love – Page 2 – Grow Anyway

Not Yet Across the Finish Line

June 9, 2021June 9, 2021by Guest BloggerLeave a Comment

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. [John 14:26 NIV]

Have you ever wondered if you have what it takes to make it through some kind of boot camp? I have watched in awe and wonder as my niece tackled the challenges of the exercise boot camp she attends early in the morning at her local gym. Over time, my niece began to exit that steamy environment with more smiles and less groans. Her muscles became stronger and her stamina increased, a training-effect even I have felt with my much-more-modest efforts with free weights and consistent time on some exercise machines. Wimp that I am, I have never been successful without the encouragement of fellow sufferers and a gym rat or two to inspire me with those toned biceps and abs. Wait! Do I even have abs? They must be in there somewhere!

Perseverance is the key to reaching those seemingly far-off goals, a perseverance fueled by the energy of God’s Holy Spirit within us. Each of us have a mighty Coach that can energize every aspect of our lives, if we are willing to be guided by His truth, surrendered to His guidance, and empowered with a mind that learns to think and choose like Him. When the disciples were devastated by the news that Jesus was physically leaving them, He comforted them by explaining that He, who once was only with them, would now be in them, as the Holy Spirit (John 14:26), helping them across the finish line. Remember, the Holy Spirit will help you become the trained, mature you!

Why was the Holy Spirit so essential to them and still so essential to us? Life is hard, and often presents circumstances that are far beyond our ability to cope with them. We need help! How do we get to the next level as we tackle the tasks that mature us?

Recognize that with Jesus in your heart, the old life is gone. Radical change is here! Paul wrote: [Galatians 2:20 NIV] I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Embrace God’s agenda for you. God has a better plan and mind-blowing growth in mind for you. [1 Corinthians 2:9 NIV] However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”–the things God has prepared for those who love him—
Schedule significant amounts of time to be alone with God. When David’s family was taken captive and bitter tears fell, he “found strength in the LORD his God” (1 Samuel 30:6). Take time to invite the Holy Spirit into your current situation right now. Ask Him to fill you and pour out of you.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, help me to remember that You want to coach and guide me and train up my spiritual muscles so You can help me persevere all the way to the finish line. Help me find training time to spend with You. Amen.

For further reading

Acts 5:32
Acts 11:16
Acts 15:8
Romans 5:3-5
Romans 14:7
Romans 15:13
1 Cor. 6:19

BY: Stephanie Murillo

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Name Without Shame

May 12, 2021May 12, 2021by Guest Blogger3 Comments

Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. [Psalm 42:5 NIV]

Have you ever been ambushed by a tsunami of emotions that threatened to hi-jack the noble, mature, responsible you? Have you ever been a primal scream wrapped in skin? I have to raise both hands here and admit that for years I did not know what to do with the molten lava of feelings I often felt inside.

Happily, Christian teachers are now beginning to acknowledge our need to train, rather than try to manage our emotions honestly and without shame, a development that can bear so much fruit in our hearts and help us connect with our inner lives, with God, and with others.

One of the first skills I began to practice came from our God-given identity as “namers.” God gave Adam and Eve the job of giving names to the flora and fauna around them in the Garden of Eden, and we have been assigning names and labels from that day to this. Naming is a powerful tool, because identifying an emotion, issue, or worry, brings it out of the darkness into the light. What we acknowledge, can now be placed into God’s capable, competent, compassionate hands for healing and change. Naming is often the first step in managing that volcano inside.

In Psalm 42, King David is practicing an emotionally healthy strategy by looking inside himself and trying to name what is troubling him. He is engaging in some fruitful “self-talk” by not only asking this question, but also turning his focus on God as Savior and a giver of grace. Some scholars believe David wrote this when he was fleeing from his own son and could not enter God’s house to worship. In Psalm 42, he honestly names what is defining his life at present: a soul (mind, will, and emotions) drained dry by the tears of betrayal that have poured out day and night.

The pandemic has caused many of us to feel a level of disconnect we have never experienced before, but there is hope! A tidal wave of emotion may sweep over us, but as Charles Spurgeon says, “Grace swims!” So, how do we invite God into our emotional tempest?

ASK God for help to put a name to what is driving the storm inside us.
POUR out all that is inside to the only One strong enough and safe enough to handle our strong emotions.

Psalms 5, 10, 17, 35, 58, 129, and 140 are examples of powerful and often not-too-noble feelings being poured out before God in the privacy of personal prayer. Then, we sit quietly before God asking Him to love us back to sanity, and to give us safe people to help us process our emotions. Remember, this is a process defined by God’s loving acceptance. No shame allowed!

BY: Stephanie Murillo

[Bonus verses to look up later: Psalm 27:14 Psalm 37:7 Psalm 91:15 Romans 4:18-19]

liz goss

Praise God on Mother’s Day

May 5, 2021May 4, 2021by Liz GossLeave a Comment

“Give thanks to the Lord and proclaim his greatness. Let the whole world know what he has done. Sing to him; yes, sing his praises. Tell everyone about his wonderful deeds. Exult in his holy name; rejoice, you who worship the Lord. Search for the Lord and for his strength; continually seek him. Remember the wonders he has performed, his miracles, and the rulings he has given.” – 1 Chronicles 16:8-12 (NLT)

Sunday is Mother’s Day and I want to take the first sentence of this post to say: let this day be whatever you need it to be… but remember to be grateful. See, when I asked some friends about this yearly celebration I got feelings all over the map:

Love for my child and so much gratitude for being a mother.
Grief over a mother I am missing.
Struggling with mental health and have mixed feelings about being a mother.
Pain due to the mother daughter relationship I had.
Envy over those picture perfect moments that fill my social media feeds.
Empty ache over a child I lost even as I am grateful for the children I have.
Painful reminder that I’m not a mom yet.

Whatever Mother’s Day is or isn’t for you, it’s all okay. There’s room and space for the joy and the grief. It’s okay to talk about and feel all the sides of Mother’s Day. But because Mother’s Day is a day of celebration I challenge you all to spend some time preparing your heart to glorify God because of the gift of motherhood. We can all bring praise to God because of someone who personified a mother in our lives. There are three great ways (that popped into my brain) to carry out this exercise. So choose one or choose them all, but don’t forget to thank God for some aspect of moms this weekend.

WRITE – Put your thankfulness down in words. Thank your mother. Thank someone else’s mother. Be grateful for the ways you have been able to mother. Praise God for the ways he has mothered you. Pen to paper. Text. Write an email. Comment on this blog post. However you want to write out your thank you… do it.

ADVICE – We learn things from mothers and one amazing way to exalt motherhood is to share the advice we have received. Mom advice is priceless so glorify God by sharing some of it with others.

LAUGH – Being a mom can be… ridiculous. We do dumb things. Our kids do crazy stuff. We witness other mothers being off the wall geniuses. Let’s share some of this treasure trove and praise our good God for the laughs he’s brought along the way.

Sunday is Mother’s Day. If you need to cry today, cry. If you need to celebrate, celebrate. If you want to do both, do both. If you need to hide on Sunday and pretend it’s not Mother’s Day, that’s totally okay. From one woman to another, I give you permission to love yourself enough to ask for what you need from your loved ones for this day. But in the midst of all the things this world throws at us, let’s not forget to praise our God for the blessing of motherhood. Because through it all he is always good.

“Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who lives from everlasting to everlasting! And all the people shouted “Amen!” and praised the Lord.” – 1 Chronicles 16:36

liz goss

Easter Resolutions

April 14, 2021April 13, 2021by Liz Goss2 Comments

When 2021 came around it was universally accepted that we were out with the old and in with the new. Of course we hoped to be “out” with masks, social distancing & eating outside and “in” with hugs, parties & traveling. We made personal resolutions to stop eating so much and spend more time at the gym. And whether any of the outs really out-ed or ins really in-ed was never exactly the point, it’s the ferver with which we HOPE things will change when the calendar does that wins our hearts every year.

Easter is the Christian new year. Lent begins the holiday season and by Easter we are always primed to make our spiritual resolutions. This year I will stop taking Jesus for granted and have a relationship with God. This year I will trust God with my finances and start to tithe. This year I will put down the idol that I’m so drawn towards (drinking, food, shopping, relationships, money, etc.) and focus on letting God fill my emptiness. In the final Easter sermons we are primed for repentance.

But as Paul says to the Galatians, who cut in on you? I’m guessing that already (April 14th) you’ve messed up your resolution. I know I have! Galatians 5:7-8 says, “You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom.” See, like pastor Matt on Easter, Paul made it clear to the Galatians that in Christ they were truly free. Free from the power of sin and free to live under God’s grace. Just like us.

So why would we ever want to give up the freedom we found in Christ that refreshed our hearts on Easter? Bondage is subtle. Our New Years resolutions and our Easter resolutions often fall to a slow dependence on behaviors, substances and attitudes that give us security. But… as we turn our lives over to God, he will graciously give us the power we need to overcome.

Last Sunday Pastor Kyle at Journey Church, reminded us that we don’t need a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night to guide us. While it seems super helpful, we actually have something better as Paul reminds us in Galatians 5:16-17: “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.”

Resolutions aren’t bad. They are usually the prompting of the Holy Spirit, showing us where we could be living better for God and his kingdom. But in our own power we are usually unable to keep them. So let me encourage you in this… God desires a relationship with you. He didn’t die to make you better behaved. He didn’t die so that you’d finally follow the rules. He died because he loves you. He wants to know you, do life with you and spend forever enjoying you. Because he made you.

If you felt God stirring your heart this Easter I hope you resolve to be HIS this next year. Spend time with the one who knows you best and loves you most. Everything else you could possibly resolve to do will come in his timing, if you let the Holy Spirit guide you into doing life with God.

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Perseverance in Storms

March 17, 2021March 16, 2021by Guest Blogger3 Comments

I was asking Amy what the topic was to write on and before I got that question out of my mouth or shall I say onto my keyboard, here came these words…Perseverance in storms.

May I just tell you I hate to talk or write about these things. I don’t want to sound like some puffed up guru on suffering because I have had my fair share of it (as many of you have) or like I know all the things and glided through these storms with such Christlike character and grace everyone who watched stood in awe. Now, I know there are some ladies who have done this, and I applaud them and maybe even envy them a little if we’re going to be honest; but I personally wasn’t one of them. I fussed and cussed and wept, I prayed and begged, bargained and reasoned and fasted then finally, and I do I mean finally, surrendered and accepted His will over my own. To be honest some days (were down to minutes now not all day) I am still licking wounds of stuff I just down right can’t understand. BUT that being said, this does not nullify the Love nor the Faithfulness of my Mighty God.

My mighty God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yep, my God heard me say those things I wished I could take back when I didn’t think I could breathe through the pain or ever truly smile again. You see my Bible says He knows me; He knows how I am formed. He remembers I am just DUST…that’s right…I’m dirt and I can act as low as it with enough pain or frustration in my heart. The only time I am above this is when He mercifully breathes His life into me, and Hallelujah He does!!! In the south when someone is acting a fool you will hear the words ‘Bless your heart, your slip is showing”. God has seen my slip more times than I care to remember and yet loves me still.

Okay so about this perseverance in the storm. What does the above several paragraphs have to do with all of this…EVERYTHING! God did not ask me to be fake and phony with a false hallelujah on my lips as my sister, husband, niece and finally Poppie lay breathing their last.

Deb, my sister, died when I was only a few years into my recovery (by the way she hated me calling her Deb, she was my big sis…tough now sis, love you!). That about flung me so far into space I thought I might never land back on planet earth. It isn’t just that she had died, but she died in her addiction…the one I had just been miraculously delivered from. The one I had just took a best friend’s sister to go get help and she was delivered from! What??? Why?

Eric, my husband, passed Aug 29, 2018 exactly five years and one day from when his beautiful young wife had died of cancer before we married. Now his girls have no mom and no dad. (Yes, I am there BUT I am not themmmmm). That was space travel number two.

Seriah, my niece, had just helped another young lady get to work because she didn’t have a vehicle. While doing a kind deed (this wasn’t just a practice of her it was who she was) she was t-boned and broken in more places than I care to remember. We clung, I mean ferociously clung, to Psalm 27:13, “I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living”. We wrote it in her hospital room, we prayed it, we sang over her, we wept and held on for dear life, 27 years old y’all, 27 years old and now gone. I can still see her huge blue eyes, and ache to look into them some days. This is deep space.

Poppie, my dear Poppa, every two hours more meds and more meds and cleanings and rolling to prevent bed sores and shallow breaths. I was watching my mom be ripped in two and wondering if she would survive it (My mom has such precious faith, her and Jesus are doing good…she is finding her way through the valley of the shadow of death and Jesus is championing her through it). He promised me He would care for her. He has never failed on one promise NEVER. This is a whole other galaxy.

Why am I sharing all of this? Because Beloved, I want you to be real and vulnerable and honest as to where you are in your sufferings or storms. Did you notice the word perseverance had the word SEVERE right in the middle of it? If we saw someone go through a severe physical incident we wouldn’t be like “hey you smile and press on”…NO! We would be completely honest about the condition of their body so they could have proper care to be restored. LADIES, it is the same with conditions of the heart, psyche, and spirit. Broken is Broken. But Healed is Healed. You cannot be healed without the truth, period! It doesn’t work that way. Jesus is The Way, The TRUTH and The life. He is not afraid of the truth He IS the truth He lives there He dwells there. Don’t hide in the shadows, come out and speak to Him, let Him heal you. Loving you and praying for you. He is faithful and ever will be. Tiff

PS. I landed back here in the Everlasting Arms.

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God IS Love!

February 24, 2021by Guest Blogger1 Comment

When I thought about writing this at first, I was like, I have no idea what to write…then it began, tell them that I love them, truly love them. Uggghhh, love…such a sloppy word in the church these days. Let’s go ahead and unpack this thing. Sister, I wish we were snuggled up with a warm cup of coffee and our favorite scented candle burning sitting face to face. It is so easy to misconceive what is being said from afar. Our Father in heaven, please let this be exactly what you would have it to be, a talk between sisters and friends.

Love…for some of us that word crawls all over us—let’s be real for some of us it is downright painful. For others, well it’s like a mystical place of wide-open fields with no boundaries doing whatever makes us “feel” loved and “free”. I have been in both camps…imagine that. But what would it be like if we were smack dab in the middle of all of that? Some of you are probably saying where is she going with this? Glad you asked, sis. Go ahead and read 1 Corinthians 13. Now, don’t read it to see how far from being that loving Christian woman your supposed to be, but from the point of God loving you. God is patient with me. God is kind to me. Sister, you at this moment in time, are deeply and wholly loved right as you are…no, exactly as you are. God’s love isn’t flaky; it is not the pulling of petals. He loves me, He loves me not, He loves me, He loves me not. Oh, PLEASE let the last petal be that He loves me. Holding our breath, hoping He can and will forgive us just one more time as were trying to get “this” thing in our lives right for the hundredth time. It’s such a miserable way to live.

His love for you will remain completely intact even if you walk away forever. I know, how dare I say that! Yet, it is true, you see God IS love. That is WHO He is not what He feels, it isn’t a slippery slope…it is a gigantic ROCK to build our lives on. As I wrote that line above, the “even if you walk away,” my heart cringed and I breathed a prayer, please no. Not even one of these who will read please let them never walk away-the consequences of this choice is far too great a price to pay.

Let’s talk about this everlasting love. A friend will tell the truth even when it hurts. So Sis, Why are we so angry at God’s love? Not all of us but some of us. I mean really…He says no to that prayer we’ve been praying forever and we’re angry. That person isn’t healed and we’re angry. There’s an accident or tragedy and were angry. Then, we accuse and blame like our sisters of old; you know Mary and Martha – one wouldn’t even come to meet Jesus and the other one said pretty much if you would have been there death wouldn’t have happened. Dare I say truthfully, I have uttered these words and worse through streaming hot tears and dripping nose.

Ladies, HE Loves you and He loves me! He knows our humanity. He knows sorrow and suffering; He is deeply acquainted with it. Our ache does not diminish His love. Remember it is the Rock, not the slippery slope. I imagine us hitting up against it, trying with all we have to budge it and it’s not moving. It is there. The only way you can “try” to get away from it would be to move away from it. Have you given God the cold shoulder? In all the whys of this life, has our love waxed cold? Are we just a little more reserved in our praise? A little less quick to pray? Remember, He knows your frame. You were not hidden from Him during your making and you are not hidden from Him now. Sister may I suggest not walking back to the Rock but running to Him. Yahweh Tsuri, Your Rock Eternal. He loves you and He is waiting.

Until we meet again, I’ve gotta tell you, if you will wholly return to Him, times of refreshing will come. I love you sis, Tiffany.

1 Corinthians 13, Psalm 139, John 11, Acts 3:19

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Who am I?

February 3, 2021January 28, 2021by cstine06021 Comment

Do you ever wrestle with your identity, asking yourself questions and trying to sort out your worth and place in the world? Of course, you do, you are human! And if you are not currently wrestling with your identity, you probably have at some point, asking questions to which you don’t really know the answer…

“Why am I here?” “What is the meaning of life?” “Did I turn off the oven before I left the house?” “I wonder if baseball season will be good this year?” (ok, maybe you have never wondered that last one, but I have.)

The great thing about our identity is that is completely and totally wrapped up in what God has to say about us, and how He views us. When we grasp God’s love and perspective on us, our relationship with Him and the dynamic of our connection changes in such an incredible way.

There are certain people in our lives who we love, no matter what. I mean, no matter how many times the people at the taco shop get my order wrong, I keep going back, because I love them…or their tacos. Maybe you have a favorite pet, and it doesn’t matter their faults, you love them for who they are. We love our spouses and make vows to do so through everything good and bad that life has to offer. And then there are kids.

Kids love their parents. They trust them from a very young age to help them survive, to care for them, teach them, and show them how to have human relationships.

The most significant piece of my identity, the one that shapes me, my belief about myself and my place in the world must be the truth that God has adopted me as His child. And He loves me with a never -failing love.

I am not enough. I am human. My relationship with God changes that. Makes me whole and accepted. Viewing Him as my perfect Father, who meets me where I am and accepts me no matter what should completely change my perspective on who I am.

Check out these verses about God’s parenthood:

Romans 8:15 “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves…rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption…And by him we cry Abba, Father.”

Galatians 4:6 “…God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father’.”

You are a child of God. There is no one He loves more no one He would choose more no one He wants to know more. He created you for relationship, for knowing Him, for being with Him in eternity. He passionately and fiercely demonstrated this love by giving His only Son, Jesus, for you!! Trust His love for you and desire to know you. And when you are looking for answers about the meaning of life, enjoy the fact that you are loved by Him!

Challenge: Read Psalm 139 during your time with God this week and spend a few minutes soaking in what an involved Father God is, and how much He loves you!!