Lisa Cline's Blog, page 56

Wow! Great quote!

God does not look for perfection, He looks for obedience. ~ John Edmund Haggai

What signs does God give someone at 3 a.m.? This kind!

I woke up at three am, and while usually I wake up amidst Christian songs filling my head and good thought for my day, for whatever reason (maybe even for the purpose here) I woke up and the doubts started coming.

You know the doubts that come when you attempt to trust God against all odds. The doubts that say, “You know this will not work right?” “That you are going to look foolish in front of everyone you know?” “You know that you are going to do a disservice for Christ by showing those on the fence how you can get your hopes up and God will not be faithful to come through?” “You know that you are blowing it, big time….better to quite, hide, shrink back. Give up blogging and give up hope of ever going anywhere for God or doing anything great for Him…When it comes to having success….let’s face it you are just not the type!”  

Wow…so glad I do not wake up with these thought on a daily basis!

So anyway here I was….it was the middle of the night and the odds were stacked against me to have any kind of a great day…..but then my daughter heard me get up and wanted to remind me of something she called me (at 3 am) after talking with her I decided to check and see if there was any texts  (at 3 am), there was only one.

Before I tell you what I said you must know a few things

My name is Lisa
My friend works at night, at an apartment cabana, where she is there to give night visitors the packages that came in the day
She sent the text hours before I receive it

It said that a package came in from the United Kingdom for someone named Lisa.

Now while some may think that is not really a sign from God, keep in mind that it was three am, doubts were filling my head and I believe it was just His way of reminding me that He is in this! He is the orchestrator and perfecter of the plans that He has for my life and yours.

Every time along the way when I have needed a boost to my faith, there was a small sign to keep me believing that I was going in the right direction.

So while one little sign may be like a snowflake, you get enough of them and it is a blizzard that cannot be ignored.

God will let you know if the path you are on is the path He set before you…just look for the signs.

Live big for God

Attempt to do something so great for God, it’s doomed to failure unless God be in it! – Haggai’s laws

Why God wants us to appear foolish

I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13, NLT) 

People think I am crazy, that is no joke.

They think I am nuts to believe that God would be so good to me, that even though the odds are stacked far against me, that He would get me a job in England and give me money to move there.

But doesn’t the word say that it is our faith that moves mountains! It is not our “kind of-maybe-sometimes-a-little-bit-half-hearted-belief,” but our Faith!

What is faith?

The Bible says that “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” (Hebrews 11:1)

I have been assured by God that His will for me is England.

When God gives us a call on our life it is wise to give it back to God saying “I am believing that you are calling me to do this, at this time, if it is not you God then please redirect my steps.”

If He does not redirect our steps then He wants us to just have faith and believe.

He wants to open the doors for us to the miraculous so that other Christians will be amazed at what He has done and begin to trust Him to work in their life in a greater way.

God wants unbelievers to see our faith and hunger for God’s hand in their own life.

What is the radical thing is God calling you to believe for?

Have you given it back to God?

Have you stepped out in faith and shared with others?

If you are waiting to share about Gods goodness until “after” He makes “it” happen, then you will not have the “FAITH IMPACT” on others that you were supposed to have.

Jesus never told anyone “your kinda believing has made you whole” or “Never have I seen such great half-hearted belief.”

I believe that God wants us to look like fools, so that when He comes through people will notice!

Jesus is calling you out to the deep.

Believe Big and when God settles in your heart what to believe for, Share Bigger!!!

I have no idea what is in store for me there but I know that God’s plans for me are good.

As are His plans for you!!!

So believe your marriage will be restored!!!!

Believe that your sick child will be made whole!!!!

Believe that you will succeed in your business!!!!

And even believe that God will make a way and a life for me and my son in England!!!!

Remember…

We are call believers not watch-wait-and-seeers!”

Watch God and be amazed!!!!

 

Photoa © wetnose1 – Fotolia.com

Why I am standing here

 

“having done all … stand firm.”

(Ephesians 6:13)

God is faithful!!!!

If I go to my grave never having grasped anything of real importance, I know that I know this, God is faithful, steadfast and true!!!!!

Right now I feel a bit like the Israelite’s who have been lead out of slavery, but have their captors giving chase and have been lead to what looks like their certain doom by a God who says He loves them.

They are facing the Red Sea with the Egyptians getting closer by the second thinking, “this is where we die.” They have no idea the AMAZING thing that God is about to do. The path that He is about to make open up before them.

Likewise, I have followed God to this place. He told me to give notice to my landlord, He told me to leave my job, He told me to prepare for England, and what jobs to Apply to, He even told me to start this blog and share about His faithfulness.. I have the Egyptians at my back, getting ever closer and I have an ocean before me which cannot be crossed without a miracle from God.

So I will Stand!!!

I will dig in my heals and believe and declare LOUDLY that God, MY GOD, is faithful!!!

That God is trustworthy!!!

Sit back and watch and be amazed as He parts the red sea in my life. And Believe Him to do the same in yours.

Photo = © G.NICOLSON – Fotolia.com

I never thought this would happen at work, but I am glad it did!

 

It always amazes me when I hear people say that they think being a Christian would be boring. I have found it to always be just the opposite. I never know what God is going to do in my life. But I know whatever it is it will be good for me.

Take for instance what happened a few days ago at work. I was ringing up/talking to a very nice woman. A few second later her husband came to the counter and she went to look at something. He introduced himself and said he was a Pastor.

When he said so, I immediately felt Gods great urging to tell him that I have been called to England.

He looked me in the eye and said “I am going to pray for you before I leave the store.” I sensed God was behind that statement.

Long story short, he and his wife did pray for me and it was powerful.

The power was not in their words but in the complete and utter presence of God that fell on the entire store as the words came out. I felt as if I was scrubbed clean from the inside out and did know that through their prayer God was working to get me where I need to be.

I know that God had called me to consecrate myself to Him and His will for my life. I am not sure all the words the Pastor prayed but I am sure that God sent them there that day. I believe God shut doors that needed shutting and opened doors that needed opening through that prayer.

I am so absolutely clueless as to how God will put together the rest of the puzzle pieces to get me to England, but I know that He will do it because He knows what I need, even when I don’t.

And God knows what you need and will give it to you at the appointed time. You don’t need to figure out how the pieces will fit, for God it the one building your puzzle, and when He is done it’s going to be something to behold.

Photo © xxxx_3D – Fotolia.com

God wants you to die

Sometimes we are waiting on God to do something amazing in our lives while He is first waiting on us to die to self and let go of that thing that we have been holding on to for far too long.

As Mark Batterson says, “God cannot resurrect what has not died, and that is why so many people are half alive. They haven’t died to self yet.”

For someone reading this God is saying “the time is now, let go and trust me.”

 

Great quote

You can have faith  or you can have control,

but you cant have both.

~Joel Schmidgall

Put this on your wall to be blessed!

 
 
“From now on, you go and listen to what GOD, our God, says and then tell us what GOD tells you. We’ll listen and we’ll do it.”
GOD heard what you said to me and told me, “I’ve heard what the people said to you. They’re right—good and true words. What I wouldn’t give if they’d always feel this way, continuing to revere me and always keep all my commands; they’d have a good life forever, they and their children!  – Deut 5:27-29

 As I read this I could not help but weep for two reasons

I wept because I felt Gods broken heart
I wept because of our lost potential

          I wept because I felt Gods broken heart

There is no denying it, God has given me a heart that is tender for Him. I often weep when I am reading scripture and see how much He loves us and how much He has been “long-suffering.”

When I read, I am not fooled into thinking that it was only “they” those who lives in Biblical times, that pained my God’s heart, no, I realize that far too often it is I that have caused Him to suffer.

We all have.

Far too often we get lulled into focusing on “the world” around us, which causes us to lose track of the fact that God has a heart that aches for us, a heart that is saddened when we forget Him or deliberately turn our backs on Him.

Yes, God is strong enough to “take it,” yes, God will forgive us when we “give it,” and we all have times (especially as baby Christians) when wrestling with God is something we need to do, if only to realize that He will still love us when we come out the other side, but in every-day, regular life, we need to be a people who care about hurting God.

We need to love God more than anything else and put Him first in all we do….which leads to why

          I wept because of our lost potential

My heart breaks over how much time I have wasted. God says that if we just keep our eyes on Him that He would give us a good life.

Now, that God life will look different for each person (in other words it’s not all about money), however, I know, that I know, that I know, that God’s heart for us is that He wants to love and be loved by us and in that, wants to bless us. But just not randomly, He wants to bless our socks off.

While some people do not believe that I do.

God is love, and all good things come from him.

God gave us the ultimate gift already, Jesus, He is a giver.

Plus it has always been my experience that as God blesses others I notice.

And as God blesses me people notice.  People who love God, and people who do not.

Why wouldn’t God want to get “the worlds” attention by showing how wonderful a father He is, by always providing for all our needs, and by giving us many blessings that we do not deserve?

Yet, I along with others of my faith, our faith, have wasted precious time by going my own way, by aligning my heart with a desire instead of with God.

As a result others that needed to see His goodness, did not.

Now I am not sure exactly what percentage of part I play in God’s orchestration of bringing others to Him but even if I was 1% of the equation, I am grieved that I made it 1% harder for someone to come to Christ.

I am going print and post Deuteronomy 5:27-29 to remind myself what is important, to remind myself that as Jesus said I am to love God and then I am to love others. Care to join me?

~~~~~~~~~~~

Photo © Jiri Hera – Fotolia.com

Eugene H. Peterson, The Message: The Bible in Contemporary Language (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2005), Dt 5:27–29.

Best defense = Good offense

 
“But GOD told me, “Tell them, ‘Don’t do it; don’t go up to fight—I’m not with you in this. Your enemies will waste you.’ ”” (Deuteronomy 1:42, The Message)

Trusting God is more than just believing He will bring us through a hard time, or bring us our next blessing, Trusting God with all that we are means that before we make those important decisions that we ask God what He thinks about it first.

How many times do we say, “Man I wish I would have known what I know now to help me make that decision?”

Well you can (somewhat). If you bring it before God, He will not let you do anything outside of His perfect will for you. And no matter what that looks like, it will ultimately be good as He is good and loves you so very much!”

Photo © igor – Fotolia.com