The Fire of Your Heart- Max Lucado

My God, I want to do what You want. Your teachings are in my heart. Psalm 40:8

Want to know God’s will for your life? Then answer this question: What ignites your heart?

Forgotten orphans? Untouched nations? The inner city? The outer limits?

Heed the fire within!

Do you have a passion to sing? Then sing! Are you stirred to manage? Then manage!

Do you ache for the ill? Then treat them! Do you hurt for the lost? Then teach them!

As a young man I felt the call to preach. Unsure if I was correct in my reading of God’s will for me, I sought the counsel of a minister I admired. His counsel still rings true. “Don’t preach,” he said, “unless you have to.”

As I pondered his words I found my answer: “I have to. If I don’t, the fire will consume me.”

What is the fire that consumes you?

Ya! Ya, I am!

I had a job interview, and my interviewer told me, "You seem like you are on a mission Hillary."
I replied, "Ya! Ya, I am!"
First. I am glad someone noticed.
Second. I am glad that someone reminded me why I am here.
Matthew 28 says it all.

"Peace be with you."-John 20:19

Thanks God. I'll take it.-Hillary

Warmth

I am blessed with the best friends in the world.

Beautiful, from the inside out.

Their presence warms my soul.

Perspective

I read a book called "The Jesus I Never Knew."

If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it.

By reading this book, a lot of things about Jesus and life were thrown into perspective for me.

I started to feel a friendship growing between Jesus and me. It felt good. It felt SO right.

I have been struggling trying to find new ways of experiencing God, and showing God to others.

There is a movie that is mentioned in the book about two little girls who find a man sleeping in their barn...They wake the man up and frantically ask him who he is. He screams "Jesus Christ, I'm Jesus Christ!"

From that point on, the girls believe he is THE JESUS. They wine and dine him. They show him unconditional love. Why wouldn't they? If Jesus was in my presence...I would want to give him my undivided attention, and all the love I could possibly give.

From their love and actions for this man, the man's heart is softened and he decides to change his life around from the mercy he has been shown.

That man was an ex-convict.

That man, was as far away from Jesus that one could possibly get.

And yet, these girls treated him like Jesus.

Inspiring!

What if we treated everyone as if they were Jesus?

I'm going to try!

Expectations

My expectations for this weekend...Well, they were so far away from what happened.

I went to Spokane for a family weekend.

I imagined the weekend going like this....

Jenny and I get into town and we all meet up at the apartment and get really excited to see each other.

We do something super fun and stay up really late Friday night.

We all go to church together on Sabbath.

We play and relax in the park all day.

Then do a movie night together Saturday night.

It's Sunday morning and I was woken up (which I am not too happy about) and as I look back on the weekend....NOTHING happened like I imagined.

Without using names or hurting feelings, I will just say that...None of those things happened, not one. You know what did happen?

FIGHTING! LOTS OF IT!

My family has four sisters, and when we are all together I never know what to expect. I did not expect 5 woman to be PMSing all at once though. (sorry guys!)

Usually the fighting doesn't bother me, but this weekend it hurt. I hate to see my family fight. I hate to see mean things be thrown into the air and land on the hearts of others.

This weekend I didn't expect for my heart to hurt for my loved ones, but it did.

This weekend I didn't expect to hear fighting, but I did.

This weekend I didn't expect to have a Sabbath full of laughter with a long time friend, but I did.

Carley, I didn't expect a day full of laughter with you, but you taught me how good something unexpected can be!

"The best things in life are unexpected-because there were no expectations."

Jesus

Jesus' life/death/resurrection have been seriously HAUNTING me...I have never felt something like this before.

It freaks me out a little bit. I don't know if "haunting" is the right word, but the life of Jesus will not leave my thoughts. What is going on here?

I read it in my book, I hear about it in class, friends randomly bring it up, and I read it on blogs!?

It seriously is shocking...What exactly is God telling me? Because it is turning my world upside down...I am learning about the greatest man in history!

People Who Inspire Me

There is this family....

When I am around them, I feel like I can see God radiating off their faces.

They feed the hungry.

They house the homeless.

They share the love of Jesus all throughout their city.

They go to Borneo every year, and make a huge difference.

I think the McCanns are pretty awesome people, and I am fortunate enough to be dating one of them :).

It's Windy!

There are all these things I SHOULD be doing, and I am not doing any of them.

I like free time, and doing nothing...So, I am just going to do that instead.

Hell on Earth

I was exercising at the YMCA last week....

As I watched each TV, I went back and forth between different news stations.

On one... a young girl found raped and killed, linking her death back to a repeating offender.

On the other...a teenager with autism committed suicide from school bullying. Not one teacher or student stuck up for her. Not one person fought for her.

Another...A school deciding to put up a fence, because of suicides and drunk accidents, where kids jump off a cliff and kill themselves.

There I was. Treading along. My heart hurting for these people...

There are so many people in my world. Our world. God's world. Satan's world?

There are the people who bring hell to earth.

Then there are those who charge into this hell we are living in and bring Heaven with them.

I am deciding to charge into this hell of a world and bring Heaven with me.

It is our choice as Christians to be God's warriors each and every single day. We never know if the person we don't say hi to, or the stranger we walk by, is a person going through hell and getting lost.

Let's bring Heaven into this earth!