All God needs is all you have.

In the book of 2 Kings chapter 4 we see the story of a widow who comes to Elisha asking for help. Just a little background into the story, the widows husband had taken out a loan to help support his ministry. Now the husband had passed and the creditors had to collect and had vowed to take the widow's sons as slaves if she didn't pay the debt. So she came to Elisha seeking help and the crazy part about the situation is you would expect this great prophet to do something miraculous or offer some encouraging words but instead we find him asking her an off the wall question.


Now that question has everything to do with something I believe God is asking us and something he wants to teach us as well. See the question he asked was what all do you have in you house? Now for many of us we find ourselves needing or wanting God to do something in our lives but we feel like the widow does and that is that we don't have what we need to get done what we need done and we feel we need someone else to help us. But just like the widow found out that day all God needed was what she already had and the willingness to do the things he told her to do.

The next part I believe is key to the whole deal and that was the widow response. She answered Elisha question with your servant has nothing more then a little jar of oil not knowing that's all God would need. Next comes the obedience part which is where I believe many of us including myself may fall short. See after we ask God for help usually He tells us something we need to do, how we respond to that is the key. Elisha told the widow to borrow jars from all her neighbors and then go home and shut the door behind her and then have her sons and herself pour the oil into all these jars and when one was full set it aside. It wasn't until she did what she was told to do that she got unexpected results and saw God do the amazing that day. You see that one little jar of oil filled up all the empty jars and in that same story it says that the oil didn't stop flowing until there were no more jars. The best part of the story is the widow was able to sale all the extra oil to pay her debts and even had extra for her sons and her to live off of.

The thing that God showed me this morning that I want to share with you is that we already have all he needs to accomplish all that we need in our lives. Now the question he is asking is are we willing to do what he is asking us to do? Are you will to collect empty jars and take very last thing you have and put it in God's hand? Are you willing to take him at his word even if you don't understand what He is asking you to do? or if it doesn't make sense? I believe when we can get to the point where will do what God is asking us to do we will see the overflow of oil in our lives that we have been longing to see. So I pray today that you take confidence in knowing that all God needs for your life you already have. I pray your encouraged to do the things that God has called you to do and know that once all the pieces are in place you will see the impossible done in your life just like the widow. Let the oil flow.

Lance

Who has your heart?

My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe and delight in my ways? Proverbs 23:26 AMP

As I thought about what to share and with Valentine’s Day being today I felt the Lord whisper to me a question, and that was who has your heart? Now Valentine’s Day is a day where people go above and beyond to show and express their love towards someone they consider to be special and important. Every February stores fill there selves with candy, flowers, candles, and etc. for people to purchase and give away to someone they consider worth it. Along with the items they purchase they proceed to give something of even more value away and that is there heart and love. Our hearts and love to me is probably our most precious asset and I believe that’s something that should not just be giving away at random or by chance. It should be giving to someone who will take care of it and not break it.

It seems we live in a world that’s obsessed looking for love and acceptance in things or someone. It could be in possessions, people, status, power, or money, you name it, were searching for it. Once we believe we have found it we instantly without hesitation or thought attach our hearts and love to it, and just like many things that this world offers it fails or doesn’t last and our love is used and abused and our hearts are broken. The reality is instead of learning our lesson and become wiser and smarter about it we continue to do the same thing over and over again until finally one or two things happen and that is our hearts become hard and cold or we become someone that does the heartbreaking. A lot of times past hurts and failures cause us to become hard and cold to truth and to a real love an thing something happens where were unable to receive love or give love.

Everybody loves a good story and I know ladies especially enjoy a good love story because everybody in there heart of hearts wants to be loved and feel loved. But what If I told you there is a Valentine’s Day story that’s hardly ever told much less hardly ever believed or thought about. Jesus Christ the ultimate gift giver and the ultimate Valentine, has proved over and over again just how much he not only loves you but how much he wants your heart. Being the ultimate Valentine means you have all the experience and knowledge of the heart and all that goes along with it because since the beginning of time the heart and love was your idea. Jesus has never once broken a heart nor has he ever found a heart that once truly given to him that he can’t repair or make brand new. Jesus looks past mistakes and failures and simply says give your heart to me and watch what I can do, He has proven it time and time again. So if this Valentine’s Day you find yourself feeling lost, hurt, or lonely or maybe even feeling like your heart is not even worthy of being given away I believe Jesus's reply is “Be Mine”.  So I want to ask you that same question he asked me who has your heart? It’s my prayer that today you take Jesus up on his offer and give him your heart because he knows exactly how and what to do with it. I can tell you from experience if your heart is not with Jesus it’s going to take a lot of bumps and breaks. This Valentine’s Day I challenge you to unwrap and accept the perfect gift of Jesus Christ the ultimate Valentine and yes he will be yours too.

-Lance

It’s not over.

Mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word. Proverbs 16:1 MSG

There is a song that has been on my heart for about two weeks and I absolutely love it. Every time I hear I find myself feeling emotions and feelings that seem to touch places of my heart that I didn’t even know existed. The song is called “It’s not over” By Israel & New Breed. This song speaks to the difficulties and challenges that we all face in life and how that no matter what is going on or what happens in our lives that God has the final say. It means so much to me because I find a peace and reassurance knowing that God is current in my situation and he has it under control and no matter what someone else or myself feel the end result should be or what should happen God doesn’t need my input or help. Now I really don’t need to say anything else because that should be all we need to hear to keep pressing on but I realize if you’re anything like me it’s a lot easier said than done.

So I want to do the same thing for you that the song has done for me and that is to give you hope and encouragement with God’s word and what he has shown me. I’ve shared before that we all face many trials and hardships in life and sometimes it just seems like there is no way out and no end in sight and I believe that’s because we choose to focus more on the problem or the issue more than we do the problem solver (Jesus). Whether you received a bad report or you just have someone tell you that there is no hope or no way out just remember this truth that: God has the final say. Just like In Proverbs 16:1 the message version it says “Mortals make elaborate plans, but God has the last word. So no matter what a report says or how bad it looks God has the last word.

In Deuteronomy 31:8 it tells us that “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Another important thing I want you to remember and hear is just like this verse says the Lord goes before us and he never leaves us or forsakes us so it’s a guarantee that he is there with us no matter what we go through and that he is in complete control and knows what he is doing. I don’t know about you but it is a huge comfort that when I encounter something that’s seems to be very overwhelming and out of my hands to know God has gone before me and that he has a plan and purpose for that exact moment because he is it with me and because he has gone before me  this very situation has not caught him off guard and he knows exactly what to do and when to do it. Trusting in his timing is not always easy but it’s essential to getting the result we need. It may not always be the result we want but you can be sure it’s the one we need.

The last thought that comes to mind and I just feel this in my spirit it is simply we care burdens and worries that we were not meant to bear and that we cannot carry. Think about this God has already told us its coming, trials and difficulties are going to happen. In James chapter 1 he goes on to tell us to count it all a joy that the trials happen. So if we’ve been told that there coming and to count it all a joy because they’ve happen then we got to know that God has the final say and that he works everything together for our good. It is my hope that you feel encouraged and take heart that no matter what going on today or tomorrow it’s not over until God says so and that he has the final say. Here is to letting God be the final and absolute authority in our lives not just when things are good but even in the most difficult times of our lives. God you are it for me.

-Lance

You are God’s chosen instrument

But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.  Acts 9:15

As I was praying last night God really laid this verse on my heart and hit me with a beautiful and hard truth. Now if you read this at first glance you might be thinking what can you really learn from this verse. To give you some back ground this is what God was speaking to Ananias after the conversation of Paul, God was telling Ananias to go to him because God has a specific task for him. But what I want to focus in on is the word instrument, now when you think of instrument you can associate it with many things music, cooking, science, medical, and many other things. All instruments have a purpose and a design if used the right way and correct way, you can’t expect a doctor to use violin to perform open heart surgery. If you don’t have any musical talent then I would suppose trying to play a flute or any other musical instrument for that matter would not work out to well for yourself or for any other person for that matter. See an instrument is only good, if the person using the instrument knows how to you use it properly and correctly.

 As you see from the above verse God was telling Ananias, Paul was his chosen instrument you see Paul had spent much of his life thinking he was using his life to its full purpose but really it was what the Bible describes as a clanging symbol. Now think about it Paul had just radically had his life changed not too long ago on the road to Damascus and God was saying he is my chosen instrument.  Most of us would say now God are you sure he is your chosen instrument? Because Paul you know he is not that great and he has done some pretty bad things. I would submit that just like Paul, our lives are God’s chosen instruments as well. But here is the hard truth, we view ourselves as the master instrument player of our lives and yet we are not being used the right way or reaching our full potential.

Or here is another truth you might look at your life and say God you can’t or want use me because I just don’t have much to offer or my live is unusable. But I would submit that just like the conversation of a lying, arrogant, murder there are some things only Jesus can play and get the most out of. Like I stated earlier an instrument is only good if the person using it knows how and can use it better than anyone else let God use your life and watch how beautiful it sounds because I promise you nobody can use it better then Jesus. Paul went on to write half of the New Testament and after Jesus was probably one of the most well-known people associated with Christianity so let me ask you this, what can God not do with your life if you let him?

-Lance

Jesus is my Superhero.

Colossians 1:13,14 MSG: God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He’s set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep reapeating.

When we hear the word superhero we often think of Batman, Superman, Hulk, Thor, Ironman, Spiderman and of course we could go on and on and name many more. A superhero is defined as a fictional character with superhuman powers and according to its definition is simply fictional and not real. Now I’m not a comic book guy so I’m no expert on what the purpose of superhero’s where designed for, but from the many movies I’ve seen they serve an entertainment value and often we find ourselves wanting to do the things they do or live the way they live. I mean who wouldn’t want to have Batman’s car or even be able to fly around like Superman or even have the amazing strength like Hulk I know I have. Many superheros’ are always pouring their lives out to protect and defend people even the ones that we feel don’t deserve it. They are always putting others before themselves and simply come to realize they will never be normal because there weren’t designed to be normal. But if I can be honest the definition of superhero is incorrect see actually there is a superhero and his name is Jesus Christ and he is alive and well. Before comic books there was the Bible and in this very book we see many stories of Jesus doing what Mr. Superman couldn’t do. See Jesus is my superhero and my Jesus walked on water, fed 5000 people with a few pieces of fish and bread and even had leftovers, he raised people from the dead, and even gave himself up for me so I could be free take that Batman. My Bat signal is prayer and anytime I pray my Jesus always shows up, unlike Thor he lives in a beautiful place called heaven and one day I will be with him and just like Hulk he has amazing strength he saved me from a life of destruction and didn’t even break a sweat. My Ironman suit is the armor of Christ and unlike Ironman I only need one suit because mine doesn’t break or wear out. See my Jesus was a superhero before there were superheroes so he is an original and many people have spent years trying to make their own superhero’s Wealth, Pride, Lust, Power, and etc. but just like every other superhero after Jesus they have all been proven to be simply what the definition states fictional and not real. Jesus poured his life out for us and he is always saving those who call out to him, he holds the keys to everything so there is nothing he can’t do and unlike any other superhero’s we can actually do the things he does and more. So if you find yourself today needing to see what a superhero really is pick up a bible and read it and if you want to experience what being with a superhero is like all you need to do is call out to him and he will show up. So the next time someone asks who your favorite superhero is simply reply the one that’s real Jesus.

-Lance