Too much noise not enough sound

January 28, 2018January 28, 2018 carriedinthecross1 Comment

When you are so blessed but you let little things irritate you.

Remember how Corinthians said ‘if I have not love’ or in some versions charity, what am I? I resounding gong or a clanging symbol. Lately I have looked around and seen blessings on top of blessings, answers to prayers not just for myself but for others aswell and yet when the guy cut me off on the highway my response was less than charitable. When the third person that day nearly banged into me in Wal Mart and I turned to my mom and complained that wasn’t charitable either. In Wal Mart I should have expected to get banged into at least once, and later my mom and I were laughing about the strung together multitudes and then I realized; we had a great day altogether we were both in great moods, why did these things bother me? Let me rephrase that, who was really bothering me? The devil is clever making us react when little things happen, one reaction after another and soon something nice can be something not nice. For my day my friend Holy Spirit stepped in and said, ‘excuse me Lauren, that’s not the girl I raised talking,’ and I realized I was wrong in reacting, and like I said my day was great. Complaining about bad drivers is slander. I know that sucks most of us love to yell at traffic (or at least many of the people I know do) it’s cathartic in many ways, but it’s still slander. As Aladdin once said, ‘if I were as rich as you I could afford some manners.’ Can’t people as rich as we afford some Grace?

I feel terrible letting those things get to me, does the person in the silver Kia hatchback feel at all bad about my yelling at him? no, does the kid who nearly ran me down in the store feel bad? I hope not, He was having a bad day getting dragged around grocery shopping with his mom he doesn’t need my short fuse bothering him. That’s the problem, we all have things that we let get to us and it tears us down, and quite possibly tears others down too, especially the person we complain to. We need to learn to tell the devil to get lost and control how we react to things, or else we lack charity. I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be a gong.

Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · Jesus · Uncategorized

If only they’d look closer, they’d find out there’s so much more to me.

January 14, 2018 carriedinthecross1 Comment

Don’t you ever wish that people would look closer, that they wouldn’t judge simply from an off hand meeting? People don’t see the real you until they take the time to get to know the real you. Jesus looks closer right away, he never judges even after He sees the true man/woman behind the mask, He loves you no matter what you are like. If only people could be more like Jesus, often times you wont know what the person is like until they feel comfortable to bring down their barriers and stop hiding behind the front they put up. True, some will prefer the false you and like you less once they get to know you, but others will like you even better when they see the true, genuine article. Don’t be afraid to look closer at people before you decide if you like them or not, Jesus wasn’t, He has always seen us with all our flaws and loves us even more for them, because the flawless can’t be refined.

Christianity · Devotional · Jesus · Uncategorized

Not just a misfit

December 24, 2017 carriedinthecross1 Comment

Remember the island of misfit toys in Rudolf? The place to go when no one wants you because you don’t fit in. I realized recently how much I can relate to those toys. How often I feel like I just don’t belong and it made me wonder how many other people feel that way? I exspect many do. The world is made up of categories and either you fit in a category or you don’t really fit anywhere; but God didn’t create those categories people did. God didn’t make us to fit in a box and be stacked with all the other boxes labeled the same, He made us to stand out. God made us Rachel, Lauren, David, Ryan, Max. He didn’t make us athlete, equestrian, book worm, mathalete those are just parts of us, the whole is so much more than a category. Some of us don’t have a category to climb into and maybe that’s because God has made us too unique to be just one thing. God loves His misfit toys because they are the ones who will go on to shape the world the way God wants it. They will go on to be the next David Livingston, Martin Luther King, Peter, Mosses, Hur. Some people may only have a very small role to play in the big picture, but that role will be significant and amazing. God has made sure of that! Even if you never realize what you’ve done, we all will have done something amazing in God’s plan by time we are through here on earth.

So embrace being a misfit, it’s the misfits that change the world.

Christianity · Devotional · Jesus · Uncategorized

The gift not under the tree

December 21, 2017 carriedinthecross1 Comment

At Christmas time we think so much about gifts; giving and receiving. C.S. Lewis says that the greatest sacrifice was not on the cross but in the Manger. God reducing himself to a human baby to save the world. We mostly think of Jesus Himself when we think of Christmas, we don’t always acknowledge the sacrifice that God went through. There is no one on this earth who knows more love than a parent’s child, (Weather natural born or adopted).

Jesus is in truth an only child. Being one myself I know what that means. It means that there is no one else for your parent to share their love with other than you. You are top on their list and are more valued than anyone else. Now think, God gave His most valued treasure to us to be mocked, beaten and murdered by us. Every tear Jesus shed God would have felt, every lash, every nail. I know that God turned His face away because of the sin Jesus took for us, but that doesn’t mean His heart wasn’t in agony for His beloved son.

No one I know would sacrifice their child for anyone, let alone a world that mocked and hated them. So as God placed His child in Mary’s arms, knowing what would befall Him, He gave up the center of His heart to save us.

Christianity · Devotional · Jesus · Uncategorized

Made new

December 9, 2017 carriedinthecross2 Comments

The ocean uses everything in it for the benefit of the ones living in it. One of my favorite childhood pastimes was searching for seaglass. Sea glass is beautiful and highly coveted by beach combers, but do you realize what sea glass is? It’s trash, bits of discarded glass and pottery that some lazy person has dropped on the beach or in the Ocean instead of taking it to the garbage. After being discarded this trash is thrown and tossed and caressed and formed by the sea. Let me repeat that. This garbage is formed into something beautiful and sought after.

We are like sea glass. In truth most people start off pretty worthless, and then God takes them. There is tossing and rough beatings getting us to our potential but in the center of that is a gentle guiding hand and in the end we are beautiful and refined.

As the sea makes broken bottles into shimmering crystals, God makes broken people into strong warriors.

Devotional · dreams do come true · Jesus · Uncategorized

Mistake

November 27, 2017November 27, 2017 carriedinthecross2 Comments

You are being yourself and a person questions your character, your dream, what you are doing, your goals and suddenly your concerned. Maybe they’re right, this person is a stronger Chritian than you are, they work at food drives and go on missions trips and live the Christian life that seems to be right. So are you wrong?

Guess what, what that person thinks or says, does not matter! Yikes, I know right, can you say that about someone else who is a brother or sister in Christ? Yes you can. Constructive criticism is a good thing but these people don’t know what your life is supposed to be all about. They don’t know who God made you to be. I once heard it said that life is a guessing game. And it’s true. Even if you’re a Christian you don’t know what your life is meant to be, and you look at the options guessing, wondering which is right; the difference between a Christian guessing and a non-Christian guessing is the Christian knows the one who knows the answers. Do you know why God gave Moses a burning bush? Because he would never have done what God needed him to do without such a sure sign. Even after all of the wonders God did through him when God asked him to go talk to Pharoh again Moses said, “oh, I don’t know God, even your own people won’t listen to me so why should Pharoh?” God stood there and shook His head, ” seriously Moses? We’re going through this self doubt thing again? What more do I have to do to show you I have this under control?” Then God gave in and again sent Arron to help but the miracles were done through Moses. Do you have any idea how many people told Moses he was a failure, he was wrong, he was doing the wrong things? I bet Moses said to himself more than once, ‘why didn’t I ignore that bush and keep going? I had a good, quiet life as a shepherd and now I’m stuck in the desert with all these complaining, negative people!’ However God had a big plan for Moses. Moses wasn’t a dreamer, that was Joseph, Moses never dreamed of doing all the things he did, but God had planned on it and was leading him to the right bush at the right time. Not everybody can see your potential and they may be down on you because they just don’t get it. Moses simply followed what he saw God leading him to do and when he didn’t see he prayed and God said ‘see that staff of wood in your hand? Stretch it out toward the sea.’ Guess what, that sea parted right down the middle and never again has anyone seen anything like it, even Pharohs sorcerers couldn’t copy that one.

So ignore negative voices and don’t take anything to heart that sounds like it’s not from God. He knows His dream for you, no one else does. Thank you Jesus for you dream for me. Amen.

Christianity · Devotional · dreams do come true · Jesus · Uncategorized

The courage to stand

November 12, 2017November 15, 2017 carriedinthecross4 Comments

You will not have to fight this battle; take up your positions, stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you.- 2 Chronicles 17

When we are down and are having a hard time seeing something we are after succeed what is the first thing most of us do? We look for a way to make what we are after happen; because why shouldn’t it happen right now? Why shouldn’t we get that raise and make more money? Why shouldn’t that play we’ve written get produced today? Why shouldn’t the healing we’ve been asking and waiting for happen now? And all that happens is we start to worry more and more and more, until we are consumed by fear. Sometimes God isn’t wanting us to work to attain the things we are after, sometimes God simply wants us to stand. To wait. To trust that He will take care of it all.

It’s funny how doing nothing except praying is often the hardest thing we can do. It should be simple but it’s frustrating and makes us feel restless. That doesn’t change the fact that God knows what He’s doing, and being annoyed and afraid is not going to make our desires happen faster. Sometimes we just need to have the faith to stand firm and trust God. Our dreams can and most likely will happen, just not in the timing we desire or exspect.

Christianity · Jesus · Uncategorized

Small flame

October 27, 2017 carriedinthecross2 Comments

Inside us all is a candle burning. It’s a candle lit to help guide us through the darkness in this life. Our candle is called Savior, Healer, Hope, Friend, lamb, Jesus, Son of God.

If we do not acknowledge our candle it will grow dim and someday even go out, but it is a candle that will not forsake us and the millisecond we are ready for that candle again it will relight and shine through us as brightly as it first did, maybe even brighter.

Christianity · Devotional · Jesus

Beauty

October 13, 2017October 13, 2017 carriedinthecross1 Comment

Everyone probably knows the song you are so beautiful; but imagine that as the love song that God sings to you. I don’t know about you but I want God to think I’m beautiful, on the inside. I want God to smile down and sing ‘you are so beautiful to me,’ with an angel choir as back up obviously.
To be seen as beautiful by your father is a wonderful thing. Don’t you think?

To God we are beautiful when we screw up, when we fail, when we try, when we are hurt, broken or sad. The times when we may seem ugly to the people around us we are still beautiful to God. He loves our inglorious messes, He knows how hard we have struggled and to Him the struggle is beautiful because we have not given up. To God a simple act of kindness is more beautiful than fireworks. Opening the door for a person who has too many things to carry, donating a jacket to a homeless shelter, working the mission field. God sees all works for Him as beautiful. He finds it beautiful when you pray for your neighbors and offer a word of encouragement on a friend’s facebook page. It’s not hard to be beautiful to God; we were born beautiful to Him. We just have to keep being Jesus to the world and maybe then the world too will see our beauty.

Christianity · Devotional · Jesus

Who is Grace?

September 25, 2017September 25, 2017 carriedinthecross1 Comment

According to the richness of His grace.-Ephesians 1:7
What a statement, the richness of God’s grace. Richness that if put into gold or gems would overflow the ocean and fill the greatness of the deserts. God’s grace is the reason we all have a chance to get into his paradise; God’s grace is the reason we always have someone to turn to and the reason life has worth; God’s grace is never ending. Grace is defined as the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings. When you look at the definition of grace it’s a single sentence statement, which seems far too simple. Grace, God’s grace is simple; it’s straightforward, God loves us! His grace is unmerited, He gives us blessings, He saves ALL of us and ALL of us are sinners who need to be saved! There is no clincher, there is no pay back in the end, God is abundant in grace and in His grace is mercy. Grace and mercy go together, why should the God who knows everything about us give us blessings? He knows what we’ve done, what we’ve thought and He knows we deserve punishment, but instead He is merciful and blesses us through His richness of grace. That’s our Father who loves us, our daddy who we cry out to, He is all-powerful and full of mercy and grace.