Exclusive Loyalty

We all know what happened to Lot's wife...

We cannot proclaim to be Christians and then continue to live a life that is dictated by the world and the "somewhats" of it; being a true, born-again believer in Jesus Christ means putting off our old self and putting on the new, whose first Love and only Master is Jesus Christ who we say we believe in.

We cannot serve two masters, and the world is in a dedicated battle to sway our allegiance- we must be MORE dedicated to Jesus than the world is to distracting us from Him. And that will take discipline, prayer, sold-out faith, a set apart lifestyle, tuning our hearts to sing HIS praise, and taking our thoughts captive in order to cultivate HIS mind within us.

Who are you serving today?

Who do your actions, words, and thought patterns indicate you are serving today?

Be willing to take a personal inventory and acknowledge what areas of your life may need to be adjusted, surrendered, or rededicated.

We can never come to Jesus - humbly and repentant and willing to be taught - enough.

His arms are always open.

Fix your eyes on Him, exclusively.

Wonderland

to me, wonderland is symbolic of this place of where we find our courage, debunk our fears with reality, and encourage others along the way.

unlike Alice- and blessedly- I know where I'm going at the end of the story, and Jesus is in charge and calls the shots in each chapter rather than an aggressively unstable face card.

"The Thing"

Our time here is temporary, friends!

What are you giving your time and energy to? Does it further the Great Commission? Does it point others to Jesus? Does it promote truth and holiness?

We are equipped to make a difference in the lives of others for the Gospel, but we have to surrender to do it...

Let's not waste our precious, fleeting moments on empty things that serve only ourselves.

Revolutionary Empathy

Being for someone should never look like justification or simply wanting that person to feel comfortable and 100% happy all the time. (Jesus came that we might have life- abundantly- He never promised happiness. Life is not always happy, but He offers His peace and joy even when it's not.)

Being for someone looks like exhortation, encouragement, challenging their strengths and weaknesses, dealing out hard truth where they may want sugarcoated validation...

True- revolutionary- empathy won't just stop at empathy. 

You, as the empathetic connection, need to then offer up -from a place of championship and love- your bigger picture perspective; don't just enter someone's box of feeling and leave them there...come in with intentional purpose to better understand how to help lead them from it to a place of fresh perspective and growth.

Radical Inferno

Be willing to stand up, speak up, and do the right thing first. 

Don't wait for someone else to; chances are they are waiting for the same thing.

Be willing to start the domino effect by gently revolutionizing your circle of influence.

Now I Belong to Jesus

The world is loud, folks...

What popular, maybe well-meaning voices are you allowing to subtly replace the working of the Holy Spirit through His Word in your life?

Our lives belong to Jesus, therefore He gets to call the shots. And we will be much better off for letting Him.

Bookish

I bought this book embosser years ago and I love the personal touch it adds to my collection.

It also helps when loaning books out, to have your seal of ownership in there. ;)

Do you have a favourite bookish item, tool, or decor piece?

And if you enjoy classic literature and a whimsy story, I recommend "The Enchanted April", by Arnim. A simple premise and flow, but an incredible depth of character development. Simultaneously fascinating and quaint.

Defy the Culture

It's time for us to defy the over-educated voices of society that say we can't overcome our anxiety/fear/weakness/addiction/you name it; to stop leaning on the crutches offered by the culture we live in -after it convinces us we're crippled in the first place- so it can hold us back from running towards our full potential and accomplishing great things for God without fear.

Confront your behaviour.

Take captive your thoughts.

Dwell on truth and replace those voices of society with ones that have gone before you on this journey to live free of these earthly hindrances.

Discipline.

Discipline.

Discipline.

All Mad Here

Your life is making and will make a difference...for better or worse.

What kind of difference are you cultivating, friend?

Everyday Joys

Hello!

I hope this week holds many tiny joys for you and that you take the time to notice them rather than complain that they didn't come in bigger sizes. If you can't appreciate the little ones, the big one's will never be big enough.

 

"I’m beginning to recognize that real happiness isn’t something large and looming on the horizon ahead but something small, numerous and already here."

-Beau Taplin, Everyday Joys-

Transforming Call

"To ask that God's love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God: because He is what He is, His love must, in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled by certain stains in our present character, and because He already loves us He must labour to make us lovable."

-C. S. Lewis-

Come to Jesus with your heart and hands open for what He has prepared you for...let go of things that may look good but are not His will; because for you, what is not His tailor-made-will is not good, and what does not always look appealing may be His tailor-made-will.

Paul and Barnabas splitting up their ministries for a time after their disagreement over John Mark doesn't look or feel right when we read it, but Barnabas' one-on-one mentor-ship was just what the younger man needed to grow spiritually, and Paul and Silas embarked on the first missions trip taking the gospel to Europe, where the people thirsted for Jesus' love.

Lay down what is "comfortable" and allow the Lord to transform you in the rightness of your calling.

Peace in the Storm

How are you holding up, Revolutionary?

Are you keeping your eyes fixed on truth?...

Are you confronting the subtle agendas of the culture with the powerful promises of God?...

Are you letting joy host the occasion of your life, and turning doubt and worry away at the door?...

When we intentionally - with discipline - take these steps until they become our habitual responses to whatever storms life throws at us, peace will prevail and settle over us like an umbrella held out by Jesus' loving and provident hand.

Fluent Like-It-Is

C. S. Lewis nails it again, speaking fluent Like-it-is.

Don't let our society distract you with a "bigger cause/issue" - that serves no purpose for eternity - from the very time-sensitive business of settling your own personal standing with eternity.

Are you getting caught up in a momentary war with things of the world, and allowing the enemy to gain ground in his own battle to keep your soul from repentance before its too late?

We have to think about these things...we must keep our lifespan in perspective.

The culture doesn't want you to think about it; the culture wants to offer you a crutch that alleviates your God-designed guilt - conviction towards salvation - by manufacturing a never-ending variety of collective guilt complexes that make us look and feel good when we apologize for things but makes no significant change, in your life or others, truly.

We have to realize that absolutely everything of importance will be toward eternity, and anything that will cease to matter when the world as we know it ends is not- cannot be- our main priority.

Wake up, Revolutionary.

Throw down that crutch- even if it brings you to your knees. That's where real change begins.

Radical Obedience

"One can imagine a sentient picture, after being rubbed and scraped and recommenced for the tenth time, wishing that it where only a thumbnail sketch whose making was over in a minute. In the same way, it is natural for us to wish that God designed for us a less glorious and less arduous destiny; but then we are wishing not for more love but for less."

-C. S. Lewis

Suffer Well

Reminder for my fellow Revolutionaries...

We were never promised a pain-free life, rather we were promised in God's Word that in this world we would suffer (how good of Him to prepare us)...

Are we suffering as Christ exemplified suffering?

With patience?...

Endurance?...

Faith?...

Peace in knowing it holds a purpose, though we may not grasp the whole of it?

Joy in the small way we get to relate with our Lord and Saviour, as we go through for Him what He went through- and radically more so -for us?

Revolutionary, though it is odd and sometimes even difficult to say, may we suffer well.

Truth is No Fair-weather Friend

"Of this I am quite sure, that if we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future."

-Winston Churchill-

We ought to be fully present in each moment as they progress, intentionally continuing on in the purpose laid before us, looking ever upwards and inwards (not selfishly, but introspectively- at our heart of hearts) to ensure that we are still in God's will and fellowship with Him...we should not become held back by how things were- whether good, bad, fair, unfair- it should be left as it is (and cannot be changed), thanking God for all He has done and brought us through, and pay attention to what He is doing now, striving to always do what is right and make a difference for Him in the time we have been given, now.

Don't let the world cloud your view of weatherproof truth.

Fight the Good Fight

I would add, that to be only who God wants you to be...which is basically the same thing...who He designed you to be is who you will always be meant to be, and to live a life that doesn't follow His plan for you is to live a life that isn't meant to be lived by you; to live any life but that which God has designed for you from the beginning is to live in rebellion, and can explain many of our thought disorders and even some physical consequences...you will be restless and have no lasting peace until you embrace the calling God has written into your identity: to know Him and follow Him and use the gifts and talents He has blessed you with for Him, serving and walking in truth. The world does not want us to know peace- truly- for as long as it can keep us restless it can play on our search for stability and fulfillment, offering us temporary fixes that look like peace and subdue us for a moment, but eventually destroy us as it subtly conforms us.

To be yourself- your God-designed self- in a world that would lure you to be a product of the culture, this indeed is one of the greatest battles we face as we follow Jesus.

"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." 

-John 16:33-

Our Infirmity Identified

Psalm 77 (emphasis vs 10)

THIS is my infirmity...

Getting my eyes off of all God HAS done and IS doing in my life as well as all back through time...focusing on my current circumstances and allowing doubts and anxious thoughts to creep in and take root...

We must remember what the LORD has done...we must think and meditate on all His wondrous works. We must discipline our thinking and take our thoughts to task; when we allow our minds to entertain unwelcome and untrue thoughts, they will create disorder and your mess will get messier.

Nothing the world offers you will take care of the problem that has begun in your mind- you must refocus on God's promises and His word and start exchanging all your doubts and worries for truth.

I'm thankful that in my momentary weaknesses, God's wonders and promises are eternal.

My Feelings Are Not God

Faith over feelings.

Reality over fantasy.

Smart over gullible.

Assurance over uncertainty.

Challenge over justify.

Revolutionize over victimize.

Set apart over conformity.

"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John 17:17

Turn the World Upside Down

"...they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also." 

-Acts 17:6-

Turning the world upside down looks like choosing to follow and serve Jesus in the daily mundane when the world says to follow your heart and serve yourself.

People are rarely comfortable when making the biggest, most effective difference...

Please the Lord, even when it's uncomfortable...

Deny yourself, even when it's less convenient...

Trust His promises over your feelings, even- especially- when you are overwhelmed and your feelings are louder...discipline your mind...

Speak up (with the truth), even when it's sure to invite criticism...

Be still and watch God work, when the culture tells you to do it all on your own...

Lovingly, deliberately, faithfully choose "less of me, more of Him", and watch your surroundings and circumstances turn upside down as you reap His blessings in place of the world's crutches.

A Power Greater Than This World

 "Excellence isn't something to strive for so that people will notice, but so that our lives will reflect God's character."

-Michael Phillips-

Benefits of Affliction

"I would go to the deeps a hundred times to cheer a downcast spirit. It is good for me to have been afflicted, that I might know how to speak a word in season to one that is weary."

-Charles Spurgeon-

May we grow through our personal trials rather than despair because of them, and may we see and celebrate the gifts that God has placed within them rather than turn our focus inward and see only our uncomfortable feelings. 

These gifts are the tools with which we can connect with, relate to, help, encourage, understand, challenge, coach, and exhort others.

Don't allow them to be buried in the fad of self-victimization.

Surrender>Perfection

It was never meant to be about what we can do and be, but what God can do and make of us when we give ourselves up and relinquish all control to Him.

Less of me, more of Him. Always.

Reflect His Love

We were sent the Son, so that- as children with earthly fathers- we might understand how He came to show us the way back to His Father.

Each experience in and aspect of our lives are deliberately allowed and orchestrated by the Creator of the universe, to reflect His love for us and His desire to be our Father, too.

Display God's Splendor

Our testimonies are like sunsets, displaying God's splendor.

The beauty of redemption, the awesomeness of His sacrifice, and the vastness of His love should blow our minds and bring us to our knees in humility.

It is HIS life that matters and should be our anthem; without His life, there would be none.

Oh, To Be Like Thee

Willing...

Surrendered...

Set apart...

Resting in truth,

Confident in the Father's promises.

Oh, to be more like Jesus,

Each day.

Begin

Take the first step!

Share the first thought.

Write the first word.

Sing the first note.

Paint the first stroke.

Meet the first need.

When you start using your God-given gifts and abilities, and intentionally giving God the glory for what He will do with them, you will find each next step revealed as you need it, and your life filled with meaning as you do what He has called you to do.

I Surrender All

 "I knew I had to tell Him I was willing to serve Him wherever He wanted to place me...even right there where I was."

-Michael Phillips-

Unshackled

Anxiety(n): a feeling...

The battle is not against "anxiety", but against a world that offers every solution except taking our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ.

We need to shift our thinking, start disciplining ourselves, and challenging the culture.

Be mindful of the agenda lurking behind a pacifier from a source that doesn't even know your name, and turn instead to the final Word, written by Someone who loved you enough to die for you; Someone who calls you by name.

Scribbler: An Aesthetic

 twine and books ❤ ships & bottles ❤ wooden chests

Vulnerability: An Art

Who do you know that you can be vulnerable with? who you can be completely raw and open with and they will stay?

Don't take these true friends for granted.

Take a moment to appreciate and thank them.

To Spare the Bush...

"You'll never change the world by acting like it."

I refer to it as...the "conformity gospel". *finger quotations to emphasize how unrealistic it should sound*

To think you can reach people more effectively by conforming to or excusing their worldly lifestyle/appearance/language/habits/etc is so counter-productive and- here comes the sass- sounds more like an excuse to loosen up or validate a personal weakness if you ask me.

I'm not saying any of us are exempt from temptation and "holier-than-thou" thinking, or that we have to be hostile towards people where they're at...if either of those happened to be your first assumption of my point you may or may not be defensive. 😃 But we can be loving towards and even relate to others while still living not-conformed, (set apart, in the world but not of it) exhorting and challenging them into a more Christ-honouring mindset, which will in turn make a difference outward in their life.

You don't stand out when you are trying to blend in...just as Jesus will not be seen for the holy God He is if we present Him to the lost as one of their "buddies" who just wants them to feel good about themselves.