It’s About That Time…CLEMSON FOOTBALL TIME!!!
Man, college football season gets me PUMPED UP!!! Especially CLEMSON football! Yeah, my family manages to get season tickets (through my dad’s business), so I was that kid that went to all the home games, that rolled down the hill next to our parking space, that munched on ham rolls and chips and cookies until game time, that screamed and screamed until I lost my voice! Oh wait, I still do that! H-ha! I love Clemson football. My blood runs ORANGE!! Over the last few years it’s been hard for me to reconcile that the team I love so much is comprised of 18-22 year olds, people much younger than I am! Ever thought about that when you stand up to boo one of your player? Let’s just say, that realization made me stop. But seriously there’s something so amazing like walking into Clemson’s Memorial Stadium, otherwise known as Death Valley. There’s something amazing about the hours before the game. You can literally stop at any person’s tailgate and all of a sudden you’re sharing food, watching the pregame show or another game, and laughing like the best of friends. There’s something amazing about sitting with 80,000 fans and the roar that noise creates. There’s something amazing about seeing a sea of orange and purple! There’s something amazing about hearing that many thousands of people bouncing/jumping to a song or hearing each section shout out one letter that will eventually spell CLEMSON! There’s something amazing about scoring a touchdown and hearing the tiger roar! Man, I love CLEMSON football!
As much as I love Clemson football and am so enthusiastic about each and every game, I wonder if I’m ever really that excited about the Lord. Do I ever find myself screaming in joy at the top of my lungs to the Lord like I do every time Clemson scores? Do I ever find myself getting excited about what the Lord is going to do like I do right before the game starts? I must admit, not nearly as often as I should. Hmm, something to think about.
Either way, I am so pumped about Monday night! Bowden Bowl, baby!!! The game starts at 8, which means tailgating and time to spend with good friends before the game! It also means a late night! So, don’t expect me to be coherent at work on Tuesday morning. Either way, it’s going to be an awesome game! GO TIGERS!
Happy Birthday, Hal!
Today is my husband, Hal’s 27th birthday! I won’t get all cheesy and stuff on this blog…I’ll save that for the card…but I wanted to leave behind a few thoughts on my husband’s birthday.
I want to thank his parents, Chuck and Glenda. They have raised up Hal to be a man that pursues the Lord and loves the Lord with all his heart. They instilled these beliefs deep into his mind and heart from the time he was a young child. And although I am sure Hal gave them many gray hairs along the way, I know that they are proud of him. Because of their dedication to raising Hal to be a godly man, I am now blessed with a godly husband. There is nothing I can say that will truly communicate my gratitude to them. So thanks, Chuck and Glenda! The both of you are amazing, and I am so thankful to be a part of your family.
And to Hal, I’ll save the yucky love stuff for later, but know that I love you with all that I am. I praise God for you and thank him daily for you. It is my hope, as you enter your LATE 20’s, that you will contine to pursue the Lord with holy, unapologetic passion! It is my prayer that you would continue to approach the throne of grace with reverent fear and awe. It is my joy to be united with you on this journey of life. Happy 27th Birthday, baby! I love you!
Promises Kept
I’ve done a lot of thinking on promises lately. To be specific, believing and clinging to the belief that God keeps the promises He makes to His children. Isn’t it ironic how quickly we will grab onto the promise of something temporal, and yet how rarely we cling to those promises that are eternal. Or, that it seems that we often forget the promises that the Lord has made to us and because of that we begin listening to the lies that satan would speak into our ears. I guess all this has come about through my attempt to reconcile some losses. I continue to cling to the promise that the Lord has made me, but yet, I find myself questioning His words to me or worrying over if He will follow through. What’s most frustrating about this is that the Lord has ALWAYS kept His promises, He never fails…so why do I constantly question Him. I mean, seriously, since the dawn of creation God has kept His promises. From the Old Testament, the Great Flood in Genesis 9:8, God made a covenant promise with Noah that He would never again allow all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. All the way through the New Testament covenant promise that one day satan would be destroyed and that God would then come forth to reign forever and ever (found in Revelation), just as He had planned from the beginning before the fall of Adam and Eve.
Another verse I’ve found interesting in relation to the Lord keeping His promises is found in Hebrew 6:13-20, “When God made his promise to Abraham, he backed it to the hilt, putting his own reputation on the line. He said, “I promise that I’ll bless you with everything I have—bless and bless and bless!” Abraham stuck it out and got everything that had been promised to him. When people make promises, they guarantee them by appeal to some authority above them so that if there is any question that they’ll make good on the promise, the authority will back them up. When God wanted to guarantee his promises, he gave his word, a rock-solid guarantee—God can’t break his word. And because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable. 18-20We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us, in the order of Melchizedek.”
I don’t know about you, but this verse gives me that “pumped up” feeling of trust and faith in a mighty God who chooses to keep His promises to me. He chooses. So that I can know, down deep in my spirit, that He is trustworthy and true and honest. What great guarantee could I ask for. I believe that my God loves me enough that when He makes a covenant promise with me, that He will follow through. I just have to have faith. Interesting how the simplest things often become the most complicated…may I come back to my Father and trust Him with the faith of a child.
Be Ready
This is going to be a short post, merely food for thought. I think the theme of my life the last few weeks has been, “Be ready to move regardless of my circumstances.” It seems this is also a recurring theme in the lives of people I know as well. The Lord has thrown several opportunities in my path lately that have almost always occurred when I least wanted to do anything about it. Instead of saying, “Ok, Lord, I know you’ve equipped me for this…I don’t feel like it, but I will do as you ask with a good attitude”. I more often say, “Lord, there is too much going on in my life right now, I’m struggling and just don’t think I have anything to give. Try again later.” Sound familiar to anyone else? I’m learning that our God knows every circumstance of our lives…the good and the bad. When he asks something of us, it’s His perfect timing, rarely mine. Sometimes I just need to be willing to go, and by faith, believe that the Lord will orchestrate His desires through me…whether I think I’m prepared or capable or whatever. So, maybe it’s time for you to do the same. Maybe it’s time for you to say, “this isn’t the best time of my life, I’m hurting, I’m angry, I’m not ready…BUT I will follow you, Lord. Give me what I need to accomplish the task you’ve set before me. I will trust you.” How delighted I think God’s heart would be if we were more willing to simply throw off everything that hinders us and be obedient, and what a blessing I think we would receive in return. Anyway, just some food for thought today.
WALK IT OUT!!
No, this will NOT be a post on laziness. Just some random ramblings about risk and movement. Ok, time to get real!!! Like many of you out there, I long to hear the Lord speak His will into my life. In those moments that I do, I want to rejoice and go “Heck, yeah, I have a plan and now I’m going to do it!” Then there are those other occasions when I desperately seek the Lord in regards to something, and yet, never hear a word (or think I never hear) in my physical ears. So then, I question and question everything about what I thought I was supposed to do…doubts creep in. And soon my excuse becomes, “I just need to keep praying about it”. And somewhere along the way, my praying ceases and I forget about it. DO NOT HEAR ME SAY NOT TO PRAY! I think prayer is vital and necessary! I mean, hello, it’s a conversation between you and God! It doesn’t get much better than that!
But suppose all this “praying” we claim to do stifles us from taking a risk and being obedient before the Lord. I think most of us would be willing to say that if you don’t audibly hear from the Lord, that you can more often know what He desires by that gut check you get. You know what I mean! That feeling down deep in your gut, in your spirit, that says “DO IT” or “DON’T DO IT”!!! If you’re a Christ Follower, we all have it….it’s called the Holy Spirit that indwells in us! So, although I definitely believe that we should bathe things in prayer (not sprinkle, not shower…but wallow and bathe), I also believe that sometimes the Lord makes his desires known to us almost immediately. It makes me wonder how often I have hindered the Lord by not WALKING OUT what he asked of me. I wonder how many times I ignored that gut check and claimed to be praying about it, when really it meant that I didn’t want to do it and was running away from it. Hmm, sounds like someone from the Bible…Jonah perhaps!
So, my motto for this year is going to be “WALK IT OUT”! If I sense the Lord guiding me to do or not do something, I need to immediately react and be obedient. Not hesitant and fearful and unwilling to move, not willing to make excuses about “praying” when I’m really using it as a “christian cover”, but seriously and genuinely following through on what the Lord shares with my spirit or with my ears. May I be willing to step out in faith and believe that the Lord is using me as his vessel and simply walk it out!
Opportunities Missed?
I wonder how many opportunities I’ve missed in my life? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions? I wonder how many opportunities I seized actually had real, eternal value? I wonder how many opportunities got my attention and yet I didn’t act on it? I wonder how many opportunities I’ve failed to pursue? I’d be willing to bet that the number would make me sick.
God reminded me today that I should seize every opportunity I have to make a difference, to be willing to stick my neck out there and take a risk, to remind me of the things I should be doing that can change a life for all eternity. CRCC is the host/support church for Good News Club at Simpsonville Elementary. If you don’t know what Good News Club is, it’s an opportunity for “the church” to come into a public elementary school, after school, and share the love of Jesus Christ with the children and adults that attend. It’s a time for singing worship songs to God, teaching Bible stories and verses, and just having a good time sharing the gospel with children. It’s an amazing opportunity that I’ve been a part of for 2 years, this year will be my third.
As the support church we receive all the permission slips of all the children that will be attending. I came across a family that noted that that they were new in town and looking for a church. Here it was…my GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY to invite this family to CRCC. So, I took the risk of emailing a family I had never met and invited them to come to CrossRoads this Sunday. Who knows? They could read it, they could delete it…but maybe, just maybe, they will come because someone cared enough to go out of their way to invite them. Maybe they will occupy some of the empty chairs we are longing to fill. Maybe their lives, as a family, will be changed because they had an opportunity to engage the Lord at CRCC.
So, I felt pretty proud of myself that I didn’t let THIS opportunity pass me by. I’ve made a commitment with myself and before God that I would work at being more aware of the opportunities He places in my path. Not only that I would be more aware, but that I would be willing to step out, in faith, and pursue that opportunity…to take a risk. What a difference it would make if more of us would be willing to NEVER MISS ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY. So, might I request that you be more evident of the opportunities the Lord has for you and step up to seize that opportunity. You never know, you could be facilitating an eternal, life change in the life of another person! Man, that gets me pumped!!!
More Photos
I just added more photos of our trip to White Water, just click on the More Photos link on my Flicker sidebar.
A Great Awakening
So, I took a pretty big hit yesterday and it’s still haunting me today. No need to go into what exactly is going on, let’s just say it’s deeply personal and it hurts. But it made me rethink some things that are going on.
I believe we, as a city and as a church are going through what I’d like to call the “Transition Before a Great Awakening”. For some time now we, as a people, have been under some intense bondage. We’ve been longing to break those chains and gain victory, but the Lord is holding us off for something.
As an example, at CRCC 2006 ushered in a huge movement of fertility and breakthrough in regards to people being able to have children. Many couples all throughout our church who had been battling infertility and miscarriage, were by the hand of God, able to conceive children or adopt children. As the office administrator I keep records of all births, so in 2006 we had 26 children born or adopted by families in our church. Since that time there has been a great blackhole. It seems that the families that are deeply yearning for children have been unable to conceive, unable to get through the adoption process, etc. Godly couples who make or would make fantastic parents have been unable to break through this “fertility barrier”. Our own church staff has several couples who are yearning for children and for some reason, God in his sovreignty, has not allowed this to occur. These people love the Lord and are so broken right now, and through it all are trusting the Lord for breakthrough.
Many of us have come to believe the promise of our Savior. That He brings about all victory, all breakthroughs, all freedom. And only Him. I believe His promise to me that I will be the mother of many children. I trust that and ponder His promise deep in my heart and I remember it every time I think about my previous miscarriages. I believe that God’s timing is ultimate, and I’m waiting. I believe we are about to see a Great Awakening in regards to birth and rebirth. I believe the Lord is going to lay His mighty hands upon the families and people in our church and all across Greenville who are longing for children, and allow that conception or adoption. We’re starting to see a trickle…but we haven’t seen anything yet! I believe that the Lord is going to call hundreds and thousands to himself and their lives will be forever changed! So how does this relate to my previous paragraphs? I believe the Lord is calling us into a place of intercession and prayer for our friends, our church, our city. I believe He is asking us to step outside of ourselves and our own personal struggles and to truly intercede on behalf of others. I can tell you from my own experience that I have never committed so much to praying for several people in particular, I mean daily praying and interceding for them…and all this has come about a belief in this Great Awakening the Lord has planned. I believe we will see victory for every couple on our staff that is longing for children, I believe that couples in our church will be able to conceive and carry their children to term, I believe that the Lord would open doors to adoption…and not just in our church, but all throughout Greenville. I believe we will see so many come to the Lord for the first time! Oh, how my heart cries out for that!
Oh, how my heart beseeches the Lord in His goodness to touch the hearts and lives of mothers and those that desire to be. There is no greater blessing than that for the maternal heart. Lord, I ask that you would bring peace to the conflicted hearts of those that are waiting on you to bring that child to them. Lord we know all things happen in your timing, let us storm your throne in prayer for one another. Let us not forget that we are not alone. Let us carry one another’s burdens. Let us intercede on the behalf of those that do not know you, Lord. Break the chains that are binding infertility and bring forth more children for your kingdom. Both babies and adults that need to know who you are!
Special thanks and appreciation to JoAnna, Lauren B., Lauren W., and Lindsey. Thank you for your prayers and support. You are all so precious to me. Battling alongside you…
Who Knows?
Sometimes I just don’t know what to say, or do, or think. Today is one of those days. Pray for me.
The Hinge – Be There!
The Prayer Team at CRCC is hosting a weekend conference called the Hinge: Turning the Heart of A City Through Strategic Intercession. See fastforgreenville.com.
When: August 24-25
Where: CrossRoads Community Church
**No childcare will be provided**
ITENERARY
Friday Night 7:00-9:30
*Worship with David Walker
Open for Ministry During Worship
Saturday
A.M. 9:00-11:30
**Lunch Break**
P.M. 1:00-4:00
-Free Registration. Send email to richbutler@crccsc.org or call 864-350-2777 if attending.
*A Love Offering Will Be Taken*
