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My husband and I have had a heart for missions for a very long time. Jimbo went on his first foreign mission trip almost 20 years ago when he was blessed to be able to spend a month in the Philippines serving the Lord.  I was still raising 3 young girls at the time, so I was quite content to stay home and be the prayer warrior while he was ministering overseas. He has since been on trips to Romania, India, Africa (3 times), Nicaragua and Costa Rica. 

In November of 2007, I was led by the Lord to go on my very first mission trip to Nicaragua. It was a huge thing for me due to my intense fear of flying (or crashing). I knew that the Lord had stirred my heart with a desire to be part of this trip, so I put all that aside and was simply obedient. That trip began a process of longing in my soul for more. More of Him, more of the work of the Holy Spirit and more missions. Since that first trip in 2007, I have been back to Nicaragua 4 more times as well as Honduras and Africa. God has done a tremendous work in my life as He enabled and empowered me to overcome some very large obstacles along the way. He did things that only He could do.

So, here we are in 2015 with a new story. A new journey. One that really began almost 20 years ago, but one that started to really come to fruition in August while my husband and I were in Africa. God began speaking to his heart about full-time missions. A place where his heart had been for awhile but a place that didn't seem feasible or possible. As the Lord continued to speak to him, He also began tugging at my heart. A tug that I tried to ignore and tried to avoid. But that tug grew stronger and it wasn't long before I knew that my heart was joining my husbands heart for a change in our lives. An enormous change.

When the Lord does something, He does it in a mighty way. Within weeks after we returned home, we both knew that God was calling us into full-time ministry and evangelism. We weren't sure exactly what that looked like, but we knew that it was going to be a dramatic change for us. It was going to be a giant step in faith as we began intently listening and heard His voice and His instruction for our lives. 

My husband had been a pastor for 20 years and we had been at Goodwill Baptist Church for almost 8 years. All of the sudden, God was telling my husband that it was time to resign. It was time to leave the church and step into our new calling. I was like, 'Wait a minute, Lord. Surely you don't mean right now. Surely you mean later on. Down the road. After we get things all figured out and get our finances together!". 

No, that is not what God meant at all. He was leading us to resign our pastorate which promptly would leave us without a paycheck or a place to live. We lived in the parsonage that the church provided and it was a very nice and very large home that we had grown to love. Yet, that's exactly what God was asking us to do. Leave our church, leave our home, and trust Him.

So, here we are almost 3 months later and we are surviving.  We stepped out in faith and God has not been anything but kind to us. He has loved us and He has provided for us and He has walked step-by-step beside us on this journey into the unknown. We have been on a short trip to Nicaragua which opened up several new doors for us in ministry and we are preparing to head back there in about 3 weeks and will stay for a month.  He is showing us each day that He will take care of our needs. He is showing us each day that it isn't about us at all, but that it is all about Him.

When we open our hearts to fully trust, God will open His arms and fully protect and provide. I don't know why we don't comprehend that He is the provider and He is the giver of all things. So, why do we worry? It's our human nature to doubt. It's our human nature to feel a lack of control. Over and over our God has provided for us in ways that only He can orchestrate. He works out the details in ways that leave us with our mouths hanging open. What a mighty God we serve! What an amazing God we get to worship! What an honor and a privilege it is to be His child. 

I don't know what God has in store for us next. But, I do know this. He is already working out the details and all we have to do is stay deep in His Word, listen for His Voice and respond in loving and eager obedience. All we have to do is be available. The rest is simply up to my God. 

"And Jesus, looking upon them saith, with men it is 

impossible but not with God; for with God

 all things are possible" (Mark 10:27)

Glory, Hallelujah. 

Speak, LORD!

I love reading passages in the bible that are very familiar to me only to have God open up new understanding and new truth. I think, as Christians, that can be a dangerous place for us as we allow ourselves to feel like we have 'read that already' or that we 'know that story well' and therefore, we don't allow the Holy Spirit to impart new wisdom or new revelation to our hearts. We don't allow the scriptures to speak to us.

As I opened the Word to 1 Samuel yesterday, I felt myself drawn in to the scriptures and I read it like I had never encountered it before. I wanted God to show me something new. I have always loved the story of Hannah and her longing for a child and her persistence with the Lord. She yearned for a child so much that she was willing to give him to the Lord for His service. Not only was she willing, but she was obedient. As she conceived and gave birth, she didn't forget her promise to God. She was a woman of her word. She kept the vow that she made with her God. 

"There is none holy as the LORD; for there is none beside Thee; neither is there any rock like our God." (1 Samuel 2:2)

Hannah's words are beautiful and they come straight from her heart and into the ears of a Holy God. A God that she trusted and a God that she loved. Hannah delivered her son to Eli, the priest, just as she had promised God and the scripture tells us that Samuel grew, and was in favor both with the LORD and with men and that he ministered unto the LORD. 

We see in chapter 3 that Samuel was ministering in the temple under the guidance of Eli at a time when God wasn't speaking to His people. The spiritual leaders were corrupt and not obeying the law. The nation of Israel was experiencing the silence of God in their lives that was akin to judgement.  But things were about to change. God would choose to speak His sweet and Holy Word to a young lad who had ears to hear and a heart to obey.

Samuel was about 12 years old at the time the LORD called his name. He was asleep in the temple and the lamp of God was the only source of light in the Holy place. The light that was a symbol of God's truth. It may have been burning dimly, but it was still burning. What a beautiful picture of the mercy of God in our lives. His light may be burning dimly, but there is still light and there is still the ability for that light to flourish and grow brighter!

The LORD spoke to Samuel 3 times and Samuel thought it was Eli calling. He went to Eli each time saying, "Here am I" and Eli told young Samuel that he didn't call him and to go lie down again.  The third time Samuel approached Eli, the scriptures tell us that Eli perceived that the LORD had called the child. 

We see in verse 7 of chapter 3, that Samuel didn't know the LORD and that the Word had not been revealed to him. I found that interesting as I just assumed that Samuel would have been close to God as he had been ministering in the temple for around 9 years. Eli tells Samuel to lie down and if the LORD called to him again, he should respond "Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth"

God, in his mercy and grace, called out to Samuel a fourth time. In fact, the Word tells us that the LORD came and stood and called Samuel's name. This time Samuel responded,  "Speak; for thy servant heareth". His response left out the title of God as he lacked a true knowledge of God and was careful not to accept it as the voice of JEHOVAH God because he just wasn't sure. 

Samuel, in his obedience, heard a Word from the LORD. He had no idea about the message to Eli that had been delivered through an unknown prophet, but the Word that God spoke to this young boy, who had ears to hear, confirmed it. God found an obedient child among a land of disobedient adults and used that child to deliver a powerful message to Eli and the nation of Israel. 

Samuel demonstrated a humble heart. He heard and received the message of God, yet in the morning, he still rose up and tended to his tasks. Only when Eli inquired of him did Samuel share the LORD's message. We see that Samuel grew and the LORD was with him. He had influenced an entire nation and was recognized as a prophet of God who declared the Word and the will of God. It marked a new beginning for the nation of Israel. New challenges, new blessings and new victories. 

Do we desire new beginnings? New victories? If we do, it's time to open our ears and be attentive to what God has to say. We have to be listening with our hearts wide open to receive. We must be purposed deep within our hearts to walk in obedience and surrender our all to Him. We must listen with the intention of receiving. We must listen with the intention of obeying.

If we remain in the Word and we remain humble before Him, we prepare our hearts to hear and respond to the voice of God. Get still before Him and allow Him to do a new work within. When we bow our hearts before Him in this manner, in true desire and true surrender, we will hear.

"Speak, LORD, for thy servant heareth."

delay or deliverance?

“But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (1 John 2:20) KJV

Are we living in the full anointing of God? Do we truly understand the power we can tap into because of Christ living in us? 

Are we living lives that merely delay our next pitfall into bondage or are we living our lives in search of deliverance?

My desire is for complete deliverance from those things that hold me captive. Deliverance from those things that I have created strongholds out of. I don’t seek to just delay them, but I seek to allow God to remove me from them and be delivered into His glorious light. 

We can live victorious lives in Christ. It’s about walking in His ways and walking in His light so we can possess the ability to step around those pits that are just waiting for us to fall into. If we want the full anointing of God in our lives, if we want to walk in victory, we must seek out the Light and walk according to His ways. We must allow the Light to shine in our darkness and illuminate our path.

So, are we walking in the Light? Do we even know what the Light is? Or who the Light is?

The first chapter of John tells us that the Light is Christ. A light that shines in the darkness and continues to shine so darkness can’t overcome it. 

“…God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5)

Our walk begins when we take a step of faith and trust Christ as our Savior. That is only the beginning. Our walk is a progression and it involves our communing with God and having fellowship with Him.  It’s about acknowledging that He is the Light of the world and that we must walk where He leads. We must follow His Word and His commands. God has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light! (1 Peter 2:9)

Where darkness abides, there is no light. The darkness of sin in our life rebels against the light of Christ. But the beautiful thing about the light is that it is revealing. It not only erases the darkness, but at the same time it shows us truth. We can try and hide ourselves and our sin in the dark, but when the light is made manifest, our hiding places are revealed. Even just a small amount of light will pierce through the blackness and illuminate. 

Have you every cleaned and dusted your house and it appears spotless to your eyes? Then you open up the curtains and in the startling brightness you can see those areas that are still filled with dirt and dust? The light revealed the truth. It exposed the things that we thought were hidden or clean. 

That is exactly what the light of Christ does in our lives. It reveals to us that which needs to be exposed. And once it is exposed it needs to be dealt with. If we just allow it to remain and turn off the light, we will be right back where we started. In the dark and out of fellowship with Christ. Darkness and light can’t co-exist. It’s either one of the other.  Living in the dark causes us to stumble, lose our way, and fall into pits of sin without warning. How do we know if we are indeed walking in the dark?

1. We lose the Word.

We stop “doing the truth’ as it tells us in 1 John 1:6. We stop reading the Word and so we lose the ability to hear the truth and abide in it. When we cling to the dark, we can’t see the Word in that absence of light. So, we quit reading our bibles and we begin to lose the Word or the Truth that abides in us and we begin our walk in the dark. As we progress, our way grows darker and it takes us farther and farther away from the true Light. 

2. We neglect our prayer life.

After we quit reading the Word, we no longer desire to commune with our God. Once we stop feeding our souls the Bread of Life, our appetites wane for the Truth and we will be pulled in the opposite direction. Truth is traded for lies and deception and we begin to forfeit our fellowship with Christ. 

3. We lose our desire for fellowship with Christ.

When we walk in the Light, we desire to obey God’s Word. We have a desire to do what His Word tells us to do and we also desire to nurture our prayer life. When we see both of those begin to disappear from our daily walks, we can know that we are beginning to fall out of fellowship with our Lord. Our spiritual eyes have become accustomed to the dark and we no longer see the dangerous place we have fallen into.

Obedience to His Word entails walking in the light, so when we move out of the light into the shadows, our obedience will suffer. We have then begun a downward spiral that will carry us deeper into the dark and down into a pit of bondage. 

Is there a way out? Is there hope for those of us who have slipped into darkness?

Oh, yes, there is hope! We only have to let the light of Christ begin shining once again in our lives! We need to open our eyes and seek out the Light once more. Allow Him to reach down and pull us out of the pit of darkness and back into the glorious light of our Savior! Once we begin to recognize the beauty and safety of living in the light and the eminent danger of the dark, we can be more determined and purposed to keep ourselves focused on Christ and the truth of His Word. 

Let's not delay our next pit, but let's be delivered from it! Let’s reach up and grab the hand of our God and let Him guide our path with the light of His Son, Jesus Christ.

“Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path”(Psalm 119:105)

the Glory of God!

The well of the Word of God is so deep that we could study 24 hours a day every day of our lives and never draw out the last drop. My desire is to daily drink deeply from the fountain of His Word and allow the sweet Holy Spirit to teach me and reveal to me treasures abounding! 

What is the glory of God? That may be one of the hardest things to define, yet it is also one of the most important things for us, as Christians, to grab hold of. God’s glory is the manifest presence of Himself. It is God showing us who He is in a tangible way.  It is the beauty of who He is. It is all of His attributes, all of His character and all of His divine nature.

The word glory in Hebrew is kabowd. It means ‘the weight of something in a figurative sense’. It denotes splendor, abundance and honor.

In Exodus 33:18, we see Moses make a request of God. He desired for God to show him His glory. Basically, what Moses said was, “Show me the weight of who You are. Show me Your splendor and honor and abundance.”

Why don’t we ask the same of God today? Is it because we don’t desire to see His glory or is it because we don’t think that He will show us? God wants to show us who He is! He desires to show us His glory! In all the scriptures, only one man had the blessing of seeing His glory but that is because he is the only man that ever asked that of God. We don’t receive because we don’t ask!

I love that Moses had seen God’s glory along with the Jews in the pillar of a cloud and the fire, but Moses desired a deeper revelation. He wanted a personal glimpse of God’s glory. He wanted the intimacy of relationship with God.  He wanted a new vision. That’s what we need to be seeking today. A new vision of God and His glory. A new revelation of who He is and who He desires us to be. We need to be desperate for intimacy with our God and with our Savior. So desperate that we will ask God to show us His glory!

As we look at verse 19, we see God’s gorgeous response. God says, “I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the Name of the LORD before thee.”

The word goodness in the Hebrew is tuwb. It means ‘good in the widest sense; pleasant; beautiful; delightful; lovely; righteous; precious; the best things. Basically it is meaning ‘nothing withheld’. 

So, God is telling Moses, “You want to see My glory? I’ll show you My glory. I’ll show you everything good about Me. I will withhold nothing from you.”

The next part of that verse is so beautiful. God says, “I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee”. Now, that doesn't sound so amazing until you stop and dwell on it. An earthly king has his name announced by proclamation before he enters into the throne room in all his splendor. It is announced so that there is no mistake who the king is. It is the greatness of the earthly king revealed to those around him. 

And now we see our God doing this very thing to Moses. He is telling Moses that He will hide him in the cleft of the rock and cover him with His holy hand. Then before He passes by in all His glory and all His goodness, withholding nothing from him, God will proclaim His Name before him. Let there be no mistake who the King is. Let there be no mistake of His splendor and His majesty and His honor.

The glory of God in our lives today is everything that makes God, God. It encompasses all His Authority. All of His Power. All of His Wisdom. It is the immeasurable weight of God wrapped up in the splendor of His manifest presence. He withholds nothing from us when we truly desire to see His face. To behold His glory. To worship Him in spirit and in truth. 

Our prayer today should be nothing less than, “Oh, God, show me your glory!”  Let us fall on our faces in sheer desperation of just a glimpse of this in our lives. May He cover us with His loving hand and reveal His goodness to us, withholding nothing. And may we receive it and give Him praise and honor forever.

Create in me...

"Create in me a clean heart, O God;

And renew a right spirit within me"

(Psalm 51:10)

What an amazing prayer that Kind David uttered to God when pleading for forgiveness, cleansing and restoration of fellowship with Him. What an amazing and pertinent prayer this should be on the lips of every Christian! 

The word create in this passage is the Hebrew word 'bara' which means 'to create or to make'. But the beautiful thing about the word is that this verb is of profound theological significance. Truly the word 'bara' is a verb that only has God as its subject. It expresses creation out of nothing as we see first in Genesis 1:1. 

So, as we encounter this word in this Psalm of David, we must understand that David knew that the work on his heart which was needed and desired could only be accomplished by His God. Our hearts need a touch by our heavenly Father. God and only God can create in us that clean heart with forgiveness and cleansing and restoration. May this prayer be on our lips and in our hearts every day of our lives.