How cool if we would Help and not hurt.

Why are we not trying to help our brothers out?????

Lately my heart has been heavy for collage age students who have claimed to have a faith but dont seek to help each other out in this culture of lies.  As followers of Christ we should be seeking Gods word to lead us in all things and seeking to live in a way that will encourage each other to do the same.

 I know a group of boys that had the courage to share that some of the newest clothing trends(yoga pants) really made it hard for them.  This trend in clothing style is not a modest look, I hope we all can see this truth, but a very comfortable trend I do understand this..  Please hear my heart, i don't think these are the root of all evil but these boys had the courage to be honest about this.  WOW! Unfortunately their sharing of this truth did them no good on their campus.  Girls were insensitive to this struggle and even ridiculed the boys who were asking for help.  This should not be!

I don't know about you but I just think that if someone has the courage to bring to light a truth that is hurting them, we should at least take the time to pray about it get some counsel from wise Bible believing mentors and be willing to sacrifice for the good of others.  Instead we often dismiss when our brothers in Christ are honest with us.  This is not the only situation like this I have come across just one of the many times I have heard of Boys having great courage to be real with their sisters and we just dismiss them because we don't understand or we feel angry because they are imposing on our rights.

This breaks my heart.  I know their are so many things that happen like this in both directions.  Girls having the courage to share things and boys not considering their part  or willing to protect the girls also.  My point in writing this isn't to tell you what to wear or that all girls are jerks.  I am a girl.

 My hope is that this will spur you on to love your brothers that are in a spiritual battle along side of us.  To love them in such a way we are helping and not hurting their walk.  If we can be aware of the things that are hard for them, and seek to honor our Lord in the way we dress and help out our guys (and I am here to tell you boys tells me all the time modesty is one of the best things we can do to help them our in todays culture) why would we not do this? Ladies let us be the difference.  Let us pray for the boys in our communities and dress in away that helps them.  How cool would that be?

As a mother of a young man and a spiritual mother to many young men I write this to girls who claim to be followers of Christ.  Please lets take this serious so we can put the needs of others above our own.  Let us love our neighbors as ourselves and do the good we know we ought to.  Let us not have even a hint of what would cause others to stumble in our lives for the good of the body of Christ.  Let us be set apart in the way we dress, talk, serve, and go about our daily lives to honor the king so that others may have nothing poor to say about us.

Loving the Lords protection and guidance in truth with action.

Tally

Deep places of the heart

I love the devotional book "My Utmost for His Highest"

After reading this today my mind went to the places I don't even know how to describe.  A interwoven highway of everything happening in the last month from relationships, conversations, concerns for my children's future to the presents that we got for Christmas.  I know some of you ladies know all to well what that is like.  The cool thing was it took me to Gods word for some clarity.  All the questions and thoughts that often leave me feeling like a failure drove me to look for some answers.  The reading came from Jeremiah 4:1.  " If you will return, O Israel,' says the Lord..."
The devotional is followed by a wonderful reminder about the battle  we have in our lives.  The very battle of our soul.  What we must wrestle with before the almighty God.   Our will!

I turn my bible to Jeremiah 4 (actually i looked it up online)  and read vrs 1 through 4.
What clarity Gods word speaks to the heart.  It is a call to return to the Lord.  To remove the "detestable idols" and not to waver.  How these very words bring tears to my eyes i cant explain but to say that God desires our hearts and warn us not to settle for anything other than a heart bowed to the king.
In vr 4 it says " Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts,..."

This is funny only because just a few weeks ago i had a 9th grade girl text me "what is circumcision, it says it a lot in the old testament?" I of coarse I sent her back a text telling her to ask her mom :)

But now i wish i would have called her and shared this truth.  God desires out hearts to turn to him.  To love him first above all else.  The spiritual significance of this word is a internal sense of cutting away the impurities we allow our hearts to hide behind.  It signifies purity. In Jeremiah:--

Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns; circumcise yourselves unto Jehovah, and take away the foreskin of your heart, O man of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem (Jeremiah 4:3, 4);

to circumcise one's self to Jehovah, and remove the foreskin of the heart, is to remove such things that obstruct heavenly love; all which shows that the circumcision of the heart is an interior thing.

In the confusion that often occurs in our very hearts around this time of year, this was a well received message for my very heart.

Putting aside the Idols of my heart and not going astray, intentionally seeking to not allow my heart to be covered by false desires of the world, is a daily surrender to my Lord and savior.  How easily we are drawn in but the things of this world.
To love others with the love we received is the gretest joy of all.  let us love the Lord first, love others and not go astray as to what is most important.

Seeking the heart of God,
Tally

The Call

I have the privilege of teaching this week at High School Ignite.  The lesson is on "The Call".

I have loved loved loved preparing for this all week. I have written four lessons on this one lesson. Tomorrow I get to choose one of the four. I know this seems crazy but there is so much to think about when we approach this topic, "The Call". I love it all! I want to share with you the main things this brings to my mind when I think about this topic.

PART 1-

A little background on what “The Call” is. In simple terms it is for me, “The call on our life to serve the one and only true God of the universe, when we come to know His truth of Jesus and how that brings us back to God". Go and share the good news of the Gospel with the world.

In order to do this we must first be called. The cool thing is, this is no ordinary call. This is a summon from the Kings of Kings, an invitation to know Him and be reconciled to Him through Jesus.

WOW! The one and only God of the universe has called me to Him.  Do you have any idea how big the universe is? Well let’s start with a little perspective. We live in a little galaxy called the milky way. It measures around 100,000 light years from end to end. So that means if you could travel at the speed of light you could go from one end of our galaxy to the other in 100,000 years (just a little day trip). Our galaxy is thought to have over 500 billion stars in it. And here’s the kicker our small galaxy is one of billions of galaxies. Yes, one of billions. That is so big people! Are you getting this? Huge! Unimaginable!

So in the Bible when it talks about God creating the heavens by the breath of his mouth, that is impressive.  This planet and star breathing God is the same God who is calling on us.

This explains why when people hear the word of the Lord they tremble. When Paul met the Lord Jesus on the way to Damascus it changed everything about his life. You can read this story in Acts 9. He went from trying to kill followers of the way to leading the way! This is what happens when you meet the Lord. Well this is what happened for me anyway. It changed everything!

That is because the truth of God and His good news about Jesus can’t NOT change you.  When God calls us to Him through Christ our eyes and our ears and our hearts are turned to His truth and we are healed. Because of this great healing our lives have different priorities.

   If you desire to know a kind of truth, that in the middle of the crazy challenges of our culture today, that can actually inspire you, give you a firm foundation of truth in a world of deception, bring healing to your broken heart, and a relationship like nothing you have ever known, then you should listen to the words of Jesus of Nazareth. Know the caller! You can read about him in the Bible. I suggest starting with John. No matter who you are, what you have done, where you live, the call is for you!

Try it out!

End of part one, I am praying for you!

Part 2 is soon to follow, sorry I write so crazy.

Tally

I Will Follow You!

I know it has been awhile.  I don't know if anyone reads this, but I am back.

Matthew 7:21-24

 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’


    24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

 I have been reading so much lately and I love learning more and more about what it means to be a follower of Christ. Unfortunately I think it is easy for us to rest on our faith. But is this what we are called to do as followers of Christ? I don't think so. The culture around you makes it ok to just say you believe or call yourself a Christian, but are you really a Christian if you are not following the teachings of Christ?

Christ says love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind. Then love others as your self. Man if we were doing this we would quit worrying about who liked us, or who is treating us the way we think we deserve to be treated, and we would treat others the way Christ calls us to. We would live life completely different. Scripture is full of examples of what it looks like to love others and what it looks like to love the Lord first.

In the book of John, Jesus says, "Whoever hears my teachings and obeys them, he is the one who loves me."  How often do we seek to have His teachings really lead us in life?  Some of these are hard teachings-

Turn the other cheek, do not judge, the last shall be first, be humble, feed the hungry, give to the needy, flee sexual immorality, do not have even a hint of greed, do not love money, do not get drunk, be careful how you live not as unwise and as wise, give your life as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God, clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think how to gratify the desires of your sinful nature, these are just a few of the teachings from scripture that we ignore.

Why do we do this? Often I think it is because we don’t take scripture serious. We worry what other people will think about us if we follow these teachings, because if we really follow the teachings of scripture we would look different. We would have to look different because this is not the way our culture operates. So I ask you two questions. Do you take all scripture serious? Are you letting scripture lead you in the way you live life?  If you claim to be a follower of Christ this is important to think about!