Twenty4teen

Happy 2014 Friends.

New year, fresh start! Cheers to a new year and a challenge that is both attainable and rewarding.

don't look to closely... I wrote 2013! lol

For as long as I could remember, I have been journaling one verse a day. Challenging you to do the same and share that good Word with a friend. And as a byproduct of spending time in the word may we be used as a diffuser: spreading the knowledge of Christ everywhere we go... Like a sweet smelling aroma. For we are the fragrance of Christ. God bless you!

small beginnings

 Hi Friends. As of lately, I've been quite silent: discerning, praying, reading, listening, learning, teaching, sitting, waiting, growing and moving. As promised, I will share with you my 2012 verse.

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While attending a ladies bible study this past fall, I was given a verse by one of the attendees. In her words, “I believe God wants you to hold on to this word: Do not despise the day of small things.” She then proceeded to warn me not to take this verse lightly. And so I prayed. I searched. I found.

I prayed.

Why this verse? It really had little to do with what we were studying and much less with what I had shared with the group that night. But I wasn’t about to take for granted that which may have been a word from the Lord. I prayed: Lord, reveal to me two things 1) the meaning of this verse and 2) how it applies to me.

I searched.

Zechariah 4:10 is the exact verse. “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand. (The seven lamps represent the eyes of the LORD that search all around the world.) ” NLT

Small Beginnings?

We find ourselves in the book of Zechariah, where the people of God had returned to Judea from exile. The returning Jews had laid the foundation for a new temple yet soon abandoned it. As a result, it lay in ruins, neglected and the people overcome by discouragement. The Lord loved His people and so, He raised Zechariah the prophet to call His people to repentance, spiritual renewal and to return to a right relationship with Him. This was the time of small beginnings.

For the Lord rejoices to see the work begin?

Rejoice = Samach (Hebrew) = to brighten up, cheer up, be made glad, make joyful.

See = Ra’ah (Hb) = advise self, appear, approve, behold, consider, enjoy, be near, look after, see after, perceive, give attention to, discern, distinguish, provide, regard.

Plumb Line?

A plumb line, a cord of tin or lead weight attached to one end, is used in construction to ensure that a wall is vertical.

Seven Lamps?

Seven signifies completeness or perfection. God sees all that takes place on earth; He controls the fates of people and nations.

I found.

The past two years have surely felt as if I was in exile. I can’t explain it in words, nor can I fully describe what I felt, but it was much like a person who left a familiar place and migrated to a new location and is now returning to their homeland. Much was taken from me. However, looking back from where I am at today, I see that it was the very hand of God that stripped from me all my “riches”.

The sovereign hands that took away people, ministries, jobs, financial support, and more is now giving back to me. Though I haven’t wandered off, worshipped other gods, nor have I damned His name, there are areas in my life that lay in ruins, neglected and discouraged.  He has called me to repentance, spiritual renewal and to return to a right relationship with Him. He doesn’t leave me alone to do this work. He has faithfully placed Zechariah-type people in my path. He has given me His Word, which is my armor and protection (Psalm 91:4). I have His love which covers a multitude of sin in my life (Proverbs 10:12) and casts out all fear (1 John 4:18).  And as a few verses before reminds me, it is not by my strength, nor by my might that this work will be done in my life, but by His Spirit (Zechariah 4:6).

How precious to know that God, Creator God, Savior God, Holy God wants to do a work in my life. He yearns to do a work in your life too. I desire for my 2012 verse to encourage you as well. Those areas that lay in ruin, neglected, abandoned, discouraged, sin-filled, broken, bleeding, barren, ill, poor, paralyzed, or even refused are all areas that God longs for. When we surrender them to Him, He rejoices over them, He sees that the work is done upright (plumb line) and brought to perfect completion (seven lamps). For who can make straight what God has made crooked? When God is Lord over every area of your life, He will make you whole, a glorious work! And if like myself, you find yourself in the midst of a “small beginning” or a “new work”, do not despise these days nor be afraid but rather find strength in the fact that God has not look down on you but rather has counted you worthy of His work. You are not alone, we are all in the making. 

thee verse

 

As promised, today I will share with you the verse I received from this year. During the end of December the Lord spoke clearly to me about this verse:

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10

I have to be honest with you, I was a bit desensitized to this verse because it's the life/theme verse of my church. I guess hearing it week in and week out, it became just another verse like many that become a Christian cliche. I even felt a little silly that God would choose this verse for me, thinking that it is well known in my heart. WRONG! Though the verse is well known in my mind, my heart is far from knowing it as God's written and spoken Word for me personally. It makes sense to me now that John 10:10 is for me this year, right now.

At the end of the year I shared with other youth leaders the responsibility of teaching the youth from the big people pulpit, lol. Freedom was the series and I had the honor of doing the first teaching. And with that great honor came total blankness. Freedom in the spiritual sense can mean many things to a large group of people. After much prayer I knew what aspect of Freedom I would teach: Freedom to Live. Little did I know that in preparing for this sermon the Lord would teach me a thing or two through John 10:10. This verse no longer is a "church" verse for me but a life verse (along with many other great ones) and my year verse for 2011.

Throughout the coming week, I will be sharing parts of that teaching as well as what John 10:10 means to me. Jesus has come to give me life, to give you life, life that is abundant and overflowing with His goodness. It is this Jesus that my heart yearns for you to know. How appropriate to begin the year looking at Him, the giver of life. After all, in the words of a very wise man that I have the privilege of knowing: If it doesn't point to Jesus, what's the point? -George Cuevas.

A New Thing

Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth, shall you not now it? I will even make a road in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:19 (NKJV)

Welcome dear readers to this new blog.

To be very honest with you I really don't know what I am doing, but that is not strange coming from me. For some time now God has been prompting me to do a new thing. That "new thing" has come in the form of a blog... Ta Da! I am not a writer, but I am a messenger of the Most High. Through this blog, I hope and pray that both you and I may become true lilies among thorns. In this world of darkness, wastefulness, of valleys, thorns and hopelessness I invite you, encourage you to:

Be the light of the world.

Be the salt of the earth.

Lead many through the valley to Jesus.

Be a lily among thorns.

Live a life that speaks the Gospel.