Living out Life with Passion, Purity & Purpose

  Sunday David preached a sermon on weakness. Today I found this blog “The Power of Weakness” I wrote back in 2009 and have shared multiple times since. This is an updated 2023 version of that blog, 14 years later and still learning this process of weakness becoming strength. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 even though I have received such wonderful revelations from God. So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud.Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong I think we could all agree that this concept is a hard one for us to grasp. We are talking ab...

Sunday we shared about Covenant, Communion and Community. And how all 3 are intimately related. And how all of them require a culture of Honor.   In this blog I want to focus on the aspect of Community or Family. I read a blog today talking about community and it defined what community is NOT. Community - family - houses are NOT a bunch of people who agree with everything you say. Real houses, real familes, real communites of God are people who may disagree on things - But agree that they all want to love God and love people and do both well. They learn to treat each other and their differences of opinion with kindness and empathy and curiosity. This is rare and refreshing in our world today. We believe in this hour God is raising up Restoration HOUSE as just that... a house of God, a house of family, a community of believers who honor God and honor each other. Houses need Fathers and Mothers and Sons and Daughters...  not who agree on everything  but agree on the ONE thi...

  We have never had more access to Gods Word than we do today. There are unlimited versions of the Bible available on your phone, hundreds of thousands of sermons and teaching are easily accessible on TV, radio, podcast, and YouTube. There are Christians books and magazine and newsletters on every subject and Bible verse. The Word is readily available 24/7. And I would venture to say the church is not more spiritually mature.   There is a quote attributed to DL Moody “The Bible was not given to increase our knowledge, but to change our lives.”   The Word of God was not given just to increase our knowledge. It is not enough to just hear the Word at church, read it occasionally, study it sporadically and think about it randomly.   The Word should become part of us and be applied to our lives daily. There is a quote that says "Unapplied truth is like unapplied paint. It doesn't do anybody any good. The value of paint is in the application." In ...

Exodus 33:11 NKJV So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle. Pages upon pages have been written about Moses encounters with God – face to face, or mouth to mouth like a friend speaking to another. Of course Moses and the Lords relationship fascinates me, and maybe I’ll write more another day BUT today as I was reading this verse I was struck by Joshua… did not depart from the tabernacle.   The MSG version says “Joshua, stayed – he didn’t leave the Tent.” That’s it. This almost obscure statement about Joshua against a massive backdrop of Moses intimacy and relationship with the Lord. And at first I’m left with more questions than answers. Why did Moses take Joshua with him to the tent? Was Joshua inside the tent? Was Joshua able to hear the conversations between God and Moses? Why did Joshua stay? This wasn’t j...

  An intimate revelation of this God.... I haven't updated this blog in a long time.  I had this post come up on my memories and thought it was worth sharing. I wrote this in Jan 2020 before Covid, before the loss of my Daddy. But at a point in my life that I had seen some struggles and fought some battles. I've learned that life will bring unwanted trials and tribulations but this "intimate revelation" of Christ is more than enough to carry me through them all. 2 Timothy 1:12 TPT The confidence of my calling enables me to overcome every difficulty without shame, for I have an intimate revelation of this God. And my faith in him convinces me that he is more than able to keep all that I’ve placed in his hands safe and secure until the fullness of his appearing.   I can’t get away from this verse! We have been studying the life of Paul for most of 2019 in our Sunday School. We ended yesterday with his final letter to Timothy. Paul is nearing the end of his life, he is c...

Wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.  -Psalms 27:14 “Waiting exposes our idols and throws a wrench into our coping mechanisms. It brings us to the end of what we can control and forces us to cry out to God. God doesn't waste our waiting. He uses it to conform us to the image of his Son.” ―  Betsy Childs Howard Patience – I admit is not my strongest asset and I like to think I’m brave and courageous. I like to think I’ve made progress in all of these areas, but then some disappointment comes and smacks me in the face, some trial or test hangs on longer than I want, people let me down, rejection stings, circumstances don’t change, prayers don’t seem to be answered… you get the idea… and my lack of patience, bravery and courage becomes evident. After years of walking with Jesus, I’ve learned He doesn’t cater much to my time tables and microwave expectations. His ways are not immediate, they are perfect an...

Mass Shootings – My kids school on lockdown & Hope & Love > Fear I have read, listened to and seen so much information about the mass shooting in Parkland, FL that took 17 lives and forever altered countless others. I have listened to people debate gun laws, parenting or the lack of, hate groups and countless other topics this subject brings up. The day after the shooting my kids high school was put on lock down for an anonymous note found threatening to shoot up the school. Neither of my kids were at school at the time of the lock down. All of this makes me sad, tired and the enemy would love to make me afraid. Afraid to send my kids to school. Afraid for the parents of young kids in my church that have to send their kids to school for a lot longer than I do (mine are in 9 th and 12 th grade). But the truth is I still believe that Love > Fear & Love > Hate. Too simplistic -   you state. But let’s remember that in all of the stories of tragedy...