Category: Purpose

Living on Gifted Time

Posted on by Dorci

My dad felt like he was living on borrowed time.  His dad and his oldest brother died in their early 50s, so every day he made it past that I think he felt was a gift.

The reality is we’re all living on borrowed time. Gifted time. Each day we have to love, to give, to learn, to grow, to prepare, is a gift given to us by God.

So what are we doing with our gift? Shoving it in a corner? Kicking it around?

Or embracing it, valuing it, and using to its greatest potential?

I recently watched an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond.  The one where Marie takes them all on a trip to Italy. Everybody is soaking in the beauty and joy of the experience, except Ray. He doesn’t get it and he complains throughout the entire trip, until near the very end.

He stopped complaining and started looking around. He noticed the beauty of the landscape, the culture, the people, and his perspective changed.

He fell in love with everybody and everything, hopped on a bike and did his level best to soak up and spread as much beauty and joy as he could before it was time to go.

And I thought about how sometimes that is our life, especially when our outlook has been skewed by pain and suffering. Our perspective is dirtied from the trials and we can go through life not getting it. I think far too many people do that, even Christians, and that’s a tragedy.

We who have been changed, who have been given new life and made into a new creation have the opportunity to have a new perspective.  Sometimes it takes some time, and always some forgiveness, for our hearts and perspectives to be cleansed and made whole so we can fully see the beauty that’s all around us.

But every day we wake up we can ask God to purify our hearts, give us His perspective and start living our lives in Him now so we don’t wait until the end of our trip to get it. To start soaking up and spreading the beauty, love, and joy that God surrounds us with every day.

Sometimes I think of myself in my last days, and wonder what I’ll think of. What will I wish I had done? Who do I wish I’d been?  If I keep living the way I am, will I be happy that I lived that way? Is there anything I wish I’d done differently? What do I hope people thought of me and say about me? Will I have made an impact for good? 

Will I have carried out God’s plan for my life? Will I have lived in service to Him, carrying out the greatest command to love Him with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind and with all my strength? And will I have loved my neighbor as myself?

None of us is promised tomorrow. But we do have today.

And every day we have a choice.

The world is more than happy to sweep us up with it in its hurried, materialistic, unforgiving, angry, joyless way. That way is easy. Just stand there and it will take you with it.

Or, we can choose to take the narrow road – the one Christ walks. Few take it because He’s on it and instead of doing our thing, being our own god, we must follow Him, and to some that seems restrictive.

And in a way it is, cause here’s the kicker: Jesus said to walk that road we must carry a cross. He said each person must

“deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
           For whoever wants to save their life will lose it,
                    but whoever loses their life for me will find it.”

And He goes on to elaborate:

“What good will it be for someone to
           gain the whole world,                 
                     yet forfeit their soul?”

Why do we have to deny ourselves? Because in our flesh dwells no good thing. Only in dying to our flesh and letting Christ live His life through us is there true life and freedom. 

That narrow road of cross-carrying and self-denying opens to freedom from sin and its regrets, from shame and guilt, to fullness of joy and love and purpose.

That narrow road is where life is.

And we never walk it alone. The resurrection power of the Holy Spirit is with us, upon us, and dwells within us to forgive, cleanse, and lead us on in our walk, no matter where it goes. And ultimately, of course, it leads to eternity, where we won’t be judged for our sins (as long as we’ve believed in Christ as Lord), but we will be rewarded according to what we have done. 

“Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”
Ephesians 5:15-16



“I’m telling you it goes by fast. If you don’t give it your all you’re going to regret it.”  
~Kobe Bryant


If you want to know how to get on that road of following Christ, or have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment or email me by clicking on the post card to the right.  


 

 

Time to Pray Big

Posted on by Dorci

There are many faithful and trusted believers who have studied the scriptures and find that we may very well have just entered the last decade before Christ’s return.  No, no one knows the day or the hour, but the year?  Quite possibly. 

If that’s so (and even if it isn’t, none of us knows when we’ll be called home), we don’t have a minute to lose.  More than ever I want to pray.

Now, I’ve never been a big thinker. I think in small details. Up close and personal. Which is great on one hand, but on the other, my small thinking can cause me to have a hard time praying big.

 

God-sized.

 

There have been times I’ve dared to step out to think and pray big, and many times there’s been someone right there, ready to tell me how ridiculous that is. That I’m just an idealist, a dreamer, living in a fantasy. 

There will always be those. But those are not thoughts from the Almighty God who created a universe, heals the sick, brings bodies back from the dead, forgives sins, redeems a people, indwells souls, and creates a future, eternal home for us.

Ours is a God who does miracles.

I recently asked God again to help me think and pray big, to not limit Him and what He may want to do in and through my prayers.

Of course, being the faithful God He is, He’s already given me some understanding about praying big, limitless prayers. You know, since we have a big and limitless God.

A couple of days after that I ran across this video again.  A friend sent it a few months ago, and the Lord brought it to my attention again, at just the right time. 

This is the story of Rhonwyn Kendrick. She’s the mom of Stephen and Alex Kendrick who have given us movies like Courageous, War Room, and Overcomer. Her sons understand the power of prayer because she is a woman who prays big. Watching her story again, especially right after my prayer for bigger prayers, encouraged me and cemented my resolve to think and pray big. I hope it encourages you to let God out of that box and pray big, enormous, God-sized prayers. To pray bigger than our own minds can comprehend on their own. To pray in the Spirit, in God’s big, amazing, ridiculous, nothing-is-impossible will.  

To pray with faith, and with hope.  

I can’t wait to see what He’s going to do this year. 

 

 

“Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in Him and He will do this:
He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
    your vindication like the noonday sun.”

Psalm 37:5-6

Heavenly Father, help us to let you out of the box in our minds. To throw the box away. Holy Spirit, help us to pray big and mighty prayers for our families, our neighbors, our churches, our country, and our world.  May we be known as a praying people, who pray to a big and mighty God. May your will be done in and through us. Help us redeem the time, O Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen. 

 

 

Are We Really Living a Christian Life?

Posted on by Dorci

I am so blessed to be able to sit in church on Sunday and worship the Lord with some beautifully composed music and be fed by pastors who love the Lord greatly and study hard to bring us Bible-based sound teaching. During the week there’s a Bible study and home groups. My social media page is full of pastors and messages that remind me about God’s truths. I have at least 15 Bibles in several translations, and more faith-based books than I will probably ever be able to finish.  On the internet I have access to teachings from some of the most gifted pastors and teachers from all over the world, countless commentaries, uplifting Christian music…

And I wonder how many other people are doing the very same thing Sunday after Sunday, week after week.

We are deluged with messages from and for believers of every type, for every situation, every level of faith, and every age.

So why does the church, at least here in America, seem more anemic and ineffective than ever?

Why do we live our lives largely indistinguishable from the world?

Why do we get up in the morning and still feel like we’re being sucked under the trials of life, wondering where the joy is we’re supposed to be experiencing? Why we’re not feeling like an overcomer? Why we aren’t living that life Jesus talked about when He said:

“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly”
(John 10:10)

That question has a lot of answers, but I want to tackle just one right now.  Could it be the thief is still working hard to steal, kill, and destroy as much of that abundant life as he can, and maybe he’s using busyness, even “Christian” busyness, to do it?

Could it be that we have so much all around us that we are kidding ourselves into thinking we’re living a Christian life that would lead to abundance without really living it?

Maybe all the doing – sitting in a seat on Sundays, singing along, having a Bible (and maybe even opening up from time to time), maybe listening to a Christian song every now and then or even reading a faith-based book, is causing us to think we’re accomplishing something.

But maybe all it’s become, if done in the flesh, in our own strength, is nothing more than a rote religion, or just another sort of self-help.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…”
(Galatians 5:22)

Jesus came to give us life, and when He went back to the Father He gave us His Holy Spirit to bring about the abundant life we desire and Christ died to give us.

All those things – the teachings, the worship (the music is not a warm-up concert for the pastor!), the studies, the reading, are all meant to draw us closer to Jesus as we walk through them with the Holy Spirit. He is the power in our lives. He will bring about the abundant life we all so desperately want.

We’re on a journey with Him to know God and love Him more, to grow in faith, not to just put in our time on Sunday morning. Walking with Him is not just part of our life, it IS our life.

God desires to do so much in our hearts, our minds, and in and through our lives, and He wants us to partner with Him – to seek Him, to know Him, to love Him – as we do those things.

Do we pray before going to church, asking and fully expecting to hear from God, to receive from Him what He wants to say to us? Do we use the time we sing together to truly worship the Lord, to enter into the throne room of God and praise and exalt Him and let Him prepare our hearts for His message? Do we pray for our pastors during the week, that He will speak to them as they prepare the teaching, and that He will speak through them on Sunday morning? Do we pray before reading God’s Word or other books, or before listening to teachings online?

Do we pray without ceasing, inviting the Holy Spirit to speak to us and change us through those things?

Are we, the branches, clinging to the Vine, allowing Him to use all those things as nourishment for our souls, bringing its fruit in His time?

What all those things are meant to do, what they should do, is draw us closer to Jesus, reminding us of His love and grace and mercy so that we will continue reaching out to Him, reading and studying His Word and praying, inviting Him into every aspect of our lives. Inviting Him to leave no sin-stone unturned in the sanctifying of our souls. Inviting Him into every bit of suffering, every attitude, every decision, every joy.

Oh Church, we must leave the dead religion behind and get back to a living, breathing relationship with the One who died to bring us abundant life – to mold us into His image, to bring about the godly treasures we could never find in the world if we looked forever, and to be a light to the world.

Can you imagine if we invited the power of God into our lives every single day? If we let the Holy Spirit continually have His way in and through us?

If He changed the world with 12 men, what could He do with a nation full of Spirit-filled, God-fearing, mercy-loving believers?

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
(Ephesians 3:20-21)

.

Heavenly Father, thank you for not only giving us your Holy Spirit to be with us, but to indwell us.  He is an amazing gift and we are so grateful. Help us to always walk in the Spirit, to breathe and live and grow and speak in the Spirit. Help us to cling to you through Him so that He might produce the fruit and gifts in our hearts and lives that you desire so that we, as your church, your kingdom, can be effective witnesses and bright lights to the world around us that’s so dark and seems to get darker every day. Help us to have wisdom and discernment to know how to live in this world, but not to be of it.  Help us to glorify and magnify the name of Jesus.  It’s in His precious name we pray, amen. 

Not a 9-5 Job

Posted on by Dorci

Pastors only work a couple of hours on Sundays, right?  Maybe a couple more if there’s a midweek study?  Well, not quite.

Not even close.

Besides spending time in prayer, studying God’s Word and preparing the teachings, pastors oversee all the church staff, each ministry, all the events, manage the church building maintenance, allocate church finances, counsel hurting people, resolve disputes (at least try!), perform weddings and funerals, and I’m sure a lot of other things that we don’t even know about.

And they do it all while also managing their own household, marriage, children, all with the same challenges we all have.

And it’s not only what they do, but how God calls them to do it – with all love, grace, mercy, humility, wisdom, patience, and stewardship.

In his first letter to Timothy (third chapter), Paul says, “Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full respect.  (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.”

And speaking of the devil, make no mistake, pastoring a flock is a front lines position. Pastors, and their families, are particularly open to spiritual attacks.

This is not a job, but a calling they pour their hearts into, day in and day out, 24/7, and pastor burnout is not uncommon.

That’s where we come in. 

“Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to appreciate those who diligently work among you [recognize, acknowledge, and respect your leaders], who are in charge over you in the Lord and who give you instruction, and [we ask that you appreciate them and] hold them in the highest esteem in love because of their work [on your behalf].”
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 AMP

Every Sunday we walk in and sit down, taking for granted that someone has laid down his life in service to the Lord and to us, to feed us, to train us, to care for us as the Lord would have him do.  Showing our appreciation is the very least we can do to serve them back, to encourage them, to let them know their service is not in vain, but is making a difference in our lives.

Of course that can be done any time of the year, but to come together in October to corporately show our appreciation during Pastor Appreciation Month is a way we can stand together with our pastors, and their families, as one in the Lord.

Thank you, pastors!

 

Heavenly Father, we lift up our pastors to you and ask that you would fill them up with your Spirit, and renew their hearts with the love, wisdom, and encouragement they need to continue faithfully in the service you’ve called them to.  We pray you would strengthen their marriages and protect their families from the enemy.  Help us to never take for granted all they do, and remind us to pray for them, this month and always.  In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

 

 

How God Can Put Together the Broken Pieces of Our Heart

Posted on by Dorci

Last weekend our church had the distinct privilege of hearing this man give a little bit of his testimony about what happened on the day this photo was taken and afterward.  You might be familiar with this image of Chris Fields and Miss Baylee Almon that was taken, unbeknownst to him, on April 19, 1995, the day of the Oklahoma City bombing.

He described a little bit about that horrific, rainy day that would end the lives of 168 people, 19 of them children, and injured more than 500.  How rows of first responders dug their way through rubble, 5 gallon buckets at a time, passing each one behind him or her until late into the night, looking for people, dead or alive.  How they had to try to match body parts to the rest of the body. How they came across a woman, barely alive, and were able to get her to safety, only to learn later that she and her unborn baby didn’t survive.

And how another firefighter handed Miss Baylee (the name her family called her) to him for a few moments while he went to find something to lay down so they wouldn’t have to lay someone’s precious child directly on the ground. Even how the Pulitzer Prize winning photo itself caused a lot of grief and controversy.

Chris struggled hard to deal with all that had happened.  Sometime later, when the smell of wet cement triggered a flashback of that day, he began to realize just how much the events were affecting him.

Chris talked about the fact that his mom had always been the family’s prayer warrior, and she told him God had a plan for him.  But Chris didn’t see it, and he decided to make his own plan, and he moved away from his wife and young sons.

Chris’s wife, Cheryl, talked about the fact that she didn’t grow up in a Christian family like Chris had.  Still, when her husband left, she turned to the Bible. People encouraged her to read the Psalms, and when she didn’t understand something, she called Chris to explain. And she began to pray.

She didn’t try putting on pretenses with God. She was honest. She prayed that if Chris wasn’t coming back, the Lord would take away her love for him.

Some people might not dare pray a prayer like that. Some people might just get mad at God and not pray at all.  And they might miss out on all God wants to do in their lives because of it.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:28-29

Cheryl kept praying, and never once did God turn her away for praying that prayer. On the contrary. Sitting in the presence of God, over and over, allowed God to work in her heart. Of course, God didn’t take away her love for Chris. He strengthened it.

God filled Cheryl with His amazing grace. And when Chris called one day about a year and a half after he’d left, Cheryl said, “Come home.”

And he did.

I’m sure the road since hasn’t been easy. There’s been counseling, and Chris still gets emotional talking about it. But with God they’ve persevered.

Since then Chris and Cheryl have spoken to many groups about PTSD, and about the hope that God gives. Looks like Chris’s mom was right (as moms often are).

The enemy does not have the last word. he will not have the last word as long as we sit with God and pour out our hearts to Him. He will never turn away someone who’s genuinely seeking Him, no matter what the prayer.

God’s not one bit surprised at the thoughts we have. He knows our hearts better than we do and already knows the thoughts we have. He just wants us to be honest, and know we can go to Him with anything. He’s our loving Father, and He wants us to know that no matter how broken our hearts are, if we’ll offer up those pieces to Him in prayer, He can put them together even better than they were before. If we abide in Him – cling to Him – through the good, the bad, and the ugly, He can fill us with His love and grace and mercy, fulfill His plans for us, and set us on a path we never dreamed possible.

 

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for all you do.  Thank you for loving us through everything, for giving us your strength and courage as we go through trials.  Help us to give you our hearts, no matter how dark they seem or how many pieces they’re in, so you can heal them and fill them with your light. Help us to daily abide in Christ. Help us hold onto Him, to pray without ceasing, no matter what. Make us more than conquerors, Lord, and we pray that you have the last, victorious, glorious word in our hearts and in our lives. In Jesus’ name, amen.