On the way to where you are going....

This morning my kids were in the mood for some chicken nuggets from McDonald's. They were about to go see some friends so as any "good mom" would I picked up happy meals for all the kids that would be where we were going.

(Side note since when did McDonald's stop doing the box for the happy meal? That is like fundamental memory all children should have! Ha! Now back to the blog)

I go up to the first window to pay. The girl working stops what she was doing and tears up looking at me. I think bless her heart she has had a hard day.

She then asks me "Do you speak?"

I am thinking hmmmm do I speak...well I did order four happy meals just a moment ago.

She quickly corrects herself and says "Do you preach?"

I tell her "Yes I do". I must say at this point I am totally puzzled as to where this is going exactly.

She then tells me how she was one of the girls that was at the school when I came and preached at the High School this year. She began to talk about how it changed her life. She talks about how she is going to school in the fall and working at McDonald's for the summer to save up money.....

I began to think about how some of the best blessings in life come on the way to where you are going....

I remember the first time I preached at the school to a group of about 50 teenage girls that looked at me like I was crazy the whole time while I poured my heart out about the love that Jesus has for them. They sat there straight faced the whole time. I was wondering should I even have come? Then at the end there was much weeping and ministry where girls lives were changed. Through the last 4 years I have gotten to go to various schools and minister to teens of all ages amongst other women events.

I was talking to a girl a few months ago that wants to start preaching to women. I asked her if she had stepped out and spoke at any ladies events yet. She said "Well you see the only offers I have received are ones to minister to groups of 20 people or so. So I have turned them all down. God has called me to preach to thousands."

I must say my heart broke as I heard those words come out of her mouth. She turned down a chance to change 20 people's lives because it was too small. What if Jesus would have said "12 disciples really God? I am called to save the world and you only give me 12 to minister to?"

As I pulled out of McDonald's I was overwhelmed with emotion as I thought of how one girl's life was changed because someone wasn't more caught up in the size of a crowd or the response of the people. I was just willing to go through a door God opened. Do I believe that I will one day preach to crowds of thousands...Yes I have seen it in my heart.

Although I don't know that will be the day I receive the blessings from God...Some of the biggest things God has done is right now....On the way to where I am going.....

Look out Jesus is in the Kitchen!

I always tell people it isn't the big things in life that take us out. It is the sum of all the little things added together that run us down. It is the loads of laundry that have to be folded ironed and hung up. The vacuuming and sweeping that at times seems as though it is never going to go away. The dishes that always need to be washed even when a load is already done. The homework to help kids with that you are thinking I am not qualified to be helping with these kind of things. Then there is the everyday work and just life....With all these things it is easy to say that being a woman in today's world is a lot of work!

If only it was as simple as the Leave it to Beaver shows made it seem in the "good ole days". Where each day was easy and all people were full of joy. Where the daily tasks got done with ease and everything is always in place!

Colassians 3:17

And whatever you do no matter what it is in word or deed do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and in dependence upon His Person, giving praise to God the Father through Him.

You see this says that everything we do we are to do in dependence upon Jesus. Why is it that we take this verse and never apply it to the dishes and the daily life? We think that it has to be some "holy" situation to use the word of God. I have news for you chiks. God wants to be a part of every area of your life.....from the scrubbing of the toilets, to pulling weeds, to cleaning out the refrigerator....Jesus desires to help you in everything.....The problem is we think we can try to do it on our own....

Question: How is that working for you?

I have found that when I try to do life out my own strength and ability it makes me always feel like I missed the mark and came up short. When I start looking to Jesus as the author and the finisher of everything I do then all of a sudden things get easier then what they are.

Psalm 34:1-2

I will bless the Lord at all times His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My LIFE makes its boast in the Lord....

In this is a scripture that we love to skip over that word is the smallest word yet the most powerful....ALL. This doesn't mean your praise Jesus comes on when you pull in a church parking lot or see your Pastor....No! This means in your everyday normal regular nothing spiritual about it life you are to be thanking Jesus praising Him for how good He is. When is the last time you did this?

It says here in the second verse that your LIFE will make it's boast in the Lord. You see when you live a life of praise you don't have to tell people about the goodness of God they will just see the goodness of God. When is the last time someone saw you and recognized the goodness of God? I am getting all personal with you aren't I?

Life wasn't made to trudge thru and barely get by! Life was made to enjoy and to be lived with our amazing Jesus! I have news for you chiks Jesus is in the kitchen and that my friends changes everything! That makes the normal boring life become exciting and full of joy. That is the kind of outlook that will change your life when you grab ahold of it!

I think if Jesus drove a car he would drive a UHAUL. For real I don't think that He would drive a Suburban or a Mercedes sports car or even a Lexus. I believe He would be driving a UHAUL.

Jesus was always on the move in His ministry He never stayed in one place for long and off He would go to a new place for a new thing.

I find it funny that the one thing that we as people hate is a UHAUL truck! It symbolizes everything we don't like

*work

*change

*transition

*leaving things behind

Just to say the words "We are moving". Brings instant sigh from the person you are telling then followed with "Bless your heart".

Why is that?

Everyone knows who Abraham is from the Bible. Abraham had a father whose name was Terah. Terah too was called out of the land he was at. He was called to load his UHAUL with all his stuff and head out to a new place. In Genesis 11:2 as they journeyed eastward, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled and dwelt there.

He found a plain place. Can I put it this way. Most Americans find a "plain" place in life. One that is comfortable and not challenging where they can live there life with no real obstacle. All along Terah was headed to a place where he was called to and that was his destiny, but he settled.

How many of us in the journey to where we are going do we find a place that is comfortable. An easy place and we decide that we have gone far enough and we decide to settle.

At the end of Genesis 11 we see that where Terah settled he died. He compromised he stopped pressing forward. As people we desire a place to set up camp in our life a place to get comfortable and get settled in. Can I say this where you settle is where you will die. No one made Terah stop pressing forward. It was a choice that he made to stop going forward. That where he was, was "good enough".

You see Jesus never stopped moving forward in life. I believe that He doesn't want us to stop moving forward either. He wants us to constantly pressing forward. Paul said that this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind I press on! You are made to press on! Worst thing you can do is unload a UHAUL in your life and decide that this is good enough. Don't ever quit!!

Have you come to a place in life where you have settled?

Are you still moving forward in life?