Jan
15
So many times I think I have everything figured out and then I realize I am not even close. When I think of love I immediately think of all the things those pictures from Wordless Wednesday represent. The stages of love are all pretty much depicted there.
- Falling in love
- Marriage
- Pregnancy
- Children
- Family
- Growing old together
When you think of love what do you think of? Holding hands or snuggling up while watching a movie? We all have our own ideas and different images that are conjured up at the mention of the word. I can pretty much guarantee none of us picture this when we think of love…
So many times I find myself thinking about love and yearning for all the things that I associate with the word. But recently I was reminded that love is not just sweet and romantic. 2000 years ago (approximation as I suck at math) God showed His love for us in the most amazing display of love. John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Now, that is LOVE!!! So next time you hear that word be reminded of God who loved you that much!!! So much that in order to have a direct and intimate relationship with you and to ensure your eternal life in Heaven He sent His only Son whom He adored more than you or I could ever love our children. So next time you feel lonely or unloved remember these images and the love behind them.
Jan
14
A few months back my church did a sermon series on the book “Crazy Love” by Francis Chan. Me and my boyfriend, Matt, read through it together every night. Then we read it again. This book will completely rock your entire world!!! It will mess with everything you ever thought about Christianity, church, God and your life. This book has been foundational in some of the changes I have been making in my life. Anyway, on to my point. Today one of my favorite bloggers Jon started a book club based on this book on one of his several blog sites. It is wonderful to find myself opening up this book again with other Christians and really talking about it. If you have read this book or would like to read it I definitely suggest getting into this book club. No money or membership required LOL.
Dec
26
Well, I won’t even lie I am not ready for Perspective (Part 4) yet so neither are you… Going back to my short break and will see you bright and early on Monday morning…
I am the blog author and so I am allowed to be lazy… This rubik’s cube for the lazy would have been a great present idea for me… It’s not too late to get me something… Send me your email address for my home address… HOPE YOU ALL HAD A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
Dec
23
I will be taking a Christmas break from posting during this holiday. I will be posting Perspective (Part 4) on Friday afternoon. Wishing you all a joyous and merry Christmas season!!!
Tiffany
Dec
22
Last time we went over the story of Gideon and learned that God’s perspective is not the same as man’s perspective. This lesson will also be about Gideon.
The very same night as the angel spoke to Gideon, (For complete story click here) the Lord tells him to go to his father’s altar to Baal and tear it down along with the Asherah that is beside it. In it’s place he is to put up an altar to God and sacrifice a bull on it using the wood from the Asherah for the fire.
Gideon takes his servants and does as the Lord has told him but he was afraid of his family and the men of the town he does it cloaked by the night. When they finally discover that Gideon was the one who did it they go to the house of his father Joash and try to kill him for it. Joash speaks up and sticks up for Gideon. That day Gideon is given the nickname Jerub-Baal because after he had torn down Baal’s altar he said, “Let Baal fight his own battles”.
I am not sure how much time has elapsed but later on we find that the Midianites and Amalekits (easterners) who had been opressing Israel and leaving them to die in their own land have gathered together. The Spirit of the Lord comes over Gideon. He sends out for and calls together all neighboring peoples and they are now ready to follow him into battle. Gideon tests God twice to be sure that God was indeed using him to save Israel. The very next morning Gideon arises ready to do battle. But God does something Gideon doesn’t expect…
God tells Gideon that his army is too large. He says He can’t turn over Midian to them with so many men, if God does turn over Midian the men will take credit saying, “I did this all myself”, and forget that it is God’s victory. So any men who were afraid were asked to leave. His army is now reduced in size by more than half. They started out with 32,00 men and were now left with only 10,000 men. God still thinks there are too many. Again He reduces the army down to only 300 men. God wants to leave no room for men to take credit. He wants the glory of the victory all to Himself.
Only through God’s perspective can we see that sometimes the scary battles we fight are for His glory. Only through God’s perspective can we understand that where we are weak He can be strong and display his power and glory through us. Because Gideon trusted God to be strong and mighty where he was weak and powerless we are able to see that with God it is not about our stregnths or the size of our armies that will win the victories of life for us. God will always send our greatest tests and challenges in the form of the things we struggle the most with and are most powerless to defeat. That way we can never say “I did it all myself” and forget about God.
May our struggles and our circumstances always point to God’s power and glory. May we begin to see that pointing to God is our only purpose on this earth and truly learn to see things from His eternal perspective that we might be more than conquerors through Him. Also, in case you are wondering… They win.
Dec
19
Picking up where I left off in Part 1 of Perspective. Immediately after Moses death the people mourn for 30 days and then Joshua, their new go-to man sends them into Canaan, the promised land to take what is rightfully theirs. (FINALLY!!!) The land is divided amongst the tribes of Israel. There is peace and victory. Joshua dies and others take over after him. Israel is faithful to God up until the last person from the Exodus dies. Then all hell breaks lose. Rampant sinning and idolatry. Israel has quickly forgotten God. He is not pleased and begins to hand His people over to other powers. Kings come and conquer Israel and the people cower. Then they call out to God and He sends judges to lead them out of their opression and to keep them in order. Several come and go…
In Judges 6 we find that Israel has been once again doing evil in the sight of God. They are put under the opression and domination of Midian. For 7 years Israel is overpowered and hiding out in caves, forts and mountains. Anywhere out of the sight of Midian. Whenever the people of Israel would plant their crops to live off of the Midianites would invade them, camp in their fields and destroy their crops. They had nothing. No animals, no crops and no hope. They were, I would imagine,a pitiful sight.
But once again we find the people of Israel call out to God for help. God sends a prophet to remind them of all His mighty miracles in getting them to where they are now. But God commanded that they fear no other god but their God. Of course we can assume based on their current circumstances that they did not heed the advice of God. Here is where Gideon comes into play…
One day the angel of God pops a squat under an oak tree on the land of Joash. Gideon is bunkered down in a rock formation that is used for pressing grapes into liquid wine.
that hole in the floor of the rock would be the type of winepress Gideon was threshing wheat in
He is in there threshing wheat out of the line of sight of the Midianites for fear they will take what little wheat he has. He is acting like a 5 year old who is afraid of the big bad 5th grader on the playground. To man’s eyes and even to Gideon himself we would say he was a coward. Our limited perspective tells us all this within 1 verse of scripture.
When the angel of God appears to him he says “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” WHAT?!?! Are you kidding me??? Other translations of the bible word it as hero or warrior. There is no mistake made here. God is calling out Gideon’s potential. He doesn’t see Gideon with human perspective but with eternal perspective.
What does the world call you? Your friends? Your family? Your significant other? Your co-workers? Your boss? I could pile a mountain of negativity on you right now but I won’t. Sometimes the “world” tells us a lot of negative things about ourselves. Failure, loser, stupid, poor, weak and really I could go on and on. We hear it so much we actually begin to believe that crap. What I really want to challenge you to do today is forget about what the “world” says and what you think. Listen and hear today what God is calling you? Chosen, beautiful, cherished, loved, accepted, powerful, warrior… Remember there is no perspective that matters but God’s and he always looks for the best in people. More tomorrow on Perspective. Gideon will remain with us through part 3.
Dec
18
The 1st example of perspective to really pop out at me is found beginning in Numbers 13. The people of Israel have been delivered from slavery in Egypt. God has provided for their every need. God then tells Moses to send 12 leaders from the 12 tribes into Canaan, the land they have been promised, to scout out the land. I hardly doubt God sent them to scout because He didn’t know what to expect or how to get the Israelites into the land He promised. I think He does it as a sort of test. He is sending in men with limited perspective in order to find the men that can see His eternal perspective. Moses tells them to look the land over, assess the people’s strength, get a head count, find out if the land is pleasant, get an attack strategy based on their defenses, find out if the land is fertile, if they have forests that will be good to know, and bring me back some of their fruits I would love to get a taste of what will soon be ours. Ok, well Moses doesn’t say what will soon be ours but based off the info he wants I am pretty much assuming he is planning on walking in there and taking over.
These 12 men scouted for 40 days. Watching the habits of the people. Trying to get a general head count. Things you would need to know if you were planning on invading. When they get back they stand before Moses, Aaron and the entire congregation of the Israelites. They tell their story and all that they saw. They start out with how beautiful and fruitful the land is. They then quickly become negative. They tell of the fierce people, the huge cities that are well protected and not to mention the descendants of giants that live there. What a way to scare some already cowardly Israelites. The men reporting this story failed the eternal perspective test.
Caleb is quick to prevent the cowards from walking away from the promised land. He silences the crowd and says “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” I like this guy. He even speaks before Moses gets the chance to and basically says shutup all you scaredy cats, let’s go now and claim what God has promised; because with God on our side we are well able to overcome it. He had the God perspective. He was 1 of the 12 men. They all saw the same things but Caleb knew what God had done in rescuing the Israelites from slavery, providing them with shelter, food and all their needs in the desert and was able to say with God this is possible.
Instead of listening to Caleb, the other 11 or so men were still scared and convinced that they could not attack and win. They spread scary rumors among the Israelites. And as the story goes, at the pleading of the majority the few who were ready to walk in the promises of God were held back and their victory postponed.
The point I am trying to make here is that we all have promises from God. God gives us glimpses of what they are and instead of seeing the promise, a God that is more than able, and the victory through His perspective we see the problems, our weak and utterly incapable selves, and defeat due to our limited perspective.
Look at your life today and really assess yourself. Are you 1 of the 11 or are you Caleb??? DO YOU HAVE AN ETERNAL GOD PERSPECTIVE OR A LIMITED PERSPECTIVE??? Perspective is a choice and I will get into that more in my next post.
Dec
18
Now let me explain the picture from Weird Wednesday. I know you all are curious why on God’s green Earth I would put a picture like that up. Well, honestly that day I was particularly frustrated with my job and the people I work with. Not to mention my mother was getting on my last nerve. IT WAS A BAD DAY!!! In an attempt to make myself feel better I looked up some of the worst jobs in the history of creation. I picked that ladies job. Elephant poo collector and analysis. Can you say NASTY??? This lady literally walks around all day behind circus elephants collecting their poo in bags. This is to keep the local grounds clean and also as a means of testing their feces to ensure they are healthy and eating properly. God help the people who have this job!!! Talk about lifting my spirits. All it took to bring me out of my funk was to imagine having her job and her co-worker ( a 4,500 – 13,000 ton wild, stinky animal). It was a matter of changing my PERSPECTIVE.
A lot of times we are so quick to complain about our jobs, homes, finances, people we work with, friends and family. The list could go on and on and on. But I think if we would just take the time to stop, breathe deep and try to see God’s ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE as opposed to our LIMITED PERSPECTIVE we would see things that might blow our mind. Maybe you are in that job you hate so much because there is 1 person there that only you could reach for Christ. Same goes with family, friends, etc. The next several blog posts I will be doing a series on PERSPECTIVE and I hope you will all join me. I have been doing a lot of searching and studying and look forward to sharing all I have learned with you. Join me TOMORROW for my next post on this topic…
Dec
17
Do to circumstances beyond my control I am unable to have my drivers license back until August 2009. I currently ride a bike to and fro. I don’t mind so much the ride to work or anywhere else. The ride home is a different story entirely. That’s right, I have a huge (according to Floridians who have never seen real hills) uphill ride home. I have been battling this hill for weeks and weeks now.
Me and this hill DO NOT get along!!! For the 1st week or so I would get to the bottom of this hill, look up and want to cry. My legs would burn so bad (result of being out of shape) that I would get off the bike and push it up the hill. I am not even sure that pushing the bike up the hill as opposed to riding it helped with the legs burning but it did keep me from rolling backwards or crashing into cars. Finally just about 2 weeks ago I made it halfway up this hill without having to get off the bike. Now I can actually just take a 1 minute break on the side of the road and be ready to continue biking up. I can see my endurance is starting to improve. Yet no matter how I get up that hill, whether walking the bike or riding it I always look like this when I get to the top…
Filthy, covered in sweat and looking like a crazed maniac… Today I was talking out loud to myself (yes I already know I am crazy) encouraging myself to get all the way to the top without getting off and I remembered a bible verse…
Matthew 21:21 - And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. ESV
At that very moment all I wanted to do was speak out loud and send my hill to the bottom of the deepest ocean. That would be INCREDIBLE!!! But I think God has called me to face the hills and mountains in my life. I am not always to so quickly assume they are just an annoyance in my life. Sometimes He places the hills and mountains (literal and figurative) on my path to strengthen me and to teach me and sometimes to let me see that with Him I am capable of doing what seems so hard and impossible at the time. It’s like teaching your kid to ride a bike you have to let go and let them do it alone, even though it may be hard for them, in order for them to ever ride the bike. And when they finally do learn to ride it is a self esteem booster and shows them they are capable of much more than they ever imagined. Now, I am not saying I will ever be a Lance Armstrong winning 7 consecutive Tour de France or anything. But the hills and mountains I face can be overcome with hard work, effort, peristence and God on my side!!! Besides who wants to win a Tour de France??? When you win, and you are tired and worn out they hand you this huge flag and expect you to bike like that. No thanks I’ll stick with my Tour de Tiffany where at the end of my race against myself I reward myself with chocolate…
However, I have been thinking maybe it’s the cool clothes they wear that make them all aerodynamic and awesome… Thinking about buying this one… What do you think???
I know what you are thinking… THAT HELMET IS AWESOME I KNOW!!!
What hills and mountains have you faced or are you facing currently??? How did you overcome them??? How do you plan to??? Let’s get some support for the fat out of shape 24 year old on here… HELP!!!
TALKATIVE THURSDAY 1ST THING TOMORROW MORNING… Be on the lookout…
Dec
16
Recently I convinced my wonderful boyfriend MATTHEW to buy a kitten. He had been wanting one anyway it was just a matter of timing for him. We bought him Saturday night and he is a wonderful and adorable little kitten. Sunday night we ran to wal mart to pick up a few things he might need now that he has a cat. One of those things was a cereal tupperware container to keep the kittens food fresh and easy to pour. We got the generic brand because it was a lot cheaper. I noticed Sunday night when I was helping feed the cat that this particular item was a piece of junk and mentioned to Matt that if he picked it up by the lid, the lid would in fact remain in his hand and send the bottom piece crashing to the floor resulting in kitten kibble all over the bathroom floor. What do you think happened just one night later when he was tired and trying to just get to bed? Kitten Kibble Kalamity!!! (Yes I know it is Calamity it’s cuter with a K)
I made fun of him to make a real point though. A lot of times when I am tired and I am just trying to hurry up and get to bed, I ignore the words of God spoken just the night before… ”Let’s do this again tomorrow night.” Instead I clumsily drop onto my mattress and head for dream land. Then I wonder why my life is ALWAYS a mess. A lot of times the disasters I make in my life are due to forgetting the words of God. Perhaps it’s time to get off the computer and put down the sudoku earlier in the evening and spend some time with God. Who knows maybe He will help me clean up my mess and prevent future Kalamities in my life.
Thanks Matthew for letting me share your story. = )
Dec
11
In today’s society we use the words relax and sleep a lot. But rarely do we use the word REST anymore. That picture I posted of that little boy completely passed out reminded me of how tired I was. Plus it was really cute. So many times when I come home after work or hanging with friends all I want to do is relax or sleep; REST just never seems like the word I want to use, but it should be. Believe it or not there are some pretty big differences in these 3 words.
RELAX:
According to the Greek translation from the Bible RELAX means this…
- to cause or permit one to cease from any movement or labour in order to recover and collect his strength
- to keep quiet, of calm and patient expectation
SLEEP:
According to the Greek translation from the Bible SLEEP means this…
- sleep
- Yeah, it’s profound I know… = )
And finally
REST:
According to the Greek translation from the Bible REST means this…
- to rest, settle down and remain, to repose, be quiet
EXODUS 33:14 > And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” ESV
1 KINGS 8:56 > “Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. ESV
PSALM 37:7 > Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him… KJV
MATTHEW 11:28-30 > “Come to me all, who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
You see, REST can only come from God. It comes from spending time with Him and having relationship with Him. Only when we know Him and seek Him can we truly find REST in a world where we hardly have time to sleep or relax. HE WILL GIVE US REST!!!
Dec
10
I know I am 6 days late… Please don’t be angry with me… I started a new job last Monday and have not stopped working since… I am constantly covering shifts for the other lazy people I work with… But here it is 6 days late… Talkative Thursday… Also I will be posting another Weird Wednesday shortly… Thanks for your patience to the 3 people who actually read this thing…
In essence what I was trying to show you last Wednesday were a bunch of weird sea slugs. They are pretty awesome looking if I do say so myself. I just thought it really displayed the majesty, glory and creativity of our God. He wasn’t happy with one type of sea slug, or nudibranch as is their scientific name, he made THOUSANDS of different kinds and not ONE of them looks the same.
Only within the past 50 years or so have we been able to capture pictures of them to share with the world. So basically for God only knows how long (LOL) we have been sharing this planet with sea slugs of incredible colors and they were hidden so deep in the ocean that only God knew they were there and could enjoy them. They have absolutely no benefit to humans nor do they harm us. They JUST EXIST because He wanted them to. He did it purely for his joy, glory and majesty until the day when we would be able to enjoy them with Him.
When I first saw these I can’t really describe exactly what I thought or felt but I remember thinking God is AWESOME!!! I was browsing through google and chanced upon the picture and the colors intrigued me. So i got drawn in. Now I realize it is a love note to me. A little post-it reminder from God that He made all this (only He could be so creative and it surely wasn’t by chance) and He made me. And we are all here as a product of His creativity and love. He desires to see the deepest parts of my heart just as He scans the deepest parts of the ocean to get a glimpse of these amazing little colorful slugs.
Dec
03
Just to get some stuff going on my blog I though I would start something called Weird Wednesday… I am calling it “Weird Wednesday” because I will be doing the most unusual thing ever… I WILL NOT BE USING WORDS AT ALL!!! It will be a picture or video of some kind… NO WORDS!!! Maybe something humorous, thought provoking, encouraging, or just nice to look at… Something for my 2 blog readers to look forward to on Wednesdays LOL!!! Then on Thursdays I will explain why I chose the item I chose… This will give us all time to think about what each particular thing means to us without any external influence… There is nothing I hate more than someone telling me what to think of something!!! If that even made any sense… Just think about it though, most women love roses because they are programmed to from an early age… Something to think about… Now obviously this week I had to use some words to explain Weird Wednesday but from now on there won’t be words… HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY!!!
TIFFANY
Dec
01
I am a 1st generation Cuban American. I have never had a traditional American Thanksgiving. My family does a pig in the ground, rice and yucca. This year my wonderful “gringo” boyfriend Matthew took me and Logan for my 1st real Thanksgiving. We ventured out to Starke in North Florida where his Aunt Tra and Uncle Jeff have a horse farm and lots of land. It was WONDERFUL!!! There was tons of land for Logan to explore, fish ponds, horses, dogs and more than enough people to play with. Here are some of the pictures from our mini vacation. Hope you all had a wonderful Holiday as well. = )
More pictures to come as I receive them…
~Tiff
Nov
20
Lately something has really been nagging at me. I am constantly hearing the term “bride of Christ”. I hear it from church folks and a lot of the blogs and books i read refer to the church in this manner. So I did a little bit of praying and soul searching about this. As we all know in the Bible there are many stories, parables, analogies, comparisons, etc. I do not think any of that was done on accident or without any thought being put into it. So when the Bible refers to the church as the bride of Christ I think we should take that a little more seriously, stop overusing the term, and instead live it out.
Think for a second about what it means to be a wife. Ok, well think longer because it takes more than a second. A wife or a “bride” has many roles and jobs. Here is a list of a few I thought of off the top of my head:
- Clean (which depending on size of abode could take all day)
- Cook (depending on pickiness of spouse and your skill level could be quite the undertaking)
- Errands (shopping, dry cleaners, etc, etc…)
- Quality Time (whether it’s talking or “whatever else” you married folk enjoy QT is a must)
- Offspring (this is result of QT and will affect the previous 4 bullet points and add many extra bullet points that I won’t go into…)
I know I missed a bunch in there but those are the main ones I want to focus on. I think Jesus uses the term “bride” to remind us that he is in covenant with us and we should all know a covenant works 2 ways. We can’t expect to be loved and cherished by Jesus with flowers and poetry while we sit on the couch all day eating bon bons and watching our daily soaps and talk shows. Yet that is exactly what we expect.
I have known in the past people in churches I have attended that would come every Sunday dress the nicest, praise the loudest, amen at all the right times, and leave the quickest. I call these people bad brides. I, myself, am a bad bride often. When we are not willing to treat the church to a good cleaning after service or invite someone over for a meal afterwards we are not acting like much of a bride. We are called to not only attend service but to engage in service by helping out and finding an area that could use an extra hand. Whether it is making coffee, greeting a guest, or being on stage we all have a role and a place in the church.
We are also called to have quiet intimate moments with the God of the universe throughout the week. He wants our time as we are his bride. He wants to talk with us, sing with us, snuggle up on the couch with us while we read our favorite books and he wants to love us. If we are having that time with Him throughout the day the eventual result will be children. I’m not talking about Immaculate Conception here. I am saying that when we spend time in the Bible and truly intimately know our Maker and His heart we will be encouraged to share and see other’s brought to the same new abundant life we are experiencing. We won’t be able to help but share it with others. There will be times that these “children” will need a word of advice, a listening ear, a scold or reprimand delivered in love and they will then desire relationship with us and our Maker.
This is the grand design. It was not accidentally put in there. It is a call to be the BRIDE OF CHRIST!!! Not some lazy woman who sits in His house on Sunday drinking up all his coffee and watching the show (service). We are called out of our seats, out of the building and oftentimes out of our comfort zone. This is the only way we will personally and corporately see lives changed and hearts turned. THE HONEYMOON IS OVER!!! Time to take off that pretty white dress and get busy!!! It’s time to fulfill our side of the covenant, drop the bon bons, put away the tv remote and get into our Quiet Time and bring more children to Christ.
