Includes...
We are in a time of the year when God starts shifting things around. This is often a time of transition where people might be moving, changing roles, or other doors of opportunity may open. When these opportunities come they are good but the transitions can often be messy and disordered as our old rhythms and routines get disrupted.
Order is about positioning and when pieces are shifting around we have to recreate order. Order doesn't last... it's dynamic and must be flexible and adaptable.
When things shift and change we will have to find new rhythms, habits, and systems that work to create the new order. The old order won't work anymore because the pieces and environment are different so we must be diligent about making adjustments to put things back into position. With new changes and growth the initial disorder can seem overwhelming and stressful, but remember God is a God of order and he lives within you. He will help you get it all structured and ordered i...
Understanding God's grace with our hearts is a very important part of our walk with God.
Colossians 1:6 says the gospel bears fruit in our lives ever since the day we understood God's grace.
To truly understand something we must "get it," from all angles and perspectives. We often think of God's grace as his unmerited favor and him treating us better than we deserve. And this is a big part of grace but there are many more angles to consider.
Here are some additional angles of grace to meditate on today.
The other night my daughter said something very interesting...
She said, " When people are blind their ability to hear improves and I think since we can't see God it improves our ability to hear from him and grow our faith."
Then we began to discuss Romans 10:17 which says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God(some versions say the word of Christ).
Faith comes by hearing, but it is possible not to have ears that hear. This week in our Partner's Zoom we were discussing how we can hear the same things over and over and keep getting new things out of them. Sometimes our ears filter things out for whatever reason. I think that as our faith grows it opens up new dimensions of hearing, and we can hear things that we were deaf to before. But hearing comes by God's word and the anointed word of Christ. God's anointed word is what opens our ears to hear so that our faith increases.
A habit that I developed early in my walk with God is listening to v...
When we lose something it is often more exciting to find it again than it was to have it the first time. I once had a time when some money fell out of my pocket. I searched and searched for the money but couldn't find it any where. A few hours later it finally turned up and it was more exciting to find it again than it was to receive it the first time.
In Luke 15 Jesus tells three lost and found stories... The parable of the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to find the one lost sheep, the parable of the woman who loses one of her ten coins, and the parable of the prodigal son.
In each instance when the lost was found it brought great joy and they celebrated with their neighbors and friends.
As we take communion today let it be a reminder of how much joy it brings God when any of us miss it but turn back to him. Let it also be a time to remember that God restores and when he restores something that was lost it is cherished even more.
I am praying for you.
...During this time of the year many transitions happen and often we may find ourselves with new people in leadership roles around us. It is very important to God that we honor the people he has placed in authority and leadership in our lives. This means children honoring parents, spouses honoring one another, employees honoring bosses, honoring church leadership, honoring mentors and coaches, and honoring governmental leaders. We are supposed to outdo one another in showing honor. Honor has a lot to do with what we say and the tone in which we say it. Honor is also conveyed in our actions.
Honor is about the heart. You can be in total disagreement with someone but still honor them. When we get honor right it helps us stay positioned in the light. This was the original sin of Satan. He didn't have honor for God and thought he could do better, so he rebelled. When we step out of honor we step out of the light and shut off the flow of God's grace. A lack of honor usua...
When we feel insecure it causes us to turn inward and steals our presence, which is a big deal because I believe presence is one of the greatest keys to God's grace flowing. Insecurity usually causes us to get into our own head and magnify things that will probably never happen. And this robs our presence and awareness of what is happening around us in the present moment. Insecurity steals the gift of the present moment.
Our security is supposed to be found in God's unconditional and unfailing love for us. In perfect love there is no fear. But this does take trusting in him. When we trust in his unfailing love our security grows, and when security grows it leads to more presence, then presence causes joy to flow, and when joy flows God's grace and power flows with it. I like to think of joy as my indicator of presence. If I am lacking joy then I am probably not very present.
As we take communion today let it be a time of thankfulness for God's unfailing love. T...
We are in a time of year where things are cooling off and many transitions happen. As we transition to the next level it will often seem like things slow down and during these transitions it's important to settle into new habits... Beautiful habits.
A beautiful habit is one that God prompts and helps to install in your life and it creates a virtuous cycle of good. In all of my books I tell of how our bodies are a form of a liquid crystal, think LCD display on your TV or phone screen. These LCD's have the amazing ability to adapt and create order. Our bodies and lives are like crystals and according to a book my daughter found at a book fair a few years ago every crystal has a unique set of habits.
As crystals are heated and cooled back down they settle into habits that are crystallized. The more slowly the crystals cool the more beautiful their habits become. Therefore cooling slowly and taking our time leads to more beautiful habits in our lives.
In today's...
Last night my daughter was searching around on YouTube for new Christian songs and she came across a song by Aaron Cole called Right on Time. One of the lyrics in the song is...Love is always right on time.
God is love, and he is always right on time. A few years ago I was in a very stressful situation where I really needed God to come through and during that time he taught me that he is always on time. During that time my daughter was practicing the piano on an app that tracked her playing. She was playing the correct notes but she was playing them too early and the app wasn't giving her any credit for playing the correct note.
As this was happening God began to teach me that he is never early and never late... always right on time. He began to teach me that our lives are like a beautiful song and if he played the right note too early it wouldn't sound right. God has a perfect timing and rhythm for everything and it's still amazing too me that he gives us the o...
We are moving into the cooler time of the year when many transitions happen. Don’t be surprised if God starts shifting things around. If you are in a leadership position, there will often be some shifts in people during this time. Transitions can be messy and some people will choose to leave or do something different during this time. During transitions, stay calm and be at peace because they can often be overwhelming, but you can be assured that God is working it all out for good. God transitions things slowly so that nothing tears or breaks. If things feel like they are slowing down the most important thing you can do is stay positioned in thanksgiving, praise, forgiveness, and love and keep doing what you know you can do TODAY.
Sometimes when transitions happen people freak out and you may see a side of them that you've never seen before. If this happens make sure to be gracious and gentle with them, the way God is with us.
We just finished going through the ...
As part of the Daily Communion Meditations we have been asking God to expand our capacity to receive from him and to flow through us so that we are a blessing everywhere we go. To expand capacity is to expand the ability for more work to flow through the system. Think of this like a pipeline of living water and in the living water is everything God has... His love, peace, joy, wisdom, spirit, energy, health, and much more.
Recently, I have been gaining some insight into how this happens based on the 4 fundamentals we have been discussing. Here are the 4 fundamentals we review before taking communion each day along with how they impact our capacity for God to flow more through us.
1. Positioned in the light
Positioned in the light means being positioned in forgiveness, thanksgiving, praise, and love. In the light God has given us everything he has and we are either in the light or we are not. There is no middle ground. This step opens us to be able to receive f...
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