Ok, let me just answer a few obvious questions before we watch the video:
Question:
I was really on a roll with this vlog thing and having a blast recording my thoughts. But, it is a no-go today. I am laid up today with a back muscle spasm and not looking too cute to record a video. Isn't it terrible how pride gets in the way...well, that and the fact that I'm in pain would not make for a good devotion! Prayers appreciated.
So...
In the meantime, I wanted to let you know about a great new book out by a new friend of mine, Sarah Cunningham. I will be a part of her official Blog Tour-so excited! Here is some info about her new book and I know you will definitely want to check it out!
Click here to go to Sarah's site!
Stay tuned for my review to be posted on Feb 18th.
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Since I am in no condition type a devotion either, I wanted to keep up the momentum of posting and repost a devo from last year. Since it is now February-can you believe it?-and the air is filled with love, here is my post from last year's Valentine's Day.
Jesus, Fill My Cup
On this Valentine's Day I have been meditating on the concept of being satisfied. This is a quest of just about everyone, myself included. We have this need of our "cup" to be filled and often go to our spouse, friends or children to have that cup filled.
Here is the problem: no human can totally meet every need of ours. Our spiritual, emotional, physical and mental needs are so vast and so very complicated. Can anyone in our life really figure out how to fill that cup of ours in the very way we need them too? This is why we get frustrated with our husband or search for other ways to be fulfilled. Think about it, if that other person is trying to have their cup filled, there is no way on earth that they have enough "resources" to fill your cup too! I hope this makes since.
Here's the solution: Let JESUS fill your cup. Let Him meet your needs. Let Him give you the love, peace, joy, happiness and fulfillment that you crave. He is the only one who knows the very depths of your being. So, it makes since that He is the only one who can give you what you need, at the very moment you need it, in the amount that you need.
John 10:10 says, "...I have come that they may have life and have it ABUNDANTLY."
When we let Christ give us life abundantly, He fills our cup to overflowing. We have abundant love, joy, happiness, satisfaction and peace. Then, when our loved ones add to our cup, it is like icing on the cake. It is a joyous extra. It is like that extra whipped cream on your coffee. Because we don't depend on them to meet every need, when they do, it is such a blessing.
Whether you are married or single, take the burden off yourself and your loved ones to fill the cup. Let Christ give it to you in Abundance.
Let HIM be your Valentine EVERY day.
Doing a new thing and going to start posting video blogs more regularly.
This is a devotion that ran on She Seeks a couple of weeks ago and below is the expanded version of it. Let me know what you think!
Can I please just start out with a confession?! I. heart. guilty. pleasures. PERIOD. I mean, don’t we all love to vegg in front of the T.V. after a long day at work and immerse ourselves in the lives of others on reality T.V.? Or, maybe you’re one of those who curls up in bed with Hershey Kisses and reads chic lit? Mine is a bit of both. I rarely miss an episode of my newest obsession, T.V. show Flash Forward. If I must miss it, you better believe it is DVRd. But, lately I have been intrigued by those Twilight books. Interested in what the fuss is all about, I rented the first movie of the wildly popular series. I really do see where all the craziness comes from over these books and movies: the characters are attractive, the storyline pulls you in and there are even a few interesting moral undertones: redemption and abstinence.
But in the midst of my evaluation of this hit movie, some verses in Titus came to mind and smacked me right out of my Hershey Kisses sugar rush.
Titus 2:11-14 (The Message)
“God's readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation's available for everyone! We're being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.”
The tie-in from this verse to Twilight is not subtle. Most of these vamp books and movies have a strong, dark, spiritual undertone. It can be dangerous when we fill our brains with darkness. This darkness can easily permeate into our heart and soul. No matter which way the vampire is portrayed as the protagonist (handsome and all...) he is still a vampire and the folklore still comes from dark spiritual practices. There is so much in the world around us that is evil, ugly and terribly dark and in creeps its way into my life so easily. Does this happen to you as well? The world of pop culture invites us to participate in viewing and reading many things that are fascinating. On top of “dark” things that creep into our lives, pop culture allures us with images of perfectly sculpted women with gorgeous clothes and hair blowing in the wind. A picture that even that beautiful model can’t live up to since the magazine editors photo shopped her picture into a person unrecognizable. It is no wonder that we all get caught up in the frenzy to keep up with the latest and greatest. What is important to remember that, whether it be dark vampires, or pristine models, the things of the present are ever fleeting and changing. I have personally worked on {keyword: worked on} remember my ever solid, never changing LORD. He fights the darkness, brings light into this world, AND He thinks that I am beautiful. (Psalm 45:11) I try to remember my Rock when I am tempted and swept up by the latest movie craze or fashion movement. It is not easy, those things of the world are so much fun, but in the end I know I have made the right decision when I choose to look away.
It is my conviction that it is a God given call to influence the world (ie. people around us in our workplace, school, at the gym, etc.) for good with out being influenced, ourselves. This is a hard thing to accomplish, I admit. I strive for awareness of pop culture around me so that I can call out good, moral themes and use them to point people back to the goodness and LIGHT of JESUS. Boy, this surely isn’t easy since I really do love my guilty pleasures. {wink, wink} When my friends speak around the water cooler at work about the latest Twilight movie, I do my best to take the conversation to the next level by asking their opinion about the underlying moral themes, etc. They usually find the question interesting and we have a great conversation. I don’t bombard them with my thoughts on vamps and the dark spiritual world, but I do engage them in a conversation that gets them thinking about what they spend their time on and if it is time well spent and valuable.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this and if you have an good advice on how to protect ourselves from invaluable things of the world as well as how you engage your friends around this topic. Lets take some time to encourage and challenge each other on how we choose to partake, or not partake, in the culture around us.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this. This is not an attempt to bash the Twilight series, but rather to make us really evaluate what we are spending our time on and consuming our minds with. Let me know what you think in the comment section and lets get some good dialogue going!
I will be away from the blogging world for a while as I work on sample chapters for my book that I am working on. In the meantime, check out this awesome online conference that I am speaking for. If you can't attend live, they will send you the audio version after. It is a great way to connect and learn!
