don't understand. There's a song by Kari Jobe that I just love - it's (appropriately) titled "I'm Singing." The chorus to the song says

"And I'm Singing to the God who brings redemption to the nations

Kings and oceans bow to Him in praise

And I'm Singing to the God who wrote the book on our salvation

To the One who covers me in grace

I'm Singing"

© Gateway Create Publishing; Sixsteps Music; Vamos Publishing; Worshiptogether.com Songs

Come what may, any day, I am trusting God and I'm singing, For His Glory.

A Heart of Flesh

It doesn't take many years of living to realize that the insults and assaults of life can leave us with a very wounded heart and pain that only God can heal. If we're not careful we become jaded and cynical, bitter and walled off. It is this reaction to hurt, pain . . . life, that turns a soft, reachable, touchable heart into a heart of stone that only the love of God can reach. While Ezekiel was in exile with more than 3,000 Jews, he received his call from the Almighty to become a prophet. Ezekiel's job was to urge the exiles to renew their commitment to the one true God. It is really amazing to me that God is ALL His glory spoke directly to men then . . . and He still speaks directly to us today. One of the messages that God gave to Ezekiel was found in Chapter 11, verse 19 when God said to Ezekiel "I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit. I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people and I will be their God." Oh, dear ones, I encourage you, according to the unending Grace of God that you allow Him to soften your hearts and whatever pain and hurt and injury is making you cynical, leaving you jaded or bitter, you will turn over to Him and allow Him to restore you. You are not alone. We are all living the same lives, suffering the same hurts but God is STILL God and the same God who spoke then, is still speaking today and the message of His love and healing is still the same. Let's listen, be still and know that He, indeed, is God. He loves you . . . I do too. In His Glorious Love - AA

An Epiphany - For His Glory, October 8, 2009

Okay - so woke up REALLY late this morning and by the time I was getting cleaned up and "ready" for the day - it hit me: "MY LIFE S _ _ _ S!" No, really, it does! Not in the "traditional" sense, mind you because the list of the ways that God has blessed me is WAY, WAY, WAY long but in the standard "okay, not doing what I was created to do" sense! I gotta tell ya kids, I woke up today. That was ALL the affirmation I needed to remind me that I AM HERE FOR A PURPOSE!! Workin' at a job, cleaning house, laundering, cooking. Yeah, those are ALL divine "appointments" and well in keeping with the directives of Proverbs 31 so don't get me wrong. Those are all very necessary parts of life. The greater question, the one we MUST ask ourselves every day is this: Am I doing what God has put me here today or am I allowing "the urgent" to get in the way of what is TRULY important??? Tough question and one that, today, got answered by "MY LIFE S _ _ _ S!" Every day that I lose track of what God has put me here for, while not a day totally wasted, is one more day I missed it. Okay, I know, I know - this is MY opinion and well, yeah, it is my opinion because it's my blog but folks - think on this will you? This is what Dr. Randy Carlson calls "Living the Intentional Life!" (Thank you Dr. Randy!) Life is not to be lived by accident but ON PURPOSE! Are we seein' the theme here?? IF we're are created FOR a purpose then our lives are to be LIVED ON PURPOSE??? Friends, I desire to be intentional - in my walk with Christ, in pursuing HIS purpose for me, in DAILY living out HIS purpose for me! Yeah, we all have to work and pay the bills and clean the house and do the laundry and walk the dog (and yeah, the "stuff" that comes with that one too) but we cannot lose sight of the call to do what GOD has CALLED us to do, what HE has created us to do! I ask you to join me in 1. Living an intentional life EVERY day; 2. Intentionally pursuing God DAILY; 3. Not allowing the "urgent" to displace the eternal. Will you hold me accountable? You know my heart. Will you pray for me? You know my desire. Will you join me? I'd LOVE your company on the journey. Yours, In Him- Andrea