Are You In The Zone

In our Christian walk we have an opportunity to be ‘In The Zone’ and we choose whether to accept the challenge or to just continue life in another ‘zone’.

God gives us the free choice. It is of our own free choice that we make commitments in this life. God desires that we reach out to Him and let Him teach us the way to go. 

Where is our commitment today? Is it ‘In The Zone’ or somewhere else.

God says that when we are 'In The Zone' we will find the following:

Proverbs 4:11-13 “I guide you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hampered; when you run, you will not stumble. Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.

 There are a LOT of places in this life that we can be; but 'The Zone' is where we should WANT to be! Those who are believers have choices to make about how we are going to live this life out. Here are some examples of the different choices we make and the results:

·        ‘THE’ ZONE; this is where Jesus is and where God desires us to be. Ready and willing to go and be and do in His Name and for His purpose. That can be anything from being obedient in our family or going to a foreign land and proclaiming the Name of Jesus. When we are in ‘THE Zone’ we are in relationship with Jesus in a way that nothing comes above it and God blesses that! We are growing in the Lord; reading His Word; working in the local church and serving God to the best of our ability. We come to the thrown daily in prayer and seek forgiveness for sin in our heart and life asking God to fill us with Him more and more. When we are in ‘THE Zone’ we find that God blesses in ALL situations and we are keeping our eyes on Him no matter what the circumstances or situations are in our lives! We are growing in Him!

·        ‘The Comfort Zone’; this is where Christians get comfortable coming to church sometimes and helping out when it makes us feel good. This is where the Christian is that says ‘hey I will help or do or be only IF it is comfortable for me’.  This Christian is not obedient to the Word and obeys when it is comfortable for them. The relationship with Jesus suffers because unless it makes the person comfortable to read the Bible; it is put on a shelf and only used on Sundays or Wednesdays. This person finds that God blesses others more often than their own life and discouragement is ALWAYS on the horizon. Things happen and this person always thinks that it is because of the judgment of God on their life. It is okay to have a little Jesus and a little sin as long as there is comfort. There is emptiness in the heart of this person because 'The Zone' is not filled with God. Self is there instead.

·        ‘The Danger Zone’; this is where people who make a profession of faith but do not go any farther in a Christian walk. This person gets in a place in their lives where they are neither a believer nor a non-believer. They are in such a place that nothing really applies and sin is more appealing than living a life out for Christ. There is no obedience to the Word of God and there is no relationship with Christ. What happened at the altar on the day they professed God’s Name was a onetime only experience and they do not choose to continue it. There is no prayer and the condition of the heart is cold. It is cold to other people AND God. This person often wonders why they ever confessed Jesus’ Name! In the ‘Danger Zone’ this person makes decision without any thought and serves only themselves. This person laughs at Christians and their belief and has a small tug in their heart that tells them they really should try to believe; but the voice in their mind is way too strong and it overshadows the still, small voice telling them the truth and sin runs rampant in their lives. Nothing goes well for this person and they blame all the bad on the Lord, turning completely away from Him.

Where do we want to be? What kind of ‘zone’ do we really want to be in? For the sake of our life, our family and our existence; we should desire to be in ‘THE ZONE’ for the Lord. We can do all things through Christ who gives us strength! That is what the Word says to us in Philippians chapter 4. Read the entire chapter and feel the promise of God that lives in His Word!

God gives us willingly the keys to make it in this life we are living here on earth. He KNOWS the trials and problems that we face and tells us in the Word that if we will give our entire life to Him, He will show us the way and light our path! There is no failure when our hearts are tuned with His. When our relationship with the Lord is where it should be and we are reading and studying and praying and fill our lives with all the good that God has to offer; He just has such a way of making our steps light and joy filled no matter what the circumstances are in this life.

The life of a Christian is not an easy road! Problems come and circumstances happen that cause us to look even closer at the Word of God and pray even more diligently than we did yesterday. When our hearts are filled with belief in Him; this is an easy task in the heart. We will walk through the problems and circumstances of this life filled with God and He will direct the way right through any problems that arise.

It is my prayer that we start off the New Year in ‘THE ZONE’ for the Lord and put our relationship with Him first and give God the problems and circumstances and let Him control it all.

Believe Him today! Live your life in 'THE ZONE' and watch how God will move and work in your life!

My Christmas Wish List For You

Luke 2:11 ~ "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord."

Remember the ‘Truth’ verses the ‘Tradition’ of this Christmas Season and share the ‘Truth’ with your family by reading the GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD in Luke Chapter 2!

Spend time on the little things that get lost during the ‘hustle and bustle’ of the season like cold nights cuddled up with your family by a fire; or sharing a meal around the table and talking about each other’s day, sharing what the Lord has done for you lately. Laugh about the funny stuff and forget the not so good stuff…life is WAY too short!

Open one present at a time and make Christmas last as long as possible. You will enjoy it more and so will everyone else! Sometimes when we tear into the gifts and spend 15 minutes on what people took their time and thought to buy just doesn’t do the gift or the giver justice.

Don’t forget to give of yourself this Christmas Season. Do something for someone else. You will be amazed at how that makes you feel! God made us with an ability for doing for others and when we do His will; He gives us a feeling of satisfaction in our soul! It was what we were made for!

Build within your family a love for the Lord and a desire to come to church and worship Him. Teach your kids and loved ones to desire the Lord! We can do this by making church something very important in our family structure.

Forget about the things in this life that we can’t do anything about and instead spend time on what can bring us joy from within. Hug that person that makes you miserable and share the love of Christ with the person that makes you angry. Make right the wrong that is done to you by loving that person! Life changes so quickly and you never know when that time is gone and you can’t correct the things that rob you of joy!

Above all else….”LOVE the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” ~ Deuteronomy 6:5….that LOVE is the ONLY thing that will last in this life and will carry not only you but your family into eternity! Build your personal relationship with Christ!

Get MAD

Getting 'MAD' is about 'Making A Difference' in this Christian life that we are living. It is about loving others and letting the love of God shine through us! We are his ambassadors in this life and we should reflect His love.

I don't know about you; but at this time of the year, I look around and see such suffering and people who have such great need. It breaks my heart and maybe I see that because I knew those kinds of times when I was young, or maybe God gave me a heart for it. I don't really know, but I do know that God expects us as Christians to stand in the gap for those who can't quite get there and to genuinely LOVE them...what better time of year than now?

This time of year more than any other people should WANT to make a difference in someone’s life; in their church, in community, in our country and even around the world.

We think our trying to make a difference won’t make a difference; but that is not true. It takes one person in one place to sart a revolution and to help others make that move! That is what I want to do this year. 

In today’s society people are crying out to be cared for! Can you make a difference? I believe that we can. One person at a time; on moment at a time…God WILL use you and me to make a difference.

1 John 4:11 "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."

God calls us to a place where we love Him so much that we WANT to make a difference somehow some way and we trust Him that He will lead us where we need to be to do just that…we do that by service; in the home, in the church and community. We just need to give of ourselves; either by giving time, money, helping someone. God shines through us when we are seeking to help others.

To do that there are some things that we need to be mindful of this holiday season and every other season of our life!

·         Watch our thoughts. We have to make a conscious effort to keep our thoughts centered on God and not on things of the world. This is a part of us that no one else sees. Our relationship with the Lord is what changes our thought process. We have to study and be mindful of what we are thinking. It is an exercise to shape up our thought life! We have to make ourselves begin to focus more on the Lord and pretty soon our thoughts are God centered not self centered! Giving from the heart is born out of this!

·         Watch our words. Think before we answer! That is what we should be doing all the time. How many of us answer before we think! The words we say DO have an impact on others. We speak mean words, words that are unworthy of God and they stay with a person for a long time. God wants and desires more from us! He wants our words to be molded by our thoughts that are centered on Him. This is a building block in our Christian life. When we are thoughtful of the Lord our words reflect that. Share words of love this Christmas season instead of words of anger and bitterness. Let's concentrate on the good that God has given us and speak with that love.

·         Watch our actions. We never know who is watching and when we are conscious of how we are acting; we are using the restraint that God gives us when we are focused on Him. We cannot do that without having our thoughts and words focused on Him! Practice acting how Christ would act and it will make us a more joyful people! God desires to cover us with His love and the way that happens is that our thoughts, words and actions reflect Him. The depth of our relationship with God shows through our actions. Are we acting like we should today!

·         Watch our habits. The things that we put the most energy into are where are habits are developed from. God desires that our habits are in Him. This all takes lots of practice and we fail many times to do what God wants us to. When we learned to walk; we fell down a lot but eventually walked and the Christian life is the same! We may fail a lot but God keeps loving us through His Word and calling us to get up and walk and believe Him. Habits are something that are developed out of what your thoughts and words and actions portray. If you think it in your mind that is what you are! Let your habits be Christ centered! Think about God, speak with His wording and portray His actions in this life and before you know it you have habits like a King! That is what God designed us for. We should desire to use His Holy Power and be who He called us to be! Our habits spring from what is inside of us! Desire God to fill us with Him so that we can be that shining light He wants us to be to others.

·         Watch our character. Our character is developed by all of the above and the way to watch our character is to have thoughts, words, actions and habits that are developed in Christ. This is the believer’s life and it is a life of freedom that is only offered through the Love of God! Love God enough today to want to develop Christian character.

These are things that teach us to want to make a difference in this life. These things help us develop character that carries us through the holidays when we don’t feel like being a part of the festivities or don’t have someone to love. Our character in Christ helps us see deeper than ourselves. We see a light shining in us that helps us desire to serve God and love others.

Make a Difference today in someone’s life. It can be done in any way…very small things make huge differences in other’s lives.

Live that out today! When your character is built on Him you are building on the ETERNAL and it will last forever. Give a gift that lasts forever…the LOVE OF CHRIST!

“Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they
become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch
your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it
becomes your destiny.”

      -- Frank Outlaw

Christ is our destiny and the Love of God is what molds us into what we are! It is my prayer that this week we are mindful of ‘Making a Difference’ because of the GREAT LIGHT that shines in us!

Tis The Season - Or Is It?

On Black Friday, as most other shopping women did, my daughter and I set out for the big city to shop til we dropped. Of course it was raining and very cold, but we had a mission.

As we sat in traffic on one particular busy street in town, I noticed that a local civic group was collecting money at all traffic lights and street corners. They were even standing in the middle of the road collecting for their cause. People would roll down their windows and give whatever change they had to these people freely and then proceed through the light.

The thing that caught my attention though was the homeless people at the streetcorners also. I noticed there were two; one on each street corner holding up signs that said they needed money for food. What I noticed at that point shocked me and caused me to really think about what we are doing at this time of the year.

No one was rolling down their windows and giving change to them. They were being ignored. At one point one of the people with the civic group came within arms length of one of these  homeless folks and never even acknowledged him but stuck his coin container right in front of him to receive money from one of the cars.

It became apparent to me that we give to what we CHOOSE to give to and of course take care of ourselves and those who don't fall into those categories go without....just like those homeless folks on the side of the road. No one was giving them the change in their pockets. They were being ignored because they did not fit the mold.

The Bible says that it is more blessed to give than to receive and that is a principle to live by as Christians. Our hearts are more blessed by helping others than by receiving from others! But the Scripture passage that reached out to me as I watched people giving to those who were 'safer' was that if we are in God's favor and we see someone with a need...we just need to reach out to them. It does not matter that we can't relate; we might not have the same lifestyle; we might not live in a shelter; we might not wear the same type of clothes; what matters is that today is the day of God's favor and today is the day of Salvation. So if that is true; the change we might put in a homeless person's hands might be the exact moment that God chooses to open their eyes to His Salvation.

I remember that on the day of my own Salvation; I didn't fit the mold either and someone who believed God reached out to me and led me to Salvation! On the day of your Salvation; what reached out to you? Was it love? Was it someone 'giving' their time and energy to you?

I think that if we approach these situations like that; it is easy to give whatever we may have to them. I am not saying don't give to the civic organization at all. They do wonderful work; but I am saying that we should open our eyes to those that get overlooked at this time of the year. Those who don't fit the mold and are not easy to smile at.

The next time you approach a streetcorner and there is someone standing there in need; give what you have to give and know that on that day it may make a difference! That is what God calls us as believers to do. It really is the 'Season' to do that!

What they do with the money is not the concern; what the concern should be is that we have an open heart and see the need and as believers attempt to meet that need!

Tis the Season indeed! 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 "As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, 'In the time of my favor I heard you and in the day of salvation I helped you.' I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of Salvation."

What is my identity?

Yesterday my son was in a football playoff game in another town. I wasn't really familiar with the school we were going to so my daughter and I pulled off into a local church parking lot to wait for my husband, so we could follow him. I thought 'hey, there could be no safer place'.

We had been waiting there a good 20 minutes when a woman drives into the parking lot and pretty much branded us as criminals. To me it was funny until she began taking down our license plate number. I had told her who we were and what we were doing; but got the sense that she did not believe us, simply because we were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I was becoming anxious while waiting for my husband because she pulled up behind us at that point and turned off her car. She had a cell phone in her hand and I was not sure; but I think she called the police! I was about to be in some trouble and it was all because she really didn't trust who I said I was.

Long story short is that my husband arrived in the next few minutes and we pulled out to go to the game but were left to wonder if she did indeed call the police about our identity.

It occured to me while we were pulling away that in the believer's life with Jesus; we should be who we say we are and live out our lives that way. Our identity should be in Him! The Bible says in (Romans 1:2b The Message) Through him we received both the generous gift of his life and the urgent task of passing it on to others who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus. You are who you are through this gift and call of Jesus Christ!
I know who I am in Christ and was not worried in that situation; but that lady did not know who we were and she was concerned. Perhaps I should have told her what church I was with and she would have been a little more at ease.

I see in believers that we should ALWAYS be wearing the identity of Christ; afterall, He paid a high price for that identity and it should be shining through us at all times so that others see and desire it also.

Where is your identity today? Is it in Jesus? Are we living out the life He intended for us to live?

Where is my motivation?

11/12/10

Where is my motivation I asked myself this morning when I was in the shower. This is my fourth week post surgery on my knee and sometimes the pain is overwhelming still. From my point of view, I should be able to motivate myself...after all, I am a mother, wife, full time worker, Sunday School teacher, Bible study teacher and speaker...

As I reach my kitchen after my shower, I discover to my dismay that there is NO COFFEE! I am certain now that I must go back to bed. I don't have coffee to help my brain be stimulated enough to get some motiviation. At this point I am wondering why I even got up!

Do you ever have mornings like this? I have had quite a few of these lately and I can only draw one conclusion...and that is that God is teaching me something and I have not completely learned it yet! I get the feeling that He wants me to lean COMPLETELY on Him without a desire of my self. How scary is that? And yet that is what the Word of God tells us to do as believers.

So knowing this; I sit down at the table; without coffee and slow motivation and I see my Bible on the buffet across the room. I suddenly realize this is where my help comes from! My help comes from the Lord.

Suddenly I am INCREDIBLY motivated once again to take on the day as I reach for the Bible and begin to read the Love Letter that God wrote to me! The very first Scripture that God leads me to is in Psalm 116: 5-6 "The Lord is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. The Lord protects the simplehearted; when I was in great need, he saved me."

That verse is TRUE! I am feeling fired up at this point over one verse! My help does come from the Lord because I really need His help each and every day.

It occurs to me that my motivation comes from the Lord! The believer WANTS and DESIRES to be in God's Will and He says that He will lead us. I am so glad of that this morning.

I am motivated now! Where is your motivation today? Is it in the God of Heaven? Are you sinking in a pit of unfulfilled desire and need a way out? Come to Jesus today and find some motivation through His Word!

Now where is the coffee?

WELCOME !