😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  Wow, can you believe it’s Holy Week already?  Lent went by in a blink.  In the Wednesday, February 17, 2021 message I asked you about your approach to Lent and challenged you to a brand new habit.  How has your Lent moved you in your relationship?  Go ahead, take a moment to search the highlight reel.  I’ll wait………

I hope you saw conversations of confusion, enlightenment, comfort, joy, peace, questioning, discovery and aha moments.  But above all, I pray that your conversations with the Father, Son, and Spirit brought you growth and a greater, more two-sided relationship.  The more you choose to engage with the Lord, the more you move your relationship from one sided to balanced. 

In Monday’s Gospel reading, John 12:1-11, this part particularly caught my attention as if I were hearing it for the first time.  “The large crowd of the Jews found out that He was there and came, not only because of Him, but also to see Lazarus, whom He had raised from the dead.  And the chief priests plotted to kill Lazarus too, because many of the Jews were turning away and believing in Jesus because of him.”  Talk about being used for God’s mission and glory.  No, Lazarus didn’t choose to be raised from the dead and I really doubt that he chose to have people want to kill him.  There’s no doubt that life can seem a bit crazy and turn on a dime.  But where does your constancy lie? Awhile back, in a conversation with my niece, who is a gymnast, she was telling me how now that she doesn’t compete and doesn’t have to keep her hair pulled back so tightly, she has new hair growing along her hairline.  So you may be thinking, “What does that have to do with anything?”  Let’s take a step back.  When did it stop growing?  It stopped when constant pressure and opposition dominated it.  It’s like it gave up trying.  Now that her scalp is relaxed, in a natural state, and not under constant opposition, it’s able to peacefully grow as it was made and intended to.  Where does that opposition lie in your life, that is constantly pulling you away from Christ?  What’s the opposition that’s creating pressure in your life?  What’s the opposition that’s stopped your growth?  You have a couple days left this Lent.  Come back to Him.  Talk with Him.  He’s not mad at you.  He misses you and wants to talk and spend time with you.  Allow your time with Him to release the pressures and oppositions on life.  Allow your time with Him to open you up to new growth.  Sometimes the stories about Him just seem like words on a page, but He’s a pretty awesome God when you get to know Him in person.  He’s literally dying to meet you.

Bless others and be blessed. 

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.

#ElevationRhythm – Quiet

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  Do you feel it?  Can you see it?  Can you smell it?   It’s working its way to you.  You’re only a few days away.  It’s a big celebration!  Feel the excitement!  Set your eyes upon a King.  Breath in the smell of donkey???  No, let’s breath in the smell of fresh cut palms.  Yes, Palm Sunday is just a few days away.  Our King is making His entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey. 

Hands and voices raised “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!  Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!  See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” – Zechariah 9:9

¹² ’The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. ¹³ They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna!  Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the King of Israel!”’ – John 12:12-13

You still have time.  Prune your heart, eyes, ears, thoughts, words and actions of all that is dead.  Make room for the new life that is budding and about to spring forth within you!  Shout aloud and echo holy is the Lord!  You have been on this journey.  You have taken wrong turns.  You have spent time stuck in the mud.  But…ALL is being washed away.  YOU will be made clean, not as before, but brilliant like never before.  Your Lord, my Lord, He is the release from our season of sin.  Celebrate, for there is no greater victory.  Welcome and praise Him with all your might.  I don’t care if someone thinks you look like a fool.  Listening to today’s song gives me Holy Spirit bumps (aka goosebumps).   Sing aloud and rejoice in Him.

Bless others and be blessed. 

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.

#RedRocksWorship – Echo Holy

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  This week I was reminded a little of my past.  Before I get into that, I have a question for you and I want you to be very specific.  What, if anything, do you say when someone sneezes around you?  When I was a young child I would say “God bless you.”  But there came a time as a young adult, and I don’t really remember why, maybe it just wasn’t cool to say, but I dropped God and just said “Bless you.”  As I grew in my faith and relationship with God, I eventually brought God back in front of the “Bless you.” 

So why do I bring this up now?  This week, I spent time around a young child that had the sneezes.  Every time I heard a sneeze I said “God bless you.” 

After saying “God bless you.” multiple times, the young child said, “Can you not say G?” 

I responded with, “G?  Do you mean God?”

“Yes”

Pause a moment…

First, this may seem strange, but I was proud of this young child for being willing to speak up for what she’d been taught and her young degree of belief.  At this age, it’s about mimicking those authority figures that influence her and less about her own educated belief.  It may not seem like much now, but I’ll circle back to this.

Second, WOW!  My heart sunk for two reasons 1) I was asked not to say God.  And 2) the child wouldn’t even say the word God.  Just G.

…un pause.

Without a thought I said, “God’s blessing is greater than any blessing I can give you, so I’m going to continue to say “God bless you.”  And so, I did. 

I’m not mad at this child or her parents.  I was just really caught off guard.  I would imagine a good portion of all of us have gone through those Saul periods of life when, maybe not as bluntly as Saul, but in our own ways have persecuted the Lord.  Those years that I chose to remove God from the Bless you, yes, I was persecuting Him.  Okay, you may think I’m overreacting, but am I really?  Our purpose in life is to give glory, honor, and praise to the Lord in all we do, serving those He places before us, and make His presence known so that others may also live a glorious life with Him.  So, the question is, how can we do this if we are afraid and won’t even speak His name.  By letting the fear of what others think stop us from doing what we know is pure, right, and holy, how will we every glorify the Lord?  Choose the Lord and be bold in the smallest of opportunities.  Put God back in front of the Bless you.  You know where you’re skimping out on Him and I pray that every time it happens, He makes us fully aware of what we do so that we go back to putting Him first. 

I know for a fact we will ALL fall in our journey with the Lord.  By our choices, some of us fall farther than others because of our lack of a personal connection with Christ, such as Saul.  Once Saul had that personal experience with Christ…The rest is history.  You can read about Saul’s conversion experience in Acts 9: 1-19.  A prayer that I have prayed for many years for my children is, Lord I pray that they don’t fall too far and get too hurt before they come back to You. 

Saul, one of the biggest persecutors of Christ became one of His biggest advocates.  If you, like me are not Jewish, God’s choice to have Saul bring His message to the Gentiles is the reason we know Christ.  That child’s boldness to speak up at such a young age gives me great hope for what God will do and work through her life and how her boldness will bring others to Christ.  She has a Spirit in her that is the one and only Holy Spirit.  Be bold in your faith, belief and actions for the Lord.

Bless others and be blessed. 

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.

#RhettWalkerBand – Believer

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  Ecclesiastes 7:14 “When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other.”  Don’t think, just say it out loud.  At this very moment, what life experience are you working through? 

Are you on the hilltop, in the valley, or working your way somewhere along the hillside? 

What brought you to this point?  More than likely it’s not just one thing.  I imagine it’s more like a chain of actions binding and holding your life together.

What led to what?  Looking at it in hind sight can be rather interesting.  There are so many inconspicuous details that we miss while living in the moment, but upon looking back they play a big part of our direction moving forward.

I, by God’s timing, read Ecclesiastes 7:14 on Friday during my lunch walk.  It was just about three hours before reading this scripture that I was notified of a promotion I received.  What made this scripture so meaningful in conjunction with my promotion was the fact that the reason I was in my current job was because of a human error and one year and 11 months of trying to clean up that error that led to not only this promotion, but another one in February 2020.  In the moment when learning about the error and many months that followed, I was not focused on what God was preparing me for, but simply blinded by my stress, worry, and emotions.  Can you relate to this type of blindness? 

But that wasn’t the starting point either.  As I continued on my lunch walk, I continued rolling the footage on other life events that link by link has built this chain that holds me firmly anchored to my Lord.  I not only looked at the past footage, but He is also allowing me to see some previews of what He’s setting in motion because of these highs and lows, good times and bad times.  Life is not all fun and games, but it’s not all worry and stress either.  I’m so grateful that I have a God, a Friend that is so willing to share every experience with me.  Yes, life is filled with good and bad, but when we live this life together, there is no greater bond.  Thank You Lord, that You’re willing to put up with my whining and complaining during those uncomfortable moments in life, to help see me through to the best life you desire me to experience with You.

Bless others and be blessed. 

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.

#BrandonLake – Gratitude

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  During the sermon on the mount (Matthew 5:43-48), Jesus turns life as they knew it upside down when He tells them/us hating our enemy (you know who He’s talking about) is no longer an option.  Hating our enemy is the easy way out, Right?  It also typically carries with it little to no growth for the purpose of sharing and growing the goodness He is.  Instead, Jesus is telling and encouraging us to love our enemy.  Again, you know who He’s talking about in your life.  We’ve all been there.  Forgiveness is not easy.  It’s not enjoyable.  With a right Spirit, forgiveness is sobering and it certainly doesn’t happen overnight.  Forgiveness is a marathon.  Slow, steady, consistent, that’s what draws us to forgiveness.  Forgiveness is not forgetfulness.  You need to know the difference or you will never reach the point of forgiveness. 

This time of Lent, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.  40 days, not 4 minutes.  It takes time and a whole lot of God within you to workout the hate, which will slow and steady move it’s way into love.  No, it probably won’t turn into a friendship kind of love and I would take a guess it more than likely will never be a romantic kind of love.  That’s okay.  The love that you’re really going for here is Agape.  That undeniable, unconditional, 24/7, 365, God’s got this kind of love that’s beyond explanation and freeing beyond belief.  Let that fire that’s burning within you be the fire of the Spirit, not an eternal flame that burns you up from the inside out.  The Spirit, your Trail Guide, He’s with you on this.  Keep pace with Him.  Slow and steady the flames within find a new Wind to fuel them until the moment you will never walk in fear, anger, and hate again.  Bless others and be blessed. 

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.

#JordanSt.Cyr – Fires

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  How was your first week of Lent?  I was less than a half a day into Ash Wednesday when I let myself get the better of me and ended up doing the opposite of what Jesus specifically tells us about in Matthew 18:15-17.  Basically, He tells us if someone sins against us, we need to talk with them first.  If the issue persists, then we talk with the person again, but this time we bring a couple witnesses.  If things still don’t change, then we bring the situation to the church (community).  Well, I let the issue build in me and instead of approaching the person, I skipped a few steps and took it right to the community.  I have been beating myself up about this ever since then.  I’ve had quite a few conversations with the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirt about they way I went about things.  I’m not proud of myself at all, but God has shown me some better options for future situations and how to act as He teaches.  I’m still a work in progress, which He knows too well.  But He is willing to work with me.  Yesterday morning I read the final entry in Cara Whitney’s Unbridled Faith, which again drew me back to my actions from last Wednesday.  She wrote: “When the Bible steps on our feet by addressing a sin we are afraid to confront or give up, we are reminded of how heavy our sins can be.”  She goes on to say: “…the battle for our souls may be over, but the sting of sin will continue to harass us.”  Are you like me and allow your sins to beat you up?

Speaking of talking with the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, did you accept last week’s Lenten challenge to talk with each of Them individually on a daily basis?  Last Thursday during my lunch walk with the Holy Spirit, I received a name that I’ve been trying to figure out for a few years now.  When I speak with God, I like to address Him as I would a friend.  Father is good.  Jesus is good.  But Holy Spirit, it just never seemed to quite roll off my tongue.  It seemed formal and forced, so I tended not to address the Holy Spirit when I spoke with Him.  Before I go further, one thing I want to share with you is that God makes His presence known to me by showing Himself as a deer.  So last Thursday when I was walking in the snow, I looked across the field and saw one set of deer tracks.  He told me: “Sometimes I let you see where I’ve been and other times, I’m there without you knowing.”  My mind drifted to walking with God at our favorite place, and that’s when He told me…”Trail Guide.  You can call me Trail Guide.”  I know this probably doesn’t sound exciting to you, but it was perfect addressing the Holy Spirit as Trail Guide.  That flows very easily and after all, He is guiding me on this journey through life.  It really was no surprise to me when again yesterday morning, God gave me to read Cara Whitney’s devotional “Follow the Trail Map” from Unbridled Faith Devotions for Young Readers.  Cara wrote: God has given us the perfect trail map to get us safely through life: the Bible.  Dotting the pages of Scripture (like trail markers along the way) are God’s promises.  They encourage us to keep going and warn us away from danger.  God knows the way because He is the Way (John 14:6).”  She goes on to say: “And consider this: not only did God give us the map, He created the trails!”  There is NO ONE better than the Creator, Himself, to take our guidance from.  Grab your Bible and this week (if you aren’t already) in addition to having your one on One conversations, start blazing your trail through His living, true, and ever guiding word.  Bless others and be blessed.

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that you and He may also bless others.

#CaraWhitney – Unbridled Faith

#CaraWhitney – Unbridled Faith Devotions for Young Readers

#Unspoken – Mistakes

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  Happy Ash Wednesday and welcome to Lent.  Which best describes your approach to Lent 2021?  Take your time, I’ll give you a moment to think about it.

1. 40 days. 
2. 40 days? 
3. 40 days!

What will the next 40 days look like for you?  It’s been said that it only takes 30 days to create a habit.  So, what can Lent offer you in 2021?  That’s right!  A BRAND NEW HABIT + 10 extra days.  Evolution is moments of transformation within our sprit, soul, mind and body.  Growing our relationship with the Lord into deeper meaning and understanding.  With that being said, my challenge for you this Lent is to evolve your conversations with the Lord.   

How will this challenge work? 

1. You decide the times, but you will need three different times each day.  Try to make them consistent.  Set an alarm if it helps.
2. How much time?  I guess that depends on you.  To get this evolution started, let’s think realistically.  How about 10-15 minutes, three times a day?  To put that into perspective, how much time each day do you spend looking at social media or watching shows or whatever your favorite vice is?  Probably more than 10-15 minutes.  You could probably spare this much time for a worthwhile reason.  You can always add more when…well, you’ll know when the time is right.
3. Just have a conversation.  What?  Yep, that’s it.  Just have a conversation.  I don’t want you reading a book, listening to a song, writing in a journal, doing work, cooking, looking at your phone or even praying.  Just have a conversation.
4. So, who are you supposed to have a conversation with?  Three people.  God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.  But not at the same time.  I want you to have one on One conversations with each One.  They Each have something very special to offer you. 
5. If you like to journal, that’s great, take notes about your conversations.  But only after your conversation has finished.  I don’t want you distracted with writing and miss the conversations.  Keep engaged with your conversation.  If you don’t like to journal, I know you’ve got at least one word in you.  Write down at least one word about your conversation.  After your Lent, take a moment to read about the journey you all took and the evolution you experienced.

How will you evolve and come out on the other side of these 40 days?  Bless others and be blessed.

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that He may also bless others.

#Madisa – These Days

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  During Mass last weekend, Father Chris’ homily enlightened me and gave me a new perspective regarding Mark 1:29-32.  “On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.  Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.  They immediately told Him about her.  He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up.  Then the fever left her and she waited on them.”

In the past, when reading this passage, I always thought…”Dang, she didn’t even get to rest.”  She went right from being sick to waiting on them.  I rationalized that to being a sign of the times.  So, why would something as simple as that be important enough to be written in the Bible?  It seems like such a common place event.  If you think about it, Jesus was all about the “common place” and everyday events.  Jesus didn’t have the disciples booking Him to perform at sold out amphitheaters to crowds of crazy fans just trying to get His autograph.  No, He was more invested than that.  He invited Himself to dinner at your home, so that He could look into your eyes, listen as you spoke, and hear the depths of your heart.  He would tell stories about events you could relate with, such as pruning (John 15:12), parenting (Luke 15:11-32), weddings (Matthew 22:1-14), and finances (Matthew 18:21-35).  True, He did speak to crowds of people, not because He had planned gatherings, but because people heard He was in town and would drop everything just to see Him, hear Him speak, or even simply touch His cloak for a split second.  Even these brief encounters with Christ changed their lives forever, to some degree.  But, Jesus was seeking friends and followers, not fans.  In our healing encounters with Christ, we can choose one of two responses:

1) Wow!  That was a cool experience.  Hey Buddy, let me tell you what I just did.  – Fan

2) Thank You!  Hey Friend, I want to share with you what I just experienced…I would like to show you the way to Him, so that you can know and experience Him also.  – Friend and Follower

You see, upon Simon’s mother-in-law’s healing, waiting on them wasn’t a chore that she had to do.  She chose to serve the Lord.  Will your experiences with Christ bring you that momentary high that a fan experiences or will your experiences with Christ move you into compassionate service?  Service for the Lord is not a drudgery, it’s a joy.  Is He worthy of your time and service?  Which will you choose?  Bless others and be blessed.    

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that He may also bless others.

#ChrisTomlin – Is He Worthy?

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  Welcome to February, the month of love, right?  There’s a song that we sing within the Walk to Emmaus community that starts out…”Love, love, love, love.  The Gospel in one word is love.”  Singing those two sentences puts a big grin on my face.  It’s really kind of hard to describe love.  Okay, think back to your teen years and that first crush you had that you were soooo sure was love.  Oh no, I’m not discounting that at all.  Your first crush was actually a great starting point.  It was a new and exciting time.  It probably made you feel happy and good about yourself.  Maybe even a little more confident.  But on the other hand, you may have felt a little unsure as you experienced new emotions.  Now, consider how different your first crush was compared to your first serious relationship.  If you’re like me you may look back and think, “Wow, I really had no idea what love was.”  Each relationship we experience and share, we grow a little more in our understanding of love.  There are so many different characteristics of love and just as many types of loving relationships.  The ones that top my list started with my parents and siblings and grew into loving relationships with my husband, children, grandchildren, and friends.  There are so many things I enjoy doing with my loved ones.  So how did they earn their coveted places in my love circle?  It all started with my parents and them showing me love by taking care of me.  That is an unspoken love that is known without a word being spoken, that built a strong foundation for my current understanding of true unconditional love.  It’s a love that brings with it a feeling of comfort and peace.  In your loving relationships, you may find yourself doing what I do.  If I feel the need for…then I reach out to…because I know they can provide that kind of love for me.  But today I need…so I’m going to reach out to…because they know the exact loving words to share.  And so it goes.  We build that circle of loving relationships so that we always have the perfect person to draw from when we need it.  Right?  On the surface it’s starting to sound like the majority of love is about what we receive.    

A warm sunny day. Forgiveness.  A walk in the woods.  Grace.  A friend to talk with.  A listening ear.  A healing touch.  A guide and mentor.  Compassionate.  Faithful.  Merciful.  Patient.  Dependable.  Trustworthy.  Peace.  Savior.  Genuine.  Truthful.  Unconditional.  These are all aspects of my relationship with God.  But the greatest of these is love.  Why is that?  It’s because they are all aspects of love.  God IS love, therefore EVERYTHING He does is love.  It’s such an overwhelming experience and feeling, there’s no doubt we crave it.  Actually, it’s more like we’re addicted to His love.  God offers us a class of love that we as humans can’t duplicate, but we constantly desire and seek.  Unfortunately, at times, we go looking for His love in all the wrong places.  In those moments, just stop for a moment, breath Him in, and He will guide you back to Him and His ONE TRUE LOVE.  This week’s song isn’t one of my typical songs, but it made me smile and I thought it was fitting.  Besides that, God can and will use anything and everything to bring His message of love to us.  Bless others and be blessed.

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that He may also bless others.

#RobertPalmer – Addicted to Love

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  Was it you?  Did you ask for change?  I don’t think it was me.  Well, I did ask for change, but it wasn’t that.  Maybe I used the wrong words.  Maybe He didn’t quite understand me.  Oh no, He heard my words very clearly, but I just didn’t know what I was really asking for.  This past weekend I was reminded that if change is going to happen, then it’s up to me to seek it and make time for it.  That fire has been reignited, but I don’t want it to blaze as if fuel had dumped on it and burn out in a blink.  I want a fire that is constant and consistent.  I want a fire that I can get excited about and I’m drawn to.  I want a fire that will wow me and grow me.  Moses experienced a Fire that wowed and excited him.  A Fire that drew him in and grew him.  But that’s not where his story began, not at all.  You talk about some crazy change to move, pull, stretch, and grow him into the leader God asked him to be.  From the arms of a Hebrew mother, to Pharaoh’s side.  From a murderer to a desert wanderer.  From a family man to a questioning mind, to a servant of the Lord on a mission he knew he couldn’t do alone.  But he knew the One who called him from the field to the mountain, and allowed him to see Him, would never abandon him.  The Lord knows Moses didn’t understand why certain things happened and why people acted the way they did, but he trusted the Lord with his life.  That’s the kind of fire to have in your soul.  Is your fire dwindling?  Throw another log on.  Or better yet, build a self-feeding fire. 

Those logs are scripture, books, podcasts, Mass, prayers, Christian fellowship with a community of saints, quiet time with God, worship music, mentors, etc.  We learn and grow through many experiences and seasons.  If it only took one experience, the Bible wouldn’t be filled with so many chapters.  Speaking of fire, this week’s song got me fired up driving to work one morning, so I knew a had to share it with you.  I hope it sets your soul on fire also.  Bless others and be blessed. 

If the Lord has touched you in some way with His message today, I ask that you pay it forward by sharing this message, so that He may also bless others.

#BrandonLake – I Need a Ghost