Spreading the Good News

So the Great Commision in Matthew 28 says

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

I know one of the things on my Bucket List is to go on a Mission’s Trip.  It is VERY high on my Bucket List and I’m praying that I can get that opportunity this Spring Break! But after I read my devotion today (about the Great Commission) I realized, what am I waiting for?

Who said I could only share and spread the Good News in a foreign country? Who said  I had to go outside my state walls, my city walls, or even my school walls. I can spread the Gospel anytime, any place.  I should not wait until the opportunity arises to do so.

In fact, I have more to lose when I preach here in my own environment. Say I travel to Haiti to do mission’s work, and they reject me? What’s the worse that can happen? They reject me and I never see them again.  I go back to my everyday life here in America and hope for better next time. There really is NO LOSS in me spreading the word overseas.

Now if I were to share the Gospel here at my campus, then it’s a totally different story. Yes, I could be rejected, but it would not be the end of communication.  I will see these people all the time. There is more to lose. And there are chances of being persecuted for my faith. But that should not stop me, and it should not stop us from ministering to those right in our backyard, or even within our households.  As Paul says, any persecution we have no will not compare to the glory God has for us (Rom 8:18).

So I urge you Brothers and Sisters, not to sit around waiting for an opportunity to spread the Good News to a foreign country.  Start by spreading it within your own home, your school, your work, maybe even your church.  You never know who around you may really need to hear the Good News and to see it in action right before their very eyes.

God just really laid this on my heart this morning and I hope that it inspires someone else to also take action. 

God bless you

~Tiffany

God is good...if

is a very dangerous statement.

Many of us find ourselves in a “God is good…if” state of mind.  We may not verbalize it, but I’m sure we have all been in this mindset.  Let me give you a few examples:

• God is good… if I get that job I have been praying for
• God is good… if my friends/family gets saved whom I’ve been praying for
• God is good… if I get that promotion I’ve been praying for
• God is good… if He brings me back the love of my life again

So I think I have made my point.  I myself have been struggling with this very same problem.  And this morning God laid it on my heart and opened my eyes to what I have been doing.

What He wanted me to share is, there is no “if” in God is good. He just is. God is good. Period, end of story.

God is good even if I don’t get that job or the promotion.  He is still good even if my friends/family do not get saved.  Even if the love of my life never finds his way back to me, GOD IS STILL GOOD!

Don’t let life’s circumstances fog your view of God. He is good, no matter what is going on around you.

He loves you and knows what He is doing. Just trust in Him and He will take care of you!

God bless,

Tiff

How He Loves Us - David Crowder

So David Crowder’s song “How He Loves Us” has always been a favorite of mine. I have heard it many times, and I love it so much that back when I was planning a wedding, I had the intention on playing it before the ceremony as a worship song for everyone to sing.

Well, today as I was waiting for my ride to work, this song came on the radio. But something was different this time, it was almost as if I really listened to the lyrics this time. And I mean REALLY listened. And really comprehended what they said and more importantly, what they meant. Here is what I got from it:

He is jealous for me

• God is a jealous God (Deut 6:15).  He desires and wants our complete attention and does not like it when we let other things or people take our attention away from Him. He wants and desires our love and our hearts.

Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy

• Think of a hurricane. It is a very strong and mighty force that can cause severe damage, but you cannot see it.  You can see the trees bending and swaying, debris flying, and properties being damaged, but those are only the effects from the hurricane. You cannot see the the actual winds, the force, behind the hurricane. Same with God and His Holy Spirit. You can not physically see it, but you can definitely see and feel it’s effects. His love and mercy for us is so great, yet we cannot see it, but we can feel its effects; The peace it gives us in our souls during times of trials, the love you feel when loneliness has overcome your heart, the comfort in knowing that God is in control and has the best intentions for you and your life, or even just the joy and happiness we get from knowing and feeling God’s love for us. The Holy Spirit, as well as God’s love for us, are very strong and powerful forces, yet cannot be seen.

When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory

• God has the ability to fill our hearts with such love and grace that we can no longer see/feel the afflictions in our lives. Afflictions can be defined as a state of pain, distress, or grief.  His glory eclipses (or simply blocks out and hides) all pains and grievances in our lives. No matter what we may be going through, God’s glory is stronger that our trials.

And I realized just how beautiful You are and how great Your affections are for me

• Someone who loves as deeply as God does has got to be the most beautiful of all things. There are several references to His “beautiful Holiness” in the Bible (Psalm 90:17, 96:9, 1 Ch 16:39 and more) His holiness is probably more beautiful than any of us could even fathom. And His affections for us are also more than we can fathom. 1 John 3:1 says ” How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” His love for us is so great, this is just one of many verses where God’s love for us is touched upon. But as the song states, He has GREAT affections for each and every one of us.

Oh, How He loves us oh, Oh, how He loves us. How He loves us, oh.

• I really don’t feel like I have to embellish on this, the chorus pretty much speaks for itself. God loves us! Plain and simple

We are His portion and He is our prize. Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes. If His grace was an ocean we’re all sinking.

• His love for us is so great and powerful that we cannot escape from it.  No matter how hard we may try to run and hide form it, it will always be here. The last line there, ‘if His grace was an ocean, we’re all sinking’ is my favorite verse in the whole song.  Crowder compares God’s all consuming love to an ocean. When you’re in the ocean, the water surrounds your body and if you fall into a current, it will completely consume you.  Same with Christ’s love, if we allow it to take over, it will completely consume our body and can change our hearts and minds, and completely change the way we live our lives.

And Heaven meets Earth like an unforeseen kiss and my heart turns violently inside of my chest.

• A kiss is an action shared between two individuals who share a mutual, loving,and intimate feeling for one another. God desires an intimate relation ship us.  Intimate simply means a close personal relation. Though it is commonly connected with a romantic relation in today’s society, it does not have to be. God wants an intimate relationship with us, simply meaning He wants a close and personal relationship with each of His children. He wants us to tell Him our thoughts, emotions, fears, joys, all of it.  He wants us to share every part of our life with Him. When we have that intimate relationship with Him, we receive the blessings that come with it. In this case, a kiss, between Heaven, where He resides, and Earth, where His children reside.

And I don’t have time to maintain these regrets when I think about the way, He loves us…

• Sometimes we allow our pasts to interfere with our relationship and worship with God. Hebrews 9:13 says that with Christ’s death and resurrection, we can effectively clear our conscience when we ask our sins to be forgiven so that the guilt will not interfere with our worship of Him. We don’t have to let our past mistakes or regrets interfere with our worship because… well He loves us.

Oh, How He loves us oh. Oh, how He loves us. How He loves us, oh….

Letting Go

As humans, we tend to cling to what is familiar and what we are used to, even if it means giving up on something that could be better for you. It may be an old relationship, an old lifestyle or habit, or even just an old mindset.

When we come to Jesus, we have to let go of some things. It may not be easy, but you can ask God to help you let it go. I know it’s hard, trust me, I am battling with it myself. But really, the past is the past for a reason. God got you out of it, so don’t let yourself fall back into it.

Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. ~Ephesians 4:21-24

Throw away your past and put on the new and remade you! You can do it, because that is what God wants for you, and He will help you do it if you only ask His help!

But remember, before He can help you, you must be 100% willing to let go of whatever it is that you are letting go of.  I know that may seem like common sense, but it took me a while to see that the reason I was not moving on from my past was because I was not willing to let God do the work, I wanted to hold on. But I started praying for strength to let go, and once I did that, things got easier.

I hope this helps someone out there! Remember, you are not alone! God is with you every step of the way!

God bless,

Tiffany <3

A Personal Pondering

This is quite embarrassing, but I feel I need to throw it out there...

So I really think God is trying to teach me a lesson. I know this may sound trivial to you, but to me, it's actually way bigger of an issue than I'm really willing to admit. I have had it on my mind, but I think in order for me to really get it is by writing it out so here it goes...

So ever since I moved into my school, things have been great. But I have been having this one issue. My hair! (okay, go ahead and laugh) but seriously.

It will not cooperate no matter WHAT I do. Everything fails.  Straightening doesn't work, neither will my natural curls cooperate (much to my dismay). I don't know what to do.

And I know I should not make a big deal about it, but for some reason I am. It's like I used to have this awesome confidence in myself, but now, it's gone. And I'm pretty sure my hair has some sort of correlation with that loss (as embarrassing and horrible as that sounds.)

I think God is trying to teach me a lesson that appearances are not what's important. And that I spend too much time worrying about them, rather than worrying about what's on the inside. I'll spend about 30 minutes trying to make my hair decent, only to have it ruined as soon as I step outside, and all day I get upset that it does that. And I let it get to me.  I spend more time trying to figure out what to do to fix my hair, than I do to try and fix my heart and build my relationship with Him.

Why do I let my confidence depend on whether or not I am having a good hair day?  My confidence should be in the Lord, my God. My Rock and my Salvation. Not some filamentous biomaterial on top of my head.  

I have never considered myself as superficial, and have joked about people who are. But I feel like that is what I have become, all over a stupid head of hair. 

I guess I am writing this to kinda understand it better myself. It's actually kinda embarrassing, but I thought maybe throwing it out there in the open will help me realize how stupid this whole thing is and how I need to fix it.  Maybe this is a lesson from God to open up my eyes to what I have become.... Or maybe my hair is just being duh lol.

But whatever the reasoning, I am really going to have to keep myself in check and fix this problem now.  I do not want it escalating. I pray that God will help me get back the confidence that I used to have (and perhaps maybe at least one good hair day a week, lol, jk) but seriously. I do pray He helps me fix this problem I seem to have developed.

Thanks and God bless, and please if you have any comments or suggestions, or maybe even a similar experience, please let me know. It would be GREAT to know that I'm not the only one who had dealt with a similarly petty situation.

Peace and blessings,

Tiff

Adversity

I stumbled upon this verse in Job last night and wanted to share with you what I read and what I got from it.

Job 36:15 says “But by means of their suffering, he rescues those who suffer.  For he gets their attention through adversity.” (NLT)

Adversity is another way of saying “unfortunate events/circumstances.” So what this verse is saying is that God uses our sufferings to get our attention.  He puts us through trials in order to bring us closer to HIM!

Don’t look at it as punishment, remember, God disciplines those He loves (Heb 12:6) but look at it more like a calling.  God is calling out to you and sometimes the only way He can get to us is through trials of adversity. (Because let’s face it, I know I’m not the only one that can be a little stubborn when it comes to listening to God).

So whenever trials arise, try to look at them as God calling out and reaching for you. Will you reach out draw closer to Him?

(9.4.12)

My Blog

I don't know how active I will be on this blog, but I wanted a space to keep my writings whenever I have a good breakthrough with God. I am going to post them so that maybe someone, somewhere, can also benefit from these words. I am not claiming them to be powerful, but I do hope that they are meaningful to someone.

Most of these writings will have been from either my scripture time or just my walks/talks with God. Whenever He lays something on my heart to share, this will be my way of sharing. I hope that someone is able to benefit from these words.

I'm starting this blog 9/4/12 but I am adding writings that I have previously written so the dates are going to be before this one, so bear with me.

Thanks, take care, and God bless.

Tiffany