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One thing I've been noticing a lot lately is the view our world has placed on children and having more children and it brings a great sadness to my heart.



All around me I've witnessed conversations, when summed up, point to the conclusion that our children are a burden and having multiple is a hinderance. These may seem like harsh accusations but I know I'm not the only one who has witnessed this and I will sadly but fully admit I have also been a culprit of this attitude.

Having children is hard and no matter how hard we try there are moments when we get sucked into the selfish mentality of this world. So when children come into the picture and plans change they are easy targets.

I also feel this recent battle between stay at home moms and working moms and even the admirable attempt to smooth it over has left a bruise on the way we view our children.

As I'm spending time listening to God and trying to embrace His view on children I'm feeling more convicted for my own part in this but I'm also watching God smooth and refine that area of my heart into one that loves and adores children. The more I surrender my own selfishness the more I find myself smiling as I pick up the tiny pieces of rice off the dining room floor and treasuring the silly, yet loud, noises I didn't know something so small could make.

My children aren't a burden or a barrier. My selfishness is.

Psalm 127:3-5 says
"Behold children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
are the children of one's youth.
Blessed is the man
who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
when he speaks with his enemies in the
gate."

God loves children and Jesus' ministry was the perfect example of that. Jesus adored them and he used examples of us being like children as a good thing multiple times in scripture. Do I think we should all have ten kids? No, I don't think that's what this Psalm is meaning exactly either but I also don't think we should be quick to judge those who do.

I feel truly blessed to be able to watch my two babies grow and if it ends with two then I will cherish every single moment with them but if God calls me to put my plans on the side and have more children then I will go into it with a heart more like Christ and be thankful for the gift of growing and directing more hearts to Him. If we have a kingdom vision I think it will be easy for us to see the great joy in sending more soldiers into battle for Christ.

I'm not raising children, I'm raising disciples.

I'm scared for this next generation of children coming up in a world that has already turned their hearts away from them. Growing up in a home where parents have even the slightest resentment towards their children is poison and we don't give them enough credit for what they actually see and feel. I'm sure we can all compile a lengthy list of things to blame for this negative view on children but I feel the only resolution is to start to let God change our own hearts and then flood the world with an overpowering love for children. Whether it's simply showing more patience to our own kids in public or being quick to kneel down and show kindness to the screaming kid in aisle five that is sending his mom running out in shame and fear, there is something we can do. God loves children and even refers to them as arrows that we should fill our quiver's with and my hope and prayer is that we can too start seeing the joy and importance children bring to our lives.

Victoria Nevland-wanderlust




I spent some time with this song playing in my ear and as I rested in the words I was flooded with a sense of God telling me who he is and how my wondering heart always tries to get in the way of his gift to me. His gift of who he is. 
This song really pulls at my heart because its a prayer to take my heart seal it, tune it, and to fix it on God. This prayer of a stillness and a sense of being held and locked to something. A sense that fights the nature of who I've always been. 
But as I try to run, like I tend to do, I sit and think about what my heart is aching to be locked onto. What is this song calling my heart to fix itself to exactly? 



"Your steadfast love, O Lord extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgments are like the great deep; man and beast you save O Lord. How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light."
Psalm 36:6-9

My God, this God we seem so afraid to cling to and follow, is this God. A God of amazing gentleness, who gives rest and brings calm, and who is patiently waiting for us with steadfast love. This God chose me, in all my mess, all my shame, all my brokenness. This God of steadfast love who is faithful beyond reach, who is unchanging and righteous, who protects and who gives us refuge in his mighty wings, who provides for us with abundance and allows us to drink of his delights! He is the fountain of life and he's opened himself up for us. He is now reachable. He is not a distant angry God but is a close and loving God. 

"Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you and therefore he waits on high to have compassion on you for the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who long for him. Oh people of Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it He will answer you."
Isaiah 30:18-19

"He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young"
Isaiah 40:11

As I get to know this God I follow I am choosing to no longer give in to my wondering heart. This is an amazing God and I will never be this loved and cherished by anyone else. To think this amazing, gentle, kind, and loving God is for all of us and there is no price to following him. There is no quiz to take, no course to follow, and no deeds to do. He died so all we have to do is lay our lives at his feet, stand up, take his hand, and follow. What a precious gift that has been so misunderstood and so distorted. 
This is a gift I choose to take.

DSC_1332 Niko Knigge
Today I began to bridge a gap that has been left gaping and ignored for far too long in my life and all around me and as I see the gap closing ever so slightly I am filled with excitement and a new joy I haven't experienced yet.


After days of putting it off for reasons too silly to mention, I met with a new friend today. I met this lovely woman months back and was drawn to her heart and her desire for the same God that I too had fallen deeply in love with. This amazing woman would have stayed in the comfortable acquaintance zone simply because she had many years on me but thanks to the way God has been working in my heart I was able to catch a small glimpse of the importance and reward this relationship may hold. So I stepped out. Out of my comfort zone, out of my fear of one on one conversation, and out of the confining hold this separation of generations has had on my life. And I am here to tell you friends that  I am so thankful!

"Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good. and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled." Titus 2:3-5



What a beautiful gift God has given us with these amazing "older women" and oh what we have been missing. I'm so excited to say that I have a woman who I know without a doubt will not only teach me these beautiful things but who is also anxious to. To be taught to be self-controlled, pure, kind, loving, and submissive in order to honor the word of God is to be taught to be like Jesus and what more could we want? So I will step into this uncharted territory and I will fight against my doubt, fear and uncomfortability and I will cling to this gift that God has given me.

I hope not only to absorb the wisdom, kindness, gentility, and patience of the older women God puts in my path but I hope to bring a gift to the table as well. I hope to bring a listening ear, a strong arm to hold, steady feet to walk as far as is needed, a passion to reignite, and a vision to close the rest of the gap. We all have something beautiful to bring to these relationships God has called us to.

"One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts."
Psalm 145:4

I think at first glance this verse looks like this is something to be passed down but what if this is a call to pass the word of God's amazing work up and down. That we may be lifted up by the power of God's work in the evidence of a long and beautiful life and that we may also be reignited by the power of God's work in the passion, child-like faith, and fearlessness of a developing life.


So join me.

Join me to end our search for the fountain of youth and to instead settle into the amazing vision God has for our lives in unity together, young and old.
As the summer begins for us I feel a sense of joy and rest that seems to want to sneak in with it. The idea of early morning sunshine and endless hours spent outside brings a comfort to my heart. Especially as I spend these new sunshine days as a mom. I get to absorb the laughter and joy that my children seem to radiate. And while I love to sit in these precious joys life gives me I have to go back to the true source of joy that doesn't fade with the sun. 
The joy that doesn't end when the laughter stops and the rest that doesn't fade into chaos when the sun goes down and the realities of chores and life flood in. I love to sit in these temporary moments because I believe that these are little gifts from God. They are little pieces of happiness that we get to touch because he also loves absorbing our laughter and joy. 

We all love to think that this happiness and this sense of rest we find in life doesn't fade and we also like to believe that in some way we are in control of these precious feelings. The reason I want to share this with you is because we all know that those things we like to think are not true. The truth is, that happiness is fleeting and "rest" has become a luxury and is usually something that belongs to someone else. This is a very sad and hopeless view but it has also become the reality of the world we live in. We spend our time reading self-help books and listening to celebrities tell us that we just need to focus on ourselves and these things will come. We need to find our inner happiness and our inner peace and we will be ok. 

Now before you stop reading I want to tell you that this isn't the way it has to be. There is joy and rest out there that is stable and very attainable but it has nothing to do with finding what makes us happy or even slowing down life to give us rest and we have it right at our fingertips. 

So for all of us who are looking for joy when the winter rolls in and those of us who are scraping the sides of the bowl to find a tiny piece of rest, this is my prayer. That we will cling to the truths of God's word and that we would begin to unravel the true meaning of these precious commodities. 

"There are many who say, 'Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!' You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone O Lord, make me dwell in safety."- Psalm 4:6-8

I am very grateful for the life that God has given me. I have a loving and hardworking husband, two healthy kids who are already falling in love with Jesus, a home for them to run free and experience God in a beautiful and natural setting, and so much more. I feel that my "grain and wine abound" but these things are temporary and I have no control over the ups and downs of life. There is loss, brokenness and pain that creeps up in a split second and can wipe these amazing things away. So what is left when that happens? In the hands of God and through his amazing grace and love we can find ourselves in the most trying of times and still be so full of his joy and rest that our heart abounds and we can lie down and rest in safety. 

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."- Matthew 11:28

"So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you."- John 16:22

This is the kind of rest and joy that I want to hold onto. That I will know that in my most laborious times I can and will find rest in Jesus  and in the deepest corners of my sorrow I will rejoice and I can have the full assurance that no one and nothing can take that away. But where does this come from and how can we all have it?

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."-Philippians 4:4-7

"In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith- more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire- may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."- 1 Peter 1:6-9

Now this is the part that I find is so cool. While the world tells us to pick up our problems and solve them God tells us to pray and give them to him and then we will find rest and peace. I just get so overwhelmed by that because that is someone who really loves us. Through Jesus Christ and our surrender to him we will find a joy that is "inexpressible" and a "peace...which surpasses all understanding." We find so many reasons to fight God but why would we when we can have this. When all we have to do is let go and let God. When all we have to do is stop trying and just fall into his rest and joy that never ends. 

Now that's what I want and that is what I am so excited to share with all of you! So enjoy your summer days, your children's laughter, the lazy days by the pool and rest in the assurance that even if these things fall away there will be rest and joy waiting with open arms. 




  
Over the past two years or so I'd say I've acquired a reputation among the people who have gotten to know me both on a deep level and as an acquaintance. I've seen my identity in Christ unfold into a woman of boldness and courage who is outgoing and the first to jump into establishing new relationships with other women.

I have to tell you though, this is all very new and exciting for me. I was not this woman that you see. I was insecure, quiet, and you wouldn't catch me in a room full of women if my life depended on it. I had female friendships that typically were hanging on by a thread, based on a very shallow foundation and they usually came one at a time.


The reason why my heart aches to share this with you is because I have been coming into contact with so many women who are terrified of not only pursuing relationships with other women but who are also terrified of being pursued in a meaningful relationship. There are so many good reasons for this fear because so many of us have been burned along the way by at least one woman in our lives. Whether it just started with our own moms or if it was a friend somewhere alone the way. But we have to remember that fear is not from God and that very justifiable fear can very easily keep us at an unsafe distance from God.

"One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." -Proverbs 18:24

We not only need deep friendships but God will give them to us! This word is for each of us, not just the lucky few who fall into these close friendships. But I also believe that we have to put in a little effort. For me I didn't wake up one morning and decide I was going to invest in other women and find close friendships, I prayed and God answered, and he started with just one. The amazing thing about God is that his answers can often come in such abundance that we don't even know what to do with it. After I was blessed with one good friend women started pouring into my life. I felt like God opened the flood gates and all these women and potential friends poured right into my lap. But with this came great responsibility because I had to put my fear aside and become transparent and open to these amazing women. There were and still are days where I have to pray and rely on God to just give me small talk so I can interact but there are days when God equips me so beautifully that I can pour my heart out to these women and grow so closely with them.


I can selfishly sit back and settle into these amazing friendships and I can slide into a cliche so easily and I would be so very happy but I feel very strongly that that isn't the vision God has for our relationships.

"Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness." -Colossians 2:7

We are supposed to grow our roots deep into Christ and friendships and relationships are one vital way that this happens but this is a two way thing. I can't just sit in my comfort zone and reep all the benefits of quality friendships. I have a job to reach out and establish these intimate and eternal connections with all of my sisters in Christ so that they can start to build their lives on Christ too.

And this has nothing to do with how shy, outgoing, extroverted, or introverted I am. We are called to be in intimate community with every one and the best part is that God will equip us and empower us for that no matter what our personality tries to tell us.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."- Hebrews 12:1-2

There is freedom from our fear and we can "lay aside" the "weight" of our insecurity and shyness and we can pursue intimacy with other people and we may get burned a lot along the way but look who were are supported and equipped by, "Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Who can stand against us if HE is for us?!

Now this doesn't come without struggle and fear often sneaks up onto us but we are empowered by a mighty God! Jesus didn't walk this earth living out shallow and surface level relationships, he was intimate with everyone and loved everyone so deeply that he died in the most shameful way for us. We aren't even asked to lay down our lives necessarily but we are so afraid to love people that deeply mostly because its scary and hurts sometimes. I am not trivializing the pain that people can inflict on us but  I am saying compared to the pain Jesus faced we should be able to walk this life with confidence and amazing endurance despite the outcome.

This all may seem way too lofty and unattainable and alone it is but our God is faithful and cares so deeply about us and our lives together that if and when we lean on him he will gently guide and help us become more like Jesus so we can be that image to everyone around us.

I challenge you, and I continue to challenge myself, to step away from our fears, our comforts, our excuses, and trust in the mighty hand of God to allow us to touch the hearts of everyone around us in a profound and intimate way.

Dear Jesus,
I thank you so much for the freedom we find in you. I thank you for your call on each of our lives to look and act more like you. I pray that we will seek to do your work in a powerful way. I pray you will equip us to courageously step into the lives of the people around us and to sit at the tables of their hearts and pour ourselves into them. We have the power through you to make other women feel loved, safe, and cherished. But we also so easily make other women feel quite the opposite. Equip and guide us to make them feel the latter. Help us set aside our fears and the weight of who we think we are and help us to cling to the truths of who you say we are. We are mighty and brave and we are a powerful tool for your kingdom. Use us right where we are.

Amen


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What a loaded question. And one that I am really struggling to answer in my life.

 I've been taught by the world what Christianity comes across as and that makes me sad. It truly aches my heart.

I've been taught by my parents what it should look like and there were far too many holes and far too many days not living it out that left me lost.

I've been taught by church what it's supposed to look like and I have walked away with a lot of wisdom and friendships and guidance in my early days but there seems to always be something missing when I step out those doors into the real world.

And now I'm being taught by my soul friends, my bible, and most of all by the Holy Spirit. The very spirit that lives in Jesus is now teaching me through me! That is the most amazing concept there is once you can finally grab ahold of it.

So as I battle with the truth that is growing inside of me and the influence of the world around me, good and bad, I sit and try to understand what this is really supposed to look like because this world wind of passion and truth and unrest inside myself seems to go against everything around me. I've been told that I'm supposed to be uncomfortable and that what I believe will make me stand out but I've never been told that at that moment when I truly start to take steps like Jesus that I will face adversity at every turn.

I've found so much comfort resting in the word of God and walking with Peter and Paul and Simon and many more as they face not only adversity but persecution, imprisonment, and death by the very people who were supposed to be the spiritual leaders of the time.

We are told to ask Jesus into our hearts and then follow him but what does following Jesus really look like? Is it sunday morning in stiff pews taking in a message we usually have our noses turned up to? Or is it standing while the worship band plays a new hip song and we occasionally raise a hand or sway back and forth but not so much that we bring attention to ourselves? Is it secretly buying a coffee for the person behind us in the drive thru? To me all these things seem pretty normal and the more I get to know Jesus the more I know down to my core that this isn't enough.

I don't have all the answers and I'm still trying to get past the fear and uncomfortability of my own life but I want more. I want to step into my church and feel so at home that I don't feel like I belong anywhere else. I want to stand with the worship band and be so over come with the holy spirit that the rooms explodes with joy and song and people dance around and jump on pews and sing and praise with every bone in their body. I want to be moved and equipped and then sent out to go into the world as a disciple. I want everyone around me to see Jesus radiating so brightly through me that I become a magnet for him. I want to heal the sick and raise the dead and perform miracles and great wonders everywhere I go for the glory of God. I want to devote everything I do so passionately and completely to Jesus that humility is a nonissue.

I want to lay my head down every single night knowing everyone around me couldn't shake that overwhelming love of Jesus for them. I want to move mountains and make disciples of the world.

I want to make Jesus, my father, my redeemer, my king, shine his face upon me because I am doing his work. I want to make my daddy proud! And I want to stop letting everyone around me down because I'm afraid to look radical, or crazy, or alone.

I guess I just want to be a Christian.




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From as early as I can remember my eyes have always been focused on the future. I was a fresh fifteen when I jumped in a cab and got my first job and from then on I've had a steady job and big plans for university and a career that I could be proud of.
This was something that became so embedded in me that it settled into the deepest corners of my heart. I had fallen madly in love with the prospects of the future.
Living this way, I would be seen as someone right on track, a youth to be proud of, but as I see my children's years speeding up before my eyes I see the danger in this way of thinking.

Plans change. Life throws you curve balls you can't hit no matter how hard you try. And that is what happened for me. As I look back I see these curve balls had very little to do with life and much more to do with God's bigger plan.

My big plans were quickly thrown off course when I found out I was pregnant at 19, and while that hit my little heart pretty hard, it wasn't long until I was just rerouting those plans and finding a way back to them.

Shortly after finding out the news of our little man that was joining our newly budding relationship, we packed up our little apartment and my one suitcase and made our way to Canada. All the while I was planning for when I was going to go back to school and trying to pick the best degree for the biggest career. The thing I noticed over these years of planning was that there was never a career that seemed to work for me. I would toss around idea after idea and I would always end up right back at the drawing board but I knew I had to pick something.

I just thought that maybe I hadn't figured myself out yet.

As the days swept by the deep love I had planted for my future at university hadn't faded. There were multiple times we would drive by the local university and I would bury my face in my arm and would cry. My heart ached so much thinking of my great plans being shattered. My heart was truly broken.

I'm sure I had opportunities to pursue these dreams and getting pregnant wasn't what held me back at all but to me at the time that's what seemed to be the culprit.

Years flew by and we made choices that took me further and further from those big dreams I had and the tears still fell and my heart still ached but the distance life was putting between me and that old life made it fade just a little. But it would always seem to find a way to sneak back in and pull me back down.

Until I finally figured it out!

It wasn't until this last year that I finally figured out that those big dreams that I was so deeply invested in were never meant to be. Getting pregnant young was a result of my own decisions but the rerouting of my plans were always what God had in mind. I'm learning now that those plans were mine and mine alone and even if things had gone differently all those years ago that was never the plan that was supposed to be lived out.

There was a reason I never "figured out" a career I fit into, there was always a reason that I couldn't find direction when looking into my education. It was because I was never supposed to be there.

What a huge time of healing for me! As I spent that last year finally getting to know my God, He has slowly started showing me the plans that he has for me and with that he started to heal the broken heart that I had inflicted on myself.

There are definitely days now that I sit and think about the future and what God has ahead of me but the key part of that is that I'm now focused on the plans God has for me. I had this huge plan that would have never worked out in the first place and now I bury my head in my arm and cry not because I'm broken over the change in plans but because I am thankful that God pulled me out before I walked too far.

Jeremiah 29:11
" For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

I have read this a ton of times but not until this last year did I really begin to understand what it means. It's good to have plans and dreams but I placed all my cards on the plans that I had when I couldn't see beyond the horizon. God already has plans for me and they are perfect!


I now sit at home with two babies running around terrorizing the cat and drawing on walls and I feel a joy I know now I never would have had if I hadn't let God take over. I have a sense of peace and joy that is irreplaceable simply because I am exactly where God wants me right now. And this looks different for each of us. For the stay at home moms or the five to nine moms, if you settle into where ever it is that God wants you right now then you will always find rest and purpose.

There is no greater joy than finding yourself sinking into God's precious and unfailing plan for your life. I realize now that the place I set aside in my heart for my "future" was always supposed to be for God. I was making it a god in my life and because of that I had to face the consequences of it and that was a heart so deeply broken I didn't know if I could pick it back up. But I didn't have to. God saw me in my sadness and while I cried he cried with me then he waited for me to see him and he let me run into his arms. He picked up all the broken pieces and put them all back together better than they were before and helped me set my eyes back on him.

I still slip and slide but I know exactly where I'm supposed to put my feet now and I know that no matter what life looks like I will always have a great purpose. No matter how mundane or how wild, God sees the whole picture and I get to trust him to be waiting just on the other side of the horizon with the rest of the path.

I still have a future but now it's a future that I will fit perfectly into. A future where all the beautiful gifts God has given me will be used and a future that will truly glorify him. There is nothing more I could ask for beyond that. And the cool part is that I'm way more excited for this future because now I don't have to get it right. I don't have to worry that I chose the wrong path. All I need to do now is let go, be patient, trust God, get to know His voice more, and jump when he calls.



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When asked to speak in front of a large group and share my heart on the importance of community the first emotion I felt was excitement. That alone is a huge testament to God’s great work in my life. I am not a public speaker and I more often than not see myself as a baby Christian clinging to God’s coat tails but being up there and feeling that new sense of confidence in Christ’s work in my life speaks volumes on the subject of God’s use of community in my life.

As I’ve fallen more deeply into the hands of Christ, my self-image has drastically changed but as I’ve fallen into the hands of God’s purpose for community I’ve finally started to see myself as Jesus does, through the eyes of the Christian family I’ve surrounded myself with.  

They’ve taken the time to show me how much I’ve grown when I couldn’t see it myself and they have been the audible voice of God telling me I am worth more than I thought I was. The most rewarding part of community for me is seeing the work of Christ in my life and the wisdom he is blessing me with shine onto the people around me. Being able to see that I am not just a seed to be planted but that I am planting seeds and in this new stage of my journey I’m so blessed to be able to see those seeds growing around me.

“Christian community is simply sharing a common life in Christ. It moves us beyond the self-interested isolation of private lives and beyond the superficial social contacts that pass for Christian fellowship. The biblical ideal of community challenges us instead to commit ourselves to life together as the people of God.”
-         -Howard Macy

True Christian community matures us so that we don’t get tossed around by false teachers and glamorous bible salesmen. It allows us to be a light to the world and allows others to actually see Christ here, through us. It provides a place for prayer and worship, a place to serve, a place to encourage others and to be encouraged, and most importantly a place to bring honor and glory to God.

Each and every woman was born with an almost unquenchable desire for intimate relationship. God made us this way because he wants us to seek after an intimate and passionate relationship with Him. He has given us community with our husbands, our children, and other believers to draw us into that relationship with him.

John 17:22-23
“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them as you loved me.” 

These are the words of Jesus to God for us.

For me seeing this vision for community brings me a sense of hope I never had before. It comforts that innate human flaw that tries to convince me that I am not worth it and it brings truth into the lies I’ve always believed, that relationships and friendships are conditional and fleeting.  God’s vision for community is so much more than what we are experiencing and more than we can even imagine. A family of people so madly in love with Jesus that we wash each other’s feet daily and even die for one another. A love so pure and unconditional. The way that Jesus walked with his disciples was our example of how we are supposed to walk with each other. The relationship and unity between God and Jesus was given to us on the cross to have. There is no longer a veil keeping us from perfect unity and relationship with each other and with God because now when God looks at us he sees Jesus and this is what we are supposed to show the world through our relationships with each other.
 
Ephesians 4:11-16
  "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds[a] and teachers,[b] 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood,[c] to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love."

We are made to be in unity, in community, in intimate Christian relationships so that we can grow into Christ. We are the body parts that make up God’s new vision of Christ on earth now and when we all work in unison we become the image of Christ, of pure love.

This is the importance of community.   

So what does God want this community to look like?

Acts 2:42-47
 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were bring saved.”

We are called to devote ourselves to the gospel, to the teachings of Jesus. To unite into a family focused on Christ day by day. We are called to serve others and like Jesus did we are called to lay our lives down for others. When we start to follow God’s vision for community an “awe will come upon our souls” we will perform “many wonders and signs”, we will be together and have “all things in common”, we will have “glad and generous hearts”, and we will have “favor with all people.”

I think one of the most amazing lessons Jesus teaches us on community, and that if we really take the time to focus on can completely transform and flip over the often honest stigma that comes with Christian fellowship of judgmental clichyness, is that we all have all things in common and we are all the same. We can come into this community and be welcomed and loved exactly where we are. That’s how Jesus takes us and how can we ask more? There should be no separation based on wealth, or whether our marriages are flourishing or falling apart. There should be no separation based on age or worldly value or attractiveness. Whether you come from royalty or you just spent 20 years in prison this should be a family that you can be welcomed into with open and loving arms. Without judgment and fear. Jesus sets this example for us when he came to a world full of sin to be a literal sacrifice for us when he himself was sinless.

Hebrews 2:11
“For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers…”

We are all children of God, we have all sinned and fallen short, and we are all offered forgiveness and perfect love in Christ. There are no social ladders to climb here. When we step into the family of Christ we enter in as broken people redeemed by the grace of Jesus alone.


Jesus set this amazing example of community for us. He set the stage and left us with a detailed manual on how to live it out and all we need to do is take ahold and run with it.

















photo credit: Claude, Texas via photopin (license) photo credit: [Fishing gear] via photopin (license)
Psalm 6:1-9
O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger,
nor discipline me in your wrath.
Be gracious to me , O Lord, for I am languishing;
heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled.
My soul also is greatly troubled.
But you, O Lord- how long?
Turn, O Lord, deliver my life;
save me for the sake of your steadfast love.
For in death there is no remembrance of you;
in Sheol who will give you praise?

I am weary with my moaning; 
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with weeping.
My eye waste away because of grief;
it grows week because of my foes.

Depart from me, all you workers of evil,
for the Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.
The Lord has heard my plea;
the Lord accepts my prayer.
broken

You are not alone! This was written by David and he was a mighty man of God and yet he battled with these feelings of grief, torment, bitter sadness, and thoughts of the end. It's so easy to feel so alone in this but you are not. There is so much brokenness and sadness all around us but God has promised to heal it! There is hope for you. You do not have to stay in this place. You just need to understand God's promise for healing and get a little help and guidance to step out of the dark.

"What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? Hear O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord be my helper!"- Psalm 30:9-12

Take the time to hear his promises for us:

Psalm 147:2-5
"The Lord builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure."

Revelation 21:4 
" He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

Take the time to learn how to heal:
Hope by Lauren Parker


Healing through God's word- the Bible:

Psalm 119:49-50
"Remember your word to your servant, in which you have made me hope. This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life."

Proverbs 12:25
"Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad."

Psalm 107:19-21
"Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction."

Healing through Prayer:

Philippians 4:6-7
"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."

Psalm 30:2
"O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me."

2 Kings 20:3-5
"...And Hezakiah wept bitterly. And before Isaiah had gone out of the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: 'Turn back, and say to Hezakiah the leader of my people, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you.

James 5:13
"is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray."

Healing through Worship:

Exodus 23:25
"Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you."

Jeremiah 17:14
"Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
save me and I shall be saved,
for you are my praise."

Psalm 103:1-5
"Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord O my soul,
and forget not his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Healing through faith:

Mark 5:34
"And he said to her 'Daughter your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."

Luke 8:49-50
"While he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, 'your daughter is dead; do not trouble the teacher anymore.' But Jesus on hearing this answered him, 'Do not fear; only believe, and she will be well."

Healing through fellowship:

James 5:14
"Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him..."

James 5:16
"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed."

Acts 28:8
"It happened that the father of Publius lay sick with fever and dysentery. And Paul visited him and prayed, and putting his hands on him and healed him." 


There is hope. There is a way out. There is beauty, joy, peace, and purpose in Christ Jesus. This life is just an adventure leading us into the hands of our beautiful creator and he has left us with so many glimpses of his beauty, his love, and of our destination. He brought me out of some very dark places, places where I was depressed, broken, and so lost. He brought me out of the dark place of thinking I didn't have a way out and that I couldn't go on anymore. Who was I that He would choose me? And yet he did just like he chose you and continues to choose you every single day! 





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