My Heart to Yours

What are some things that you are obsessed with? Is it stuff, money, dust, status? I want to have ONE pure and holy passion, ONE magificient obsession……

Passion: One Day Live
Lead Worshipper: Candi Pearson

Give me one pure and holy passion
Give me one magnificent obsession
Give me one glorious ambition for my life
To know and follow hard after You

Give me one pure and holy passion
Give me on magnificent obsession
Give me one glorious ambition for my life
To know and follow hard after You

To know and follow hard after you
To grow as your dicsiple in your truth
This world is empty, pale, and poor
Compared to knowing you, my Lord
Lead me on and I will run after you
Lead me on and I will run after you

Give me one pure and holy passion
Give me one magnificent obsession
Give me one glorious ambition for my life
To know and follow hard after you
To know and follow hard after you
To grow as your disciple in the truth
This world is empty, pale, and poor
Compared to knowing you my Lord
Lead me on and I will run after you

Lord to know and follow hard after you
And to grow as your disciple in your truth
This world is empty, pale, and poor
Compared to knowing you my Lord
Lead me on and I will run after you
Lead me on and I will run after you
Lead me on and I will run after you

Some of you are nervous, others confident. To every believer, no matter how you feel about this election, I offer the word of the Lord:

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.

Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor. (Romans 13: 1-7)

If the people want John Kerry, so be it. If he wins, it is God’s will. If Bush wins, it is God’s will. On election night, I’ll be praying that Bush’s re-election and Kerry’s defeat is God’s will. He may have other plans. I trust him.

Well, as if the stress of the election isn’t enough! Yesterday, I got a call from “Pat” (not her real name for her protection). Pat was in a crisis and desperately needed an appointment to come and see me. So, luckily I had one cancelation and she came in. As she was in my office she proceeded to tell me that she thinks she is pregnant. Let me tell you a little about “Pat”. She is roughly 28 and has been married 7 years. She has been seeing me for some depression and basically stress issues. Her marraige is suffering and her husband has been unfaithful and is addicted to pornography. “Pat” considers herself, not atheist, but agnostic. She says she believes in a higher power and considers herself spiritual but doesn’t necessarily believe in God.

Well, on to the issue. She says she thinks she is pregnant and thinks that if she is she will have an abortion. Here is where one of the problems come in. I am cringing inside. I am wanting to jump up and down and scream and yell. We talk about her reasons why. She says she thinks they aren’t ready to be parents (they have been married 7 years remember), she thinks she couldn’t “handle” a baby emotionally, she is wanting to “fix” herself first, she says they had wanted to wait 2 more years she says her husband doesn’t want a baby right now, and that financially they can’t afford it. I talked to her about the mental and emotional ramifications of an abortion which didn’t really seem to phase her.

The bad thing is I don’t have a spiritual common ground to talk to her from. I think all I can do is point her to the medical statistics and facts and let her decide for herself. If she chooses an abortion though it will just kill me. It is so selfish of her. Please pray for me to have the words to say to her that will change her mind. Please pray for her that her heart will be able to hear the truth.

I am open to any suggestions too.

One of my favorite Bible phrases of all time is “the apple of God’s eye.” Every time I’m feeling downhearted, I should just think of this phrase. It’s actually found in many places throughout the Bible. My favorite verse with this phrase in it is Psalm 17:8: “Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings.” In fact, this is pretty much my new favorite verse. The verse that held my No. 1 spot was Psalm 91:1 which says, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” It still is one of my all-time favorites, but Psalm 17:8 wonderfully weaves the two together.

God is so good to us. He could not love us any more than He does at this very moment. We all are apples of His eye because He created us. We are so unique and so special to Him.

The words enclosed in the pages of The Holy Word were true for all people centuries ago and they remain true for all six billion of us today. I’m just thankful He picked this apple, out of all the bushels in the world, to fill me with a core of love, God’s everlasting love, to one day become a grounded tree in God for others to be fed.

I got this in an e-mail today and thought it was really neat. Go and check it out!

I just have to tell you this story. Yesterday, the most amazing thing happened. Some of you may remember what happened on this day over 7 months ago. It was a sad, sad day! Well, yesterday after razzing my husband about how messy his car is I decided to clean my car out. I have cleaned it out a few times in the last 7 months but I hadn’t cleaned out the back/ trunk area. I had to throw away a bunch of old charts and loose papers and take out some lawn chairs and a stroller. After clearing away all of the debris I went in to get the dust buster. So, Here I am dust busting away the back of my car when I see something. I took a closer look and quickly called my husband over for a look. When he gets there I said, “Hey, honey does this look like the diamond to my wedding ring?” He said, “Oh my gosh, where did you find that?” I said, “Do you really think that is what it is? I found it back here in the back of my car.” He said, “That is exactly what it is!” So I started screaming and jumping up and down with excitement. I was so happy. He told me not to move and he ran inside to get an envelope. We sealed it in an envelope and I went straight for the jewelry store.

Of course, on the way to the jewelry store I had to call everyone I knew and spread the good news. (Of course, I couldn’t get a hold of anyone!) I had the biggest smile on my face all day. It is a miracle. What are the odds of me finding the diamond to my wedding ring 7 months after it came out? I told my friend yesterday that there has not been hardly a day go by that I didn’t think about not having my wedding ring. What a gift! And I got to receive it twice!

Well, last night I began thinking about God and how he must feel when His children come home to Him. Whether it be for the first time or after a time away. I can say, If I felt a tenth of His joy yesterday then He must be ecstatic. How much better it must be to find a lost child or for a lost child to come home than to find a lost diamond from your wedding ring!

Nonetheless, I felt such an overwhelming sense of joy, and thankfulness. All I could do was praise Him. There is no doubt in my mind that His hand was in it!

I have 4 new books on the list to read. They are:
1. Summoned to Lead by Leonard Sweet
2. Epic by John Eldridge
3. Sisterchicks in Sombreros by Robin Jones Gunn
4. Treasured Friends by Ann Hibbard

We’re all “players” in life. Yet sometimes life summons “players” to be “leaders”. It may happen only once or twice in life. Up to that point, the jagged pieces of your life don’t seem to fit into any earth-shaking pattern. But then life calls you out and summons you forth. A participant in life becomes a leader, and even “born leaders” find themselves following the summoned leader.- Leonard Sweet