Choices

Freedom. What an amazing blessing. We take it for granted, the greatest of these is the free will to chose. I pondered my blessings as I traveled this past week. I drove freely across several states. I stopped when I wanted, for how long I wanted, and for what I wanted. 
How easily this can be lost, in a moment, at any time, we can lose it...or worse yet, we can simply forfeit it.
God offers us even far greater freedom, the freedom to chose to turn to him, to trust him as the Lord God, or to turn away from Him. He absolutely leaves this choice to us. He gave his best for us, he sent his Son to die for our sin, and loves us, even when we don't love Him.
Then, he leaves us the choice to love Him in gratitude and thanks, or we have the freedom to reject him, to reject his love, and his costly sacrifice. The greatest freedom we have, isn't living in America, it isn't having abundant blessings, it's the simple freedom to chose to receive God's gift of ultimate love, or to ignore and reject Him. Use your freedom wisely, chose carefully. The freedom he gives you to chose, has eternal consequences.

A Work In The Masters Hands

After making the decision to follow Jesus Christ some 20 plus years ago, I never though he would lead me to where I am now. Over the last 7-8 months, God has been tugging at my heart in ways that are contrary to what I want to do. One of the mysteries of serving God and "surrendering to his will" and not mine, is that many times, God desires to stretch us more than we think we are able.

I have worked in and/or been involved in many different aspects of the Christian life and church ministry over the years. Recently, I have felt the call to shepherd people in my church. Keep in mind, I was NOT the pastor. This was perplexing, because I love my church and have no plans to leave or move at this time. For many months, I have awakened at crazy hours in the middle of the night, feeling drawn to pray for EVERYONE in my church! Until i did so, I found it hard to fall asleep again. Finally, after deciding to do what God was urging me to do, I began to have a peace without having any idea whatsoever where it would lead me. I had decided to allow God to use me where he saw fit, not where I wanted to go, but where HE wanted me to go, doing what HE wanted me to to do. This allowed me to be a work in the masters hands. Are you a work in the hands of the master?