Have you sold your house?....Nope

Have you sold your house yet? I probably get asked that question at least once a day-every day. And every time, I reluctantly I have to mumble out the words...Nope not yet. When you are in the coaching profession, you kinda have to sike yourself up to move...again. You get tired of moving, but as for me, I am ready to move-now! I have to admit, I am all over the place in my prayers-I sometimes pray that our house will sell or that he would give my patience until it does or even ask for forgiveness for questioning God's whereabouts in all this. I just sometimes don't understand why God would lead us to this coaching job (which we love) in the town where I work, we go to church etc. and yet we still live somewhere else. You may have felt this way at some point or even right now. I will tell you something that helps me each time these thoughts creep into my mind.
I am encouraged by the story of David as a young shepherd boy. After God rejects Saul as King of Israel, He sends Samuel to the house of Jesse because "He had chosen one of his sons to be king." Samuel went to the house of Jesse and looked at all the older sons and even though they were very tall and handsome, God tells Samuel, "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart." Samuel asks Jesse if he has any more sons and Jesse says, "There is still the youngest, but he is tending to the sheep." Sure enough, David is brought in and He is anointed to be the next King of Israel.

Even though David was told and called to be King by God-it wasn't time yet. So David went out and continued to tend to the sheep. He was then later called to play the harp for King Saul, killed a giant, fought in many battles, had to flee to live in a cave because King Saul wanted him dead, all while knowing that He was suppose to be King someday. I am sure at some point David was saying, "I am not sure what you are doing, God, but I will continue to go where you send me." Each one of these setbacks were actually set ups for what God was preparing to do in David and through David. Each test prepared David a little bit more to be the King God wanted him to be.

When David finally was seated at his calling as King of Israel, God said these words to him,

"I took you from the pasture and from following the flock to be ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make your name great, like the names of the greatest men of the earth. And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. ....The Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you....Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me, your throne will be established forever." 2 Samuel 7:8-15

Wow!! That gets me every time! I believe God is with us, preparing us for great things. May you too, find comfort in the story of David. God is faithful-even if we are faithless! Be encouraged today

New Year, New You

Happy New Year!!!



I hope you each had great Holiday season with your family and friends. I have never been one that made new years resolutions, but this year our pastor challenged us to pursue God in asking for one thing this year. Maybe its "one thing" you desire from God or "one thing" you lack or "one thing" you need to let go. Whatever it is I want to challenge you, like our pastor challenged us, to answer at least one of these questions. There is something God wants to do IN you while preparing to do something through you. Now for me, I could easily ask God to SELL OUR HOUSE!!! That could be my one thing, but what fun is that.
So, after much prayer and thought I have decided what my "one thing" will be this year: To be bold for the name of Christ in TRUTH and GRACE while having complete humility. Now if you know me, you might think, "Being bold is not a problem." Well, you are partly right:) I am called to be bold with truth and grace. There are times when I want to speak only truth without the grace, which comes off as being judgemental, but then there are times when I speak grace with little truth and it comes off being passive. The bible teaches us in John 1:17 that Jesus came in Truth and Grace and if I could show the people around me both-that would be awesome! Now, I added the last phrase "with complete humility" because I know myself. The moment I can fully understand showing both truth and grace, I want to remind myself it wasn't on my own, but with Christ and Christ alone! Galations 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives within me." OK, now that I have been real with you I want you to be real with me. What is your "one thing" for 2010? Let me know!!!

Trying to sell the house

So....Chris has been at his new job for 7 months now and we are still commuting to work because we can't sell our house. I am not going to lie, it has been somewhat frustrating because everything has worked out so great with the new coaching position, except for the house. Do you know how hard it is to keep a house in "somewhat" showing condition with a 5, 3, and 7 month old? I just keep thinking "It would be so much easier if we didn't have to drive almost everyday and have to take our clothes with us if we are doing anything else in the evening." And then the lesson....there's always a lesson:)
I was preparing for the bible study I lead and it was over John 11 and the the death and resurrection of Lazarus. Mary and Martha had sent for Jesus to come and heal their brother, but Jesus waited. He waited until Lazarus had passed away to return to Bethany. He said these words to his disciples, "Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe." EVERYTHING we go through is to accomplish one thing and one thing only: so that you and I will believe and our faith in God Almighty will become stronger. You may have sent for Jesus in trying to sell a house or to save a lost friend or heal family member and it seems as though He is not coming, but in reality He is not coming right now and not in the way we want or choose. But HE will come!! He will come to us as our healer, comforter, counselor, and Savior! May you and I both walk in His timing and not our own!
Have a great Christmas!!!

cheater

So... we were playing horseshoes in our backyard the other day. I had made a line where we had to stand when throwing the horseshoes to the stake. I went first and then my son followed. He initially started at the line and then decided to take a few steps in front to finish up his turn. Chloe was next-she didn't even start at the line, she simply just walked up to the stake and put the horseshoe around it and began jumping up and down that she had did it. My son was very peturbed at her and yelled, "but she cheated! She is a cheater." I looked at him and replied, "but so did you." "But I didn't cheat as bad as she did," he replied.
That sounds so "child-like" that he would think his cheating was ok because it wasn't as bad as his sister's cheating, but in reality I still find myself thinking those thoughts sometimes as a grown woman. "My shortcomings aren't near as bad as other peoples. People have a lot more to work on themselves than I do. I am overall a really good person." Right? Then the little, still quiet voice replies, "Compared to who? God continues, "Compared to that person-maybe, but compared to me-no! And I am the standard." The good news for you and me is that he made a way for us to live up to his standard and that is our relationship with his son Jesus Christ!
I don't know about you, but for me I want to do as Paul strived to do, "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Galations 6:14. I know God has a lot more He wants to do in me before he can complete His work through me.
I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!!

Mud in your eye

Do you ever feel like things always get worse before they get better? Things can never just get better. Well, if you have felt like that or are feeling like that as we speak this blog entry is for you! I was reading John 9 where Jesus heals the blind man. Let me just set this up for you. You have a blind man who has been blind since birth and he hears footsteps coming towards him. The next thing he knows he hears the person spit on the crowd and then feels mud in his eyes. I can only imagine what he was thinking-"What are you doing? I am already blind and now you have to rub mud in my eyes made by your own spit. Kick a man why he's down why don't ya" (or something like that :)) But then Jesus said go wash it off and the man obeyed (probably just because he wanted to get the mud off his face) and he was shown a whole new world. He was blind and now he could see. Sometimes in order to reach the top of the mountain we have to go through a valley first. We have to know that God is working in your situation right now. Maybe you can't imagine things getting any better. Know you just have mud in your eyes and at some point God is going to wash it off and your eyes will be open. For you were blind to what God wanted to do in you and through you and now you can see that God truly does work all things to the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Whatever your situation is please know you are loved by the creator of the universe and all He wants to do is get the chance to spit in your eye:) (laugh its good for the soul)

Have a super week!

Sarah

Bring me what you have

So. . .I am just going to share with you something in hopes that maybe you will come along side of me and pray and with that maybe God will teach you something along the way. I have felt the Holy Spirit leading me to do something and I am not quite sure what it is. I have an idea, but to be honest, the thought scares me to death. It would be a huge leap of faith and totally stepping out of my comforts. I will fill you in more later:) I wanted to start with that because that leads me into my blog thought today. I was preparing for the bible study that I lead and was reading the story of Jesus' miracle of feeding the 5000. Jesus says to the disciples that they need to feed all these people that have come to hear Jesus teach. One disciple suggests that it would basically take 8 months wages to feed all these people. First of all, when I was reading this I am thinking God, the creator of the universe just asking you to do something and your hold up is you don't have enough money? Ummm, wait a minute that is what I do all the time!

Another disciple steps forward and says well, we have these 2 fish and five loaves of bread. Jesus basically replies bring me what you have and watch me do the rest and the rest is miracle history. I believe God wants to do the same miracle in my life and maybe yours. Maybe you are being prompted to take your own leap of faith, but you are looking at your situation and all you have is 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. Jesus is saying to you and me, bring me what you have and I watch me perform a miracle that will blow your socks off!!

Please pray for me and let me know if I can pray for you!!! I will keep you updated:)

The little things

So our boss had us read a book and share a little bit about what God showed us during the process. The book was called In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. It was an awesome book! If you get a chance (with all the free time you have) read it! The chapter I had to report on was chapter 8 and in this chapter the author talks about having a faith like a child and the reason we lose this important aspect of the Christian life is because we are afraid of looking foolish. This reminded me of a time with my son, Cale. One day we were praying and he asked if he could pray for his gun (his toys are the most prayed for toys on this earth). "Absolutely you can!" After all, that is so cute. Right? Well, days go by and the very gun he prayed for came up missing. We couldn't find that thing anywhere. After awhile I just forgot about it until we were trimming the bushes in our front yard and by golly what did we find in the bushes? THE GUN! As I excited as I was, I was more shocked than anything. Not Cale. Although he was excited, he simple stated, "I knew we would find it because I prayed for it." Here I am with more maturity and more experience and yet my 5 year old son is the one with more faith. At what point in our life do our problems get bigger and our God get smaller? What is it going to take to realize (like a child) that our God is so big that He cares about the little things, even our guns:)