Hello Mornings - Believe

He says it over and over and over again.

Believe.

"I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life."  John 5:24

And not only that. Once we believe we have eternal life. It is done. There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation.

Not...once you change your ways and stop sinning. 

Not....once you do enough good deeds

Not....if you read your Bible enough

Not....if you pray hard enough and attend church regularly

Now.....we HAVE eternal life, from the moment we first believe we "have already passed from death into life." (John 5:24b)

This verse says it all:

Jesus told them, "This is the only work God wants from you; Believe in the one He has sent." 

John 6:29

All we are required to do is BELIEVE. Everything else will fall into place. He will change our hearts and guide our actions. Our belief will lead us into prayer and worship and good deeds and out of sin. Our belief will cause us to follow Him. It becomes the desire of our hearts to do His will. 

I'm doing the Meet Jesus study with the Hello Mornings group HMCPsalm1438 and this is what He has been impressing on me. Just believe. Quit trying so hard to earn my way, just believe. It's where everything starts.

So, although our study is from John, my prayer today is from the book of Mark: 

"The father instantly cried out, "I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!" 

Mark 9:24

"For it is my Father's will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day."

John 6:40

View

I think about you a lot.
Missing you every day.
It's the little things that remind me of you......
A song that was your favorite,
A bike tire that needs fixing,
The sound of a lawnmower and the smell of fresh cut grass,
Our boy wearing your cologne to remind himself of you.....

It helps knowing where you are
Who you are with......
Sometimes I try to imagine the view.....
The golden streets,
The pearl gates,
The angels,
The room that Jesus made just for you.
And the one He is preparing for me.

Linking up with Lisa Jo Baker for Five Minute Fridays. Join in and be blessed!

Comfort

I know it's Thursday and we are just hours away from a new prompt for 5 Minute Fridays with Lisa Jo, but I've had this word on my mind all week. Since I had to do a tiny bit of "research" --does looking up words count as research?!?----I suppose I'm not following the rules, but here goes anyway! Just under the wire....

COMFORT

A few months back, during a sermon on Sunday morning, the pastor speaking was talking about the Holy Spirit and how He is our comforter. He then went on to explain that in Hebrew the word comfort actually means strengthen. I wanted to know more so I looked it up for myself......it not only means strengthen, it also means sustain, support .....comfort.

This is so much more than my version of comfort which was to soothe and console. And those are an important part of comfort, but to be strengthened, supported, sustained......it is so much more powerful!

 It also made me look back on my hardest of times and be able to see His presence with me. Holding me up, supporting me, sustaining me, strengthening me.....comforting me.

Linking up (a little late!) with Lisa Jo Baker for Five Minute Fridays! To join in click HERE!

Brave

Brave. It has been a topic of conversation around our house lately.

My 3rd grade son has been having trouble with a boy in his class bullying him. It is really hard to take, my momma bear really rises up. My son is a people-pleaser, conflict-avoider, super-sensitive, follow-alonger. I would like to say I have no idea where he got that from, but I can't. He totally got it from me.

I'm trying to teach him differently though.  I'm praying he can learn from my experiences and be brave way before I was. I'm learning it won't take him as long to trust Jesus as it did me.  See I used to think that "brave" meant having no fear. I was totally wrong, brave is having fear and doing it anyway.....that's what makes it brave. The other side to that is learning to trust Jesus in our fear. Knowing that Jesus is with us can make us brave in spite of our fear.

So, we've been praying and my son has been brave. He's gone to school and has been having a great week. (And the other boy has left him alone.)

Soon, I'll be taking lessons on bravery from him.

*********************************************************************************

I'm linking up with LisaJo today for Five Minute Friday! Join in and be blessed! To find out more, click HERE.

inRL

About this time last year I happened upon a couple of blogs. Up until then, I didn't know a lot about blogs, bloggers and the online community that surrounds them. But once you read Lisa Jo Baker, Kristen Welch and Ann Voskamp you want to know more. You want to be a part of what is happening there. They are all bloggers for (in)Courage, a daily devotional website for women.

Last Saturday, (in)Courage sponsored an international "meetup" called inRL (in real life). There was a webcast on Friday night and then local meet-ups on Saturday. When registration opened a few months back, I signed up right away, and sat at my desk in tears feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit leading me. Signing up for this conference broke something in me. I have lived a life of fear for way too long but Jesus has been calling me to be brave and has held my hand as I took baby steps.

I subscribed to all the blogs of the local women and followed them on Twitter. Over the last few months I have gotten to know a few of the ladies through their blogs and conversations on Twitter. I've felt a connection to a few of them that is indescribable considering we had never heard each other's voices or seen each others faces.

But God has His plans and one of the ladies invited me to coffee with another friend. Crazily, I said yes and the three of us met for lunch and it was so amazing. The strangest thing happened though, I wasn't really scared. A little nervous, yes, but not worried about the outcome. We had a beautiful time, marveled at our bravery, and promised to do it again soon.

Skip forward to last weekend. The ladies I had met were unable to attend inRL so I was headed to a church an hour away and I didn't know a soul except through the internet. I have always been a nervous person and always fearful that no one will like me, that I won't fit in. This is not something I do, yet there was no hesitation. There was no trying to talk myself out of going. In fact, I was excited! During the whole drive my mind was occupied with the beauty of the day and anticipation of what would happen at the event. My palms didn't get sweaty until I was about 6 blocks away! Like I said, this was so unlike me I was actually surprised.

I wound my way through the hallways of the church, following the scripture signs leading the way. When I reached my destination, I was welcomed by the lovely buzz of ladies talking and getting to know each other and a familiar face from Twitter greeting me. The room was filled with beautiful women, delicious treats, gorgeous beach themed decorations and love. I could feel it from the moment I walked in.

I learned a lot that afternoon. I listened to some amazing women speak truth right into our hearts. But the biggest lesson that I learned was that when Jesus is present, we do not need to be afraid. And He was there, in the warm smiles and welcoming hugs. He was there, teaching us that if we follow Him, there is nothing to fear.

I am hopeful for the relationships that will come about from inRL. God really ordained the whole afternoon and it was so evident in the way that everything worked out. Even the next day when I went to my own church, my "regular" community, it felt different, better. I was so much more thankful for them all and felt the urge to reach out and extend myself farther, be a little braver, follow Him a little closer.

Friend

Friend. It is such a powerful word. Such an important word. For the longest time I was hurt, betrayed and withdrawn from friendship. I convinced myself I didn't need friends. I had my husband and my son and my family. What else did I need?

But it was lonely if I was honest. With no girls to giggle with, no one to turn to when things were hard. No one to tell the things I didn't really want to talk to my mom about.

Then I started to rely more on Jesus. Trusting him with my fears and my feelings. Through that, He opened my heart to real friendship. He made my heart brave(er) and I opened my door to one girl. One invitation, one dinner, has opened my heart to so much more. Through this one friend He has shown me how He loves me, how I can trust Him and the friends He leads me to. She has taught me the true meaning of friendship.

#Love #Honesty #Support #Prayer #Hugs #Truth #Friends #Love 

Today I am linking up with LisaJo for 5 Minute Friday! Join in and be blessed! Click HERE for the details!

Jump

My son is constantly jumping...on everything. He is a boy and he is 9, I suppose it comes with the territory but it drives me completely batty!!! He jumps on his bed and I fell like he will come through the ceiling when I am in the room below. So I make him stop. He jumps from the recliner to the couch to the other recliner and back again. He is pretending to be some jungle animal. But "we don't jump on the furniture" so I make him stop. Yesterday, we got a ton of April snow here in Minnesota so he went out to play. He didn't wear his snow pants but he was jumping and rolling in the snow. My instinct was to march right out there and tell him to stop. But I didn't. Instead I went out and played with him. We built a snowman, complete with easter egg eyes, an angry birds hat, a highlighter for a nose and my bright red scarf. We had a blast! Sometimes I just need to remember to take a deep breath and just jump, have fun, enjoy this gift of life we've been given. And my boy is the best one to remind me of this!

Today I am linking up with LisaJo for Five Minute Friday! Click here to find out what it's all about! Join in and be blessed!