God spoke, but did I move?

Obedience.
ha. this is a tough one. it's tough to obey. so many things must happen prior to obeying:
-first, I must be STILL before the throne of God
-then, I must LISTEN
-and WAIT PATIENTLY
-then, learn to RECOGNIZE THE VOICE OF GOD
-and then finally, OBEY THE CALL. not easy. especially when nothing within my nature is bold. only the Spirit can bring that out within me.

So for about a week, God prepared me for a trip to see my family. I was STILL, I LISTENed, I WAITed, I KNEW GOD'S VOICE...all before I went. God told me to be bold. He put my brother [...]
 

He answers

Last week I met with a brother from our body to talk about a particular sin that has been giving me trouble for a while. Several nights after the meeting I had dreams about that sin and in consequence had very restless sleep. On about the third or fourth night I finally did the logical thing and prayed to our Father and asked Him to protect me from those dreams and keep my rest peaceful. And of course our awesome God answered my simple request and has allowed me to be aware of it the next morning each time so I can thank Him. Isn't He awesome? [...]
 

My God and My Pops

About a month ago, God embarked on a journey to teach me about death, pain, and suffering. I was aware of His movement when I realized that within a few weeks, I had encountered these messages through books, conversations, sermons, and the text (particularly John 11). I remember sitting in Blake's living room talking to him about John 11 and all that God was revealing about the true nature of death, pain, and suffering. At the time, I was not encountering any type of death, pain, or suffering and in general, my life was moving along at a pretty standard pace.

I now know what God was [...]
 

Loving God in my neighbor

About a year and a half ago, I attended Radius for the first time with my daughter Ruth. Over the course of that summer, the challenge of loving people in my radius began to seep into my soul. When school started back that year, I resigned from my community group of five years in order to stay at home on Sunday nights and get to know my neighbors.

The first Sunday night, as I sat in my neighbor’s living room trying to have a conversation as her 4 young boys crawled and played around our feet, I wondered what I had been thinking to give up Sunday night food and fellowship with [...]
 

Haiti

We all know and having been praying over Haiti over the past week. I just wanted to share some good news that shows God's provision and love over the people of Haiti.

One of my professors told a story today about Haiti she saw on the news. It was of a man who had a wife working at the bank the day of the earthquake. He has been searching for her for 6 days.. by himself... He has been digging with his hands through the rubble, knowing exactly where she worked in the bank. Finally, others began to help him. When they were able to move part of the rubble, they heard a knocking [...]
 

Oh that we would serve the body

Father I lift to you a prayer & a thanksgiving; That you have drawn me near to you body in need and that we have asked you to provide. Lord, give Mary the faith to know that you will provide. Encourage her to no end that you are alive and that you love her. I have no doubt that she will see her son soon in the hospital in Charlotte.. Even this night! Jesus I pray that you would give her son life, that his heart be changed and that he would know only You as his strength. For the woman that he loves; that you would give him new meaning to the pain that would drive him to take his own [...]
 

God continues to romance me.

here's one beautiful example of God's Big C Church moving throughout my day. i just love how he weaves throughout all the details in our life in a way that unites his body and romances them to fall more in love with him. this example shows how essential community is to our walk, alrighty. here goes:

so ive been wrestling through several things lately. one of which is my sin. god is revealing to me more and more each day all of my sin. in a way that i have never noticed it before. it has been a pretty painful process. (it's not fun realizing how much you suck). i have been [...]
 

Bless God.

"I used to ask God to help me. Then I asked if I might help him. I ended up by asking him to do his work through me." - James Hudson Taylor

I found this quote today in one of those little daily quote things you sit on your desk and flip the page each day in hopes of some spark of inspiration. I'm not very good at flipping the page daily, so today I cheated and read multiple days and quotes. I came across this one. It made me giggle a little bit because this is exactly how I feel about God... or the way I'm learning how to approach God.

I have been so good at [...]
 

An Unchanging Pursuer

You are the same Lord of Heaven's Armies that spoke through Malachi to the Israelites. That was you then, that is you now. You are the same Lord that performed miracles and refined Your disciples when You waked this earth. That was you then, That is you now. You are the same, tangible, terrifying, powerful Being who blinded Paul and asked him why he did such evil things to You. You changed his heart like night and day. You made the last person who would ever serve you become the most amazingly used servant to speak Your truth. You were God then, You are that same God now. You are the [...]
 

Cars in ditches

I was driving back to my dorm tonight at about 9:30, and it was raining pretty hard. I was making a turn, and saw a car in a ditch a little ways up the road. So I got out and asked the lady if I could help her (she wasn't hurt at all, thankfully). I wanted to get back to my room and get ready for bed, but I knew God was telling me to stay until this lady got her car out of the ditch and back on the road.

Her car basically took a nose dive straight into a fairly deep ditch. Her back tires were off the ground. She was crying too.. She said she was gonna call a tow truck, [...]