1 Peter 4:9-11, NIV

Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

*The following was said so perfectly by one of the pastors at my church, Gary Bradenburg, that I couldn't do anything but copy and paste it from his sermon notes which can be found here.*

The important thing is that gifts are for giving. It is not so important that we catergorize the gift but that we use it to bless others. It doesn’t matter how small the gift it is important to the Giver. I learned this one night when God showed up at the East Texas Symphony. I love the symphony…for about ten minutes. My favorite part is the beginning. The tuning, the conductor appears, the stillness, the uplifted baton, the anticipation, and when that baton descends the heavens open. All of those instruments playing their parts creating one magnificent sound. But on this particular night I did not hear the Lord in the whirlwind of the woodwinds, I did not see the Lord in the rumbling earthquake of the kettle drums, I saw him standing there in the back with this…(triangle). What do you call this person? The triangulator? The percussive triangulist? The man was focused on the score in front of him. While the violins were bowing and the oboes were blowing he simply waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, at just the right time he went…DING. I almost came out of my chair and shouted, “You’re the man!”

God doesn’t ask us to save the world. God doesn’t expect us to do it all. He just asks us to play our part, to just ding. Everything God created has a purpose. And every creation of God is equipped for that purpose. God wouldn’t put fish in the sea without gills or birds in the sky without wings. God wouldn’t put you where you are to reflect who He is without giving you the equipment to do it. You may not be 1st chair but you have a part, and when you play your part I’m sure the One who died for you wants to come up out of His chair and say, “You’re the man/woman.”

Busy is not always a bad disease!

Sometimes I have so many ideas and dreams running through my head at once that I can't decipher which are merely passing thoughts, actually from the Lord, or just indigestion - hah! What I do know is that I have a terminal disease of being busy, but I don't want to be healed. I love being busy! Granted, I can get to the verge of breakdown and take a day or two for recuperation. But overall, I wish there were more hours in the day for me to do everything my mind comes up with!

Here is a glimpse of my mind and crazy train of thought today (keep in mind I'm trying to work during all of this): "I'm feeling a little bittersweet about the upcoming split of my weekly womens small group. But we survived and thrived after the split last year. I have to admit, it's going to be awesome to have three new groups come from one, God will do great things through the new leaders that are stepping up. And with so many women looking for Christian fellowship in Dallas, we need the room to grow! Speaking of growing- I've officially been back in America for two years! Have I grown during that time? It's crazy to think of all that happened in that one year in Belfast. Oh, Belfast. I wish I could go back. Maybe God wants me to work there again. Or maybe when I go to India I'll find an opportunity to get back into full time ministry. Then again, what is "full time ministry?" Aren't I doing that already? Certainly feels like it sometimes. But I miss the availability of being able to bless others by taking them out to lunch or breakfast or coffee during their day without the concern of my job getting in the way. Like the Leadership Summit 2009, I'd love to be there. Heck, I'd love to plan an event like this to equip and encourage church leaders. Oh, speaking of things to plan, I want to do a mission trip or project soon with girls from church. Maybe plan an inner city prayer tour of Dallas or serve dinner at the Union Gospel Mission. Or perhaps it'd be beneficial to sponsor a child together through World Vision. I like reading the book written by the World Vision president, it's so convicting and I agree with so much of his thoughts and perspectives...maybe I should write a book... I want to start a book club... but I also like movies, I should make a movie..."

Ahh! See, it's a crazy train in my head! And I only had one cup of coffee today!

* Relax * Remember, God speaks in a whisper and uses tiny seeds to move mountains. I found peace in these words from Psalm 116:7-8 (The Message) today:

I said to myself, "Relax and rest.

God has showered you with blessings.

Soul, you've been rescued from death;

Eye, you've been rescued from tears;

And you, Foot, were kept from stumbling."

Luke 15:8-10, The Message

"Or imagine a woman who has ten coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and scour the house, looking in every nook and cranny until she finds it? And when she finds it you can be sure she'll call her friends and neighbors: 'Celebrate with me! I found my lost coin!' Count on it—that's the kind of party God's angels throw every time one lost soul turns to God."

Isn't it phenomenal that we have a God who seeks us even more diligently than this woman searching for her coin?

You won't relent
Until You have it all
My heart is Yours

I'll set You as a seal upon my heart
As a seal upon my arm
For there is love that is as strong as death
Jealousy demanding as the grave
And many waters cannot quench this love

Come be the fire inside of me
Come be the flame upon my heart
Come be the fire inside of me

Life's Noise

I drove to work this morning with no radio or music on (I usually listen to the Kidd Kraddick in the Morning show) or cell phone use (sometimes I talk to Mom for the whole drive). I had seen two of my friends' tweets yesterday on Twitter about how they had driven with no radio or music and enjoyed the silence. Hah - "silence?" Yeah that wasn't my experience.

You see, without my radio turned up loud I was far more aware of the cars honking, people yelling on the street, and construction noise. Honestly, for the entire 28 minute drive it all grated on my nerves like a dripping sink. It was maddening! Why do people say that silence is golden?

I felt like it was a lose-lose situation. My radio normally prevents me from experiencing silence, but when I try, true silence can't be obtained. This is our dilemma - we expect silence to mean that there will be no noise, we want the extreme with no distractions. Don't we expect the same from God? We want to see God. We want to hear Him. But God doesn't always show up the way we expect.

Read this story and then rethink about what you ask and expect of God. Are you looking for Him in the right places? Are we looking for silence in the right places?

1 Kings 19:11-13:

The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

He wasn't in the fire

He wasn't in the quake

He wasn't in the wind

He's in a whisper

Ecclesiates 3:8, New International Version

A time to love and a time to hate.A time for war and a time for peace.

War or Peace? Having lived 90% of my life in Texas, where friendly people tote around guns and wave confederate flags (don’t take offense, that was sarcasm), I've naturally adapted to a local viewpoint on guns and war. This "local viewpoint" is simply that guns are okay to have, just be careful, and the United States being in war is patriotic and something to be proud about. *Remember, this is just my perspective, I feel like it might ruffle a few feathers so I want to clarify that it's not a blanket statement of what all Texans believe.*

In my travels to other states and countries I've been surprised by how many times I've been questioned on my views of guns, war, and the death penalty once people discovered that I was from Texas. I never felt like I had an answer completely my own, it also seemed like I repeated things I'd heard from someone else. When I recently read The Irresistible Revolution, I was challenged to finally affirm my thoughts and beliefs on these topics.

Because I claim Christ as my God, I declare that I believe the Bible to be Truth, God's infallible word. The stories and history of our world that are recorded in the Bible are full of war, murder, bloodshed, and death. No matter what you believe, we can't escape the fate given to all humans - pain and death. But in the midst of living out our time on earth - should I participate in active pursuits of death and pain? I don't think I should.

The argument I have isn't solid, it is in progress. Sometimes I feel like verses I pick and choose can contradict each other if I don't properly research the context and history. For me personally, I choose to look at "Do not murder" from Exodus 20:13 and especially Matthew 5:38-48 where Jesus commands us to "turn the other cheek" and "love your enemies." Ultimately, my decision on the matters of war, guns, and the death penalty is that, as a Christian (which trumps my citizenship), I am called to Love. Love God, Love others. I can't own a weapon that causes harm. I can't support the government deciding what crimes warrant death and using power to take life away. I want to take steps to see war cease and more "battles" be fought through discussion and documents - not by sending citizens to kill other citizens.

Maybe I'm being naive. You can argue that God is a "warrior" and so we should be too. In fact, the bible states in Exodus 15:3 "The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name." But what about Romans 15:33 that says "Now the God of peace be with you all."?

Let's ask a simple question -- is it not reasonable to say that God can be both a "warrior" and a God of peace, as the circumstances require? In that same way, I might find that in some time in my life, or any one else's life, there will be a need to be a soldier during war, and a Customer Relations Writer during times of peace.

All in all, what I'm trying to communicate is that I think this is an ongoing struggle and development of my beliefs. I trust that while I might go back and forth between sides of this argument, I take comfort that God is allowed to react to what we do as He sees fit and He is never contradicted -- those verses describe Him as being of war and peace but not at the same time or while performing the same action.

Ecclesiastes 3:17 “I thought in my heart, "God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed.”