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I can’t believe I’m doing this! I must be crazy!? I am just a semi-retired counselor and a mom and a worship leader and older and … who am I? My family says, “Just a little bit crazy!” (pun intended, but it’s true, that’s what they are saying). Why am I so compelled to go out there and do this? To take these songs I have written out on the road and share them? In one sense it’s frightening. In another sense, exhilarating. I liken it to when I did my first triathalon. Once I finished it, the sense of accomplishment was so overwhelming in a good way. At that moment I felt like there wasn’t anything I couldn’t do, if I put my mind to it and God’s will is in it. I am a child of God and I love Him. I want to BE His will in my life. I find my salvation in Christ alone. This is what my blog ministry stands for: “No Longer Opposed”.

Paul said these words to Timothy as he started his ministry and it is this scripture that I will cling to as I am now embarking on this journey with my official Where I Am Tour. I am compelled to follow God’s will in my life for everything He has done for me, including creating me for His good pleasure. I would rather fear Him due to His awesomeness and greatness than to ever look around me and fear what others may think of me. I am on earth for God’s purposes, not my own. Please pray for me to keep this front and center and pray for me while I am on the road ’til I return home.

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.” (2 Timothy 1:6-14 ESV)

God has entrusted a calling to my heart. I don’t know why He has chosen me to go forward with this, in my fear of facing the giant world out there I say, “Lord, I am too small!” but I know he has equipped me. Therefore I say, “here I am God, send me!” I somehow find His favor by His grace… “Thank you, Jesus, for this opportunity to serve you and your kingdom. I know you go with me…before me, behind me and beside me. The battle is Yours and I will stand. I will be strong and courageous because Your Spirit lives in me and makes me strong and courageous. I will share the hope that is within me with others. May Your love abound more and more in my heart, so that I will learn to love your people the way You love them.” Amen

The Great Adventure has begun! I am so excited to see what God will have in store for me. I will be traveling for nearly 6 weeks without my family, but will be seeing many friends and extended family along the journey! Please, if you think of me, pray for my safety and for God to do His will through me at every stop I make! See you on the the road! And if I don’t see you, be sure to pick up the new CD “Where I Am” through my store here on the website and be refreshed and inspired!

Love and blessings!

~Jen

 

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Having just spent the last couple of days intentionally in God’s creation, I wanted to share a reminder that I always seem to get whenever I am out in it.

I live in one of the most bMost Beautiful PNWeautiful places of the country in the Pacific Northwest (I think – although, Alaska was possibly more beautiful when I lived there). Quite frankly, I see beauty in God’s natural creation wherever I travel. I always find something beautiful about the place I am at, even if it is not necessarily a place I want to live in.

But as I stare at, listen to, feel and absorb all the beauty… God says, “wait…” and I hear Him say… “my children are even more beautiful than all this that I have created.” On the 6th day of creation, when God had created mankind, He said it was “very good”. On all the other days, He said they were “good”. But humans… “very good”…even though in our sin nature we are so corrupt and in need of salvation.

I get seriously inspired by the natural environment around me. I wake up to it every morning right here in my backyard with the view of the mountains and I think of all the things I want to say or write about how wonderful God is and His salvation that He brings. But I must confess, have I looked at people that way? All people? Honestly, not all people inspire me to want to sit down and write a song… or think of how wonderful God is for creating that person. Yet it is so much easier when I look at an ocean, a river, mountains or the lush greenery of a forest. It does not take me long to look at the beauty of creation and be in awe of nature and want to think less of humankind. Such a sad and backwards thinking. I really want to be mindful to reverse that.

“God, help me to see the incredible-ness of your creation in every living soul that You died for; they are most beautiful in all creation. Help me to be inspired to love deeper than I ever have and also more genuinely as one of your own children saved by grace.”

 

 

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There is an amazing strength that comes from within when you know beyond a shadow of a doubt whose you are: that you were created for a purpose and how much you are deeply loved.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3, ESV

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:13-16, NIV

No lie from the Enemy can steal that truth away. You have to see it and really believe it, no matter what life seems to present you with. We may bend with the wind, but we won’t break.Bend in the Wind

It is the One who has carried you through every high gale and storm; He is the One who sings over you joyfully and holds you tenderly in the palm of His hand. The God from everlasting to everlasting!

Don’t you know, you are a child of God?

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Romans 8:16-17, ESV

and 

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12, NIV

This is our positional and eternal truth! It is hard to be shaken from that reality once you get it!

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Failure. Who wants to fail? None of us. But the truth of the matter is, we live in a fallen world and we have a sinful nature that wars against us. There is also an Enemy agent at work against us. As humans we are fragile. We are bound to fail. I fail, you fail, we fail each other. But our God NEVER fails us. “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abPoppiesounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love towards those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.” Psalm 103: 8-12, ESV

From everlasting to everlasting… He is God!

When you FEEL like you have failed, when you KNOW you have failed, remember this: “But this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in Him.'” Lamentations 3: 21-24, ESV

Do you cling to Him as Your portion? Then NEVER GIVE UP…NEVER!!!

A prayer of hope: We are so thankful, Lord, that even though we fail You and others, even ourselves, You never fail us. Everything you have said about yourself in Your word is true. You have given us Your gracious Holy Spirit, through our Savior, as a deposit on our hearts to mark us for the day of redemption. We wait for that with eager expectation and in the meantime, we pray that the acknowledgement of our failures and humility that comes from them, continues to reflect Your radiant glory in all Your goodness. Yes, Lord, Your mercies are new every morning! Amen

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After Jesus prayed in Gethsemane for Himself and then the disciples, He prayed for those who would believe in Him through the message of His disciples. That would be us: Those of us who choose to believe in Him by His testimony through His Word that He gave through the letters of the disciples. We are so fortunate to have all of God’s word available to us today. Everything has been put together for us into one place: 66 books, 40 authors in one story that transcends all time, which we call The Bible.

Jesus asked the Father to make us all one. Just as He was one with the Father He wanted us to be one in Him and the Father so that the world would believe that God the Father had sent God the Son. He asked the Father for us to be brought to complete unity and He testified that He loved us just as the Father has loved Him. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.”  (See John 17:20-26)

Why do we find it so hard to be in unity with each other as believers? Will we let love cover a multitude of sins? Will we do what we can to keep the peace with each other or do we have to prove that we are right or we have been wronged and we must be justified at any cost? We live in such a selfish world, I can’t help but wonder if we have let it infiltrate the church and our own hearts as believers? Certainly there is a place, time and way to address error. But does it violate love or will it prove that love is present?

When we live with envy and strife with one another as Christians we show disunity in the body of Christ and it wreaks havoc on our hearts and minds as believers and we become poor examples to those around us in the world who are watching us. Hopefully our souls trouble us at this point so that we take the time to take account and ask God to search and know our hearts; to try us and know our anxious thoughts and if there is any offensive way within us and to lead us in the way of everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24, NIV) Also see  2 Timothy 2:23-24 We have the help of the Holy Spirit to bring us into unity with each other, let’s draw on that and not major in the minors!

Image taken from: http://trueboat.wordpress.com/tag/church/