Facebook and Grace

Facebook is an amazing tool. With it, you can get in touch with people who once loved you, hated you, or just felt indifferent towards you. You can look in awe at people you that you went to high school with who have really made their lives great, who have overcome struggles, or who have failed miserably and may need a helping hand. It's honestly like a constant high school/college reunion!

Recently, I re-met an old friend on facebook who has been touched tremendously by the grace of God. She is an amazing woman of God, even though she may not know that yet, but she, like most of us, didn't come to know God the easy way. She rebelled against religion, church, and anything to do with Christianity, but God met her where she was and lifted her out of a life that was nothing but destructive. I had the pleasure of hanging out with her for the whole day today, and it was amazing to hear her testimony of grace. I feel blessed to know her!

One of the things I found really interesting in our meeting today was that she had, at one time, googled the word grace. The first website that pops up, if you want to do it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_grace. In this website grace is defined as:

"enabling power sufficient for progression. Grace divine is an indispensable gift from God for development, improvement, and character expansion. Without God's grace, there are certain limitations, weaknesses, flaws, impurities, and faults (i.e. carnality) humankind cannot overcome. Therefore, it is necessary to increase in God's grace for added perfection, completeness, and flawlessness."

The wikipedia entry goes on to say that grace is God's gift to humankind!! Ha! I love it!! Grace is a gift that you don't have to earn. As a matter of fact, there's nothing in this world you could do to earn the measure of grace given to us by our Father. Isn't it amazing that He loves us so much?! Well, it just makes me freakin' excited...that's all I have to say.

So my challenge is for everyone to think about and write out your testimony of grace. I've felt that I've needed to do this for long time, but I've never had the time. It would be a novel; I can tell you that with certainty. It will be interesting for us all to see what God has done for us...to be able to quantify it. Let me know your thoughts.

Beth

Wanted!!

Hey,
I'm looking for a great left handed acoustic guitar. Send me a message if you have one you're willing to sell or give away!! Thanks!!

Random Thoughts for the Week

1. If something ever happens to my husband, I'll never be able to watch television again. He's the only one who knows how he wired up our sound system.

2. Watching a friend go through hard times is rough, but knowing that someone is intentionally hurting them is torture.

3. Coffee should only be prepared using a coffee press. Everyone, throw out your coffee machines and make real coffee!!

4. I go to the greatest church on the planet, and I am lucky to be a part of what's going on there.

5. Everyone (well, maybe just women) should indulge themselves in reading a love story involving vampires and werewolves. It's just awesome! Thanks Twilight Series...I'm hooked.

6. Being employed is entirely overrated.

7. My husband is a stud!!

8. My cat makes me smile. She's cuddling with me as I type. How sweet!

9. I want to be used by God not because I want people to look at me and say, "Oh, look! She's being used by God." I want to be used, b/c there's a lot of work that needs to be done. It's not about me!!

10. I just ate a hot cheesecake brownie with Rocky Road ice cream on it, and it was almost better than sex.

Pure and Faultless Religion

James 1:27: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

With everything that is going on economically in the world today, I am reminded of this verse. There are those who are sick and tired of paying for the health care and other costs of those who are less fortunate and those who are just too lazy to get a job. I understand this being part of the highly taxed middle class, but consider this verse. Our job as genuine Christians is to take care of those less fortunate than us. It is not an option. James says that it is the "religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless..." Nothing else matters in this world other than us taking care of others...showing the love and mercy to others that was so freely given us.

"Jesus replied, 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. All of the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.'" (Matthew 22:37-40)

So who is our neighbor? Our neighbors are ALL of those around us...good or bad...genuinely unfortunate or not...who need Christ. I firmly believe that if we show the love of Christ to everyone, whether they are taking advantage or not, Christ is glorified, and that is all I want to do. It is not my job to judge whether someone is worthy of my help or not. It is simply my job to help and wait for Christ to do His work. When we love without conditions (something the world doesn't expect) and give without regulations, His Word is brought forth, and His love is shown. Jesus loved me without conditions and regulations. Who am I to not love others the way He loves and takes care of me?

Sunday Refections-October 5, 2008

This Sunday's Communion message was, for me, exactly what I needed. During the message Pastor Mark said that there are 3 things that Communion encourages us to do. Those include:
1. To look within ourselves and examine our own lives
2. To look back at how God has delivered us from things in our lives
3. To look ahead to the time when we will see Him face to face.

Pastor Mark also asked us 3 questions related to these 3 concepts:
1. What do you see when you look within yourself?
2. What "God-memory" is most special to you?
3. What are you looking forward to with God?

It's the answer to the 3rd question that I wanted to talk about in this blog. When I was about 2-3 years old, my biological father committed suicide. I never got to know my real father, and that has truly affected me over the years. I ask myself questions like, "Why was I not worth him living?" This was a constant battle in my mind as I was growing up and even now, at times. I was adopted by my mom's next husband, but I never felt like I was good enough for him. I grew up feeling like a major burden in his life. So, for me, when I think about the answer to this 3rd question, my eyes fill with tears, because I can just picture it in my mind...when I see Him face to face. I picture myself running as fast as I can to Him, laughing the whole way, and He's running full-on towards me. Then He grabs me up and twirls me around, and we just laugh and play like this for hours. (Ha...you REALLY don't want to be behind me in line to meet Him. Prepare to wait). Then He speaks to me and tells me how much He's always loved me and cared about me. I sit there completely dumbfounded that it's even possible to feel such amazing love and grace. And then I fold my head into His chest, and I just stay there for a really long time listening to His heart beat...His arms engulf me without a hint of Him ever wanting to let go. I never want to move from this position. Just let me stay like this for all of eternity. I am with my Daddy...

God is so real and so full of love. When I think about all of the things we must endure in life, I think about how all of that will just fade away when we see Him face to face. All of the hurt, frustration, and anger that we carry around will melt at the very sight of Him. But the amazing thing is that we don't even have to wait that long to let all of these issues go. If we surrender to Christ right now, even in this very moment, He floods our hearts with His grace and mercy, and everything else just falls away. He is good and faithful. If we seek Him, He will not hide Himself from us. That's a promise that we can count on.

Update...

This week has been such a stressful week for me. Here's the situation: Before we decided to take an amazing assignment in Germany, I had such a great job. The call back part was a little difficult at times, but in all, it was a good job. I was financially well taken care of. I was able to schedule things in my life and therefore actually have a life. Not many nurses can brag about that. Yes, the doctors would occasionally fly off the handle, and you'd want to quit just because of the amount of emotional abuse you'd have to take from them on a daily basis. But I worked with a great group of people, and we really had a lot of fun.

So we take off and have such an amazing time in Germany. We are just so blessed. Meanwhile, my boss in the cath lab is doing all that she can to hold my job for me for the year I'm gone. I checked the job postings on the St. Francis website every month or so just to see if my position was still there. After 11 months in Germany, my position was still there, but I wasn't sure if I even wanted the job back. God was really speaking to my heart about some things. I just wasn't sure where He wanted me to be. After talking to the director of the cath lab about a month before I came home, I thought the position was, at any rate, still mine for the taking. Two weeks before leaving Germany, the position is still there. Three days before leaving Germany, the job is suddenly gone! I thought, "Ok, God has a way of closing doors and opening others. It's ok." I wasn't all that upset about it.

So now we come to this last week. I've had 4 interviews at 3 different hospitals and only one job in which I'm actually interested. The one job I'm interested in would be a HUGE HUGE HUGE (get the point) pay cut, but I don't do nursing just for the money. I'd rather be happy and have less money than miserable in a job that pays great. Anyway, so the nurse manager in the job that I really wanted absolutely loved me, and I thought that it was just a perfect fit for me. All week, I've been waiting to hear the definite, for sure, job offer, and I've only gotten the run-around. I am the ONLY person they've interviewed for this position, so I'm knew that there was something else going on. Finally, I get a clear answer...budget. Apparently, they posted this dream job without actually having the money in the budget to pay for it. Hmmm...not good, and yesterday it got even better (note sarcasm).

Yesterday, I had my fourth interview. I was set up on an interview in PACU, an area I know little about. The CV OR people set it up, because according to them, this is where the greatest need lies. Ok, I'm open minded, so I go to the interview. PACU seems like a really great area. The job seems like it's challenging and rewarding. So far, so good. Then I ask about hours, and they are stinking nuts...third shift call, working sometimes 8:30am-11pm, days off spent recovering from third shift call, working every other weekend, etc. So, I'm thinking this job doesn't provide much along the lines of being able to have a life. Then I have a meeting with the boss of the nurse manager of the CV OR. He wanted to clear things up with me and explain why the CV OR position is not actually available even tough it's been posted since July. He asks me if I am at all interested in the PACU position, and I told him that it was not a dream job like the CV OR. I went on to really try and sell it to this guy that I would be awesome in CV OR. I could tell he was disappointed that he could not pacify me with the PACU job. I asked him, straight up, if the position was completely off the table, and he told me that he'd really have to think about it. So, I left that meeting with no answers, and after 4 interviews this week, I still have no job.

I do, however, have an amazing amount of peace. I know that God has something for me. I know that He called me to be a nurse, and I know that He's called me to be a worship leader. He has the perfect job out there that will allow me to do both wholeheartedly, and I'll wait until He provides it. God really spoke to my heart over this last year in Germany. (It's amazing how much He talks to you when you're listening). I know that I'm not supposed to settle, and that I am supposed to wait for Him no matter what the cost. Right now, financially, the cost is pretty high, but I have to wait, obey, and trust that God will always provide.

So that's what I've been doing this week. What have you been up to? I'd love to hear your stories. What has God spoken in your heart?