by Stacey | Aug 29, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
My niece just moved in with our family. Here she is unpacking her life.
She had dedicated the next year to her studies. She is spending the next year learning. Learning her craft. Preparing for the future.
When was the last time that I spent a huge block of time solely dedicated to learning? Learning what’s important? Preparing myself for eternity?
What am I learning?
Right here, right now God is teaching me about grace. I am learning about forgiveness. I am learning that things are not always black and white.
I’m learning I don’t need all the answers, I just need to trust God has them and that He’s got my back. That leads to my next lesson. I’m learning about trust.
I’m learning that motherhood is both the most important and hardest role I’ll ever have. And that leads me back to grace.
Did I mention I am learning more about grace?
I’m learning I’m wrong far more than I like to admit. I’m learning that attitude counts for a lot. I’m learning more about the hugeness of my sin and the constant battle between my own sinful nature and the Holy Spirit.
I’m learning I have a lot to learn.
Just when I think I have a handle on it all, God peels back another layer and I see my smallness in contrast to His greatness with fresh eyes again.
I’m learning that I have barely scratched the surface of who God is and what His plan is for my life.
I’m learning even more about grace.
What are you learning?
by Stacey | Aug 8, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
When God asked Kevin and I to leave our comfortable and happy home in St Catharines and follow Him into the great unknown, I felt fear.
Not fear about the actual move, because God had spent the past year preparing me for this moment of obedience. But fear of lost friendships. Of being misunderstood. Of making a mess of what had been a beautiful place to worship and serve.
I had hoped that when we announced God’s plan to use us in a church plant in a new city, that our friends would do more than accept the change. I desired their support. I had hoped that our departure would feel less like us leaving, and more like them sending. Them sending us out with their blessing to further the work of God’s kingdom.
But was it naive to hope a congregation could send away their pastor and family with this sentiment?
Last Sunday we stood on the platform at our final service with our Orchard Park family. We were surrounded by friends. Some smiling. Some tearful. All supportive.
Then, one of our elders spoke words that brought instant tears to my eyes (tears that flowed steady for the next hour or so!). He referred to Orchard Park Bible Church as our sending church. He called for a committment from the people to pray for us now, and in the future months, for the adventure that awaits. He requested updates from us so they can pray specifically, and offered wonderful words of encouragement. He sent us with their support, their blessing, and their love.
He has no idea what his words meant. He has no idea that those exact words were words that I prayed to hear. Well, maybe he will if some of you reading this tell him 🙂
God is good. Oh, so good. We didn’t leave, we were sent. That little word makes all the difference in the world.
Sent with a blessing.
Sent with support.
Sent in love.
Thank you, Orchard Park, for letting God use you to answer my prayer as we obeyed His command to go.
by Stacey | Jul 25, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
Sometimes life overwhelms. All appears lost. Evil thrives. The tragic and hopeless state of our fallen world weighs down my heavy heart.
Lifestyle addictions, relationship issues, work problems, and illness. I long to offer comfort – to be comforted. But how? Even when I am trusted enough to be welcomed into a friend’s pain, I come up empty.
Anything I can say sounds like a weak platitude.
Then I remember.
I am not the deliverer. I need only to direct others to the Deliverer, to remind myself where I find deliverance.
I can sit beside them and hold their hand. I can intercede on their behalf. I can share my tears and cover them in prayer. That is my place, words of prayer not platitudes.
I pray the Word of God will comfort them and I allow the Word of God to comfort me. I ask for wisdom from God, given through the Holy Spirit, so we can walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. I pray our lives will be fully pleasing to God, ever productive, and in a state of continual learning. I ask for God’s power to live such a life and for patience, endurance, and joy.
I give thanks to God for delivering us from darkness and for transferring us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. It is in Christ that we find redemption and forgiveness. In Christ alone, there is victory. In Christ alone. (Col 1:9-14)
Even when I have nothing, I have everything. Filled with the fullness of God. Overflowing in His love. Trusting in His plan.
This is my prayer, for me and for you.
by Stacey | Jul 18, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
How do I leave the place where I am loved, safe, and accepted?
How do I leave my home, friends like family, and all that is familiar?
How do I leave knowing that not everyplace is as accepting, loving, and encouraging as this one has been?
Because God calls.
The only thing scarier than the unknown, is willfully disobeying God. If I stamp my feet and refuse to move when God commands, I risk losing His blessing. If I defiantly remain in the comfortable, it will become uncomfortable. Because if God can no longer bless me here, if He removes Himself from my presence because I demanded my own way, all that was good is tainted and destroyed.
I do not long to go, but I will.
I did not ask to go, but He asked me to go.
I do not know what awaits, but I remember what has been.
I remember His blessings. I remember how He has carried me though other transitions. I remember how He has provided above and beyond my wildest dreams, not how I expected, but exactly what I needed. Always.
I will remember and believe.
My God is the same God He was yesterday when I cried leaving Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and all that was familiar. He is the same God today, as I prepare to leave St Catharines, and all that makes this place home. He will be the same God tomorrow when He plants us in a new community to love. He never leaves, nor forsakes His children.
I can go, because He goes before me.
by Stacey | Jul 4, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
The crowd in Capernaum surrounded Jesus. Some people knew Him, some didn’t. Some, like his close friends, knew him well; others were simply curious, enjoying the excitement in the air. But one person in this crowd, a woman, used the swarms of people to hide. She knew enough about Jesus to believe that one touch from Him could provide her relief from years of suffering.
Luke 8: 43-48
43 And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. 44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. 45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!” 46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.” 47 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed. 48 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
This woman had spent the last twelve years of her life, (and quite possibly her bank account), pursuing a cure for her ailment. Yet, she continued to suffer. She had tried everything, everything but Jesus.
She likely fought a crushing crowd to see Jesus. She might have heard about his previous miracles. Who knows? No matter what drove her to reach out to Christ that day, she believed if she could simply touch the edge of His clothing she would be healed. It is on that belief that she joined the multitudes surrounding Jesus.
I love verse 44, where she reaches out and touches the fringe on Jesus’ robe and immediately the blood that had flowed for twelve constant years dries up and she is healed.
Immediately. Oh we serve a wonderful Savior!
What happens next makes me laugh. Jesus asks, “Who touched me?”
Jesus already knew the woman who had touched Him. He knew her as intimately as He knows you and me. I think he asked who touched him in order to share publicly what had transpired in secret. His disciples respond in puzzlement. They likely scanned the throngs of people surrounding them scratching their heads. “Many people are touching you,” they said.
Many people were touching Jesus, but only one reached out with intention. Only one reached out in faith. This was the touch Jesus acknowledged. Every time a person reaches out to Jesus in faith he acknowledges the action. Every time.
She comes before Him trembling, falling at His feet and thanking him for her cure. She openly declares that one touch had cured what twelve years of doctors could not. By recognizing her publicly Jesus declares that this unclean woman was now clean. He was not limited or intimated by the Old Testament laws prohibiting this touch. He touched her and allowed her to go, healed, whole and clean.
Ladies, where are you? Have you reached out with intent? Do you stretch out your arm yearning for close and personal contact with Jesus? Or are you in the surging crowd, excited to be close to Him but carrying no real desire to connect on an intimate level?
Jesus response shows us that he desires more from his daughters than a general knowledge of His capabilities. He wants to draw us out from the concealing crowd. He wants us to stand before Him and say, “I believe.” He wants us to know Him, intimately and completely. He wants to look upon us with tenderness, call us HIS daughter, and whisper those precious words: Your faith has made you well.
by Stacey | Jun 27, 2013 | Devotionals, reflections, and encouragement
When I give a command to my children I expect an immediate response. Sometimes the command is given to protect them, like the time I shouted, “STOP!” and Nick hit the brakes before dashing in front a car. Immediate obedience.
Read Mark 1:16-45 and take note of how many times the word immediately is used.
Seven times.
Seven times urgency is conveyed. Instant action.
If God does not hesitate to act and Jesus does not hesitate to act, why do I? I should never hesitate to turn from whatever I am following and follow God’s instant command.
I cannot trust a heritage of faith to accomplish anything on my behalf. I must follow God. I must respond.
Me.
No one can do it for me.
Lord, may I respond immediately to the call you place on my life. May I live generously, honestly, and with contentment. May I never rest on yesterday’s accomplishments, but live for you every day.
