Trust

Every day that I take my children to school we pass a police officer directing traffic. At my daughter’s school, the officer stands at an intersection that is pretty busy. The road the school is on runs perpendicular into a really busy street.
Once I drop my daughter off and head back towards the intersection, I’m usually going left. Some days the officer just motions for me to keep moving. It feels really strange, because technically I’m running a stop sign. But the officer told me too. (That sounds like my kids saying the dog ate their homework!) It’s true, at least in my case, that the officer told me to not that the dog ate my homework.
Some days I hesitate. Some days I completely stop and look for myself. And then some days, I roll right on through. It’s a matter of trust. The police officer wants the flow of traffic to run smoothly. His goal is safety and protection for those of us who pass through this intersection. I know that and yet some days I don’t trust it.

The same is true in my walk with Jesus. I know that He loves me and wants my best. (See John 3:16 and Jeremiah 29:11) I sense His direction and leading. He opens doors and provides opportunities. Some days I hesitate. Some days I do what I want to. And then some days, I roll with it. It truly is a matter of trust.

Power Suit

Do you remember watching Superman on tv? Clark Kent was the mild-mannered newspaper reporter by day, big black glasses and all. When he wanted or needed to do something great, he became Superman. He would dash off to the nearest closest or alley and come back with his blue tights and red cape on. With his power suit, he was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound! It was pretty exciting stuff to watch. The power suit gave him the ability to do more than the average person thought possible. Did you know that we too have a power suit defined by God that gives us the ability to do great things. It's described in Ephesians 6:13-18(NIV).

"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."

In her Bible study, Power Suit: The Armor of God Fit for the Feminine Frame, Sharon Norris Elliott teaches us much about wearing it well. Each chapter focuses on a portion of the armor andthe hindrances we need to shed in order to have a suit fitted for us. Can you imagine how silly Clark Kent would have looked putting on the blue tights and cape over his business suit? The image on our tv screen would have been hilarious and our belief in his ability greatly diminished. Ms. Elliott teaches us that we do the same with God's armor when we try to mask sin or hang on to things of this world while wearing God's armor. In order for truth, righteousness, peace, faith and God's Word to fit properly in our lives, we need to take off the old stuff, the sin that entangles us. Every day we need to dress in the newness of God's power, completely unhindered, and watch as God gives us the supernatural ability to prevail.

**If you enjoyed this post, please fill out the box in the top right hand corner to receive them in your e-mail. Don't worry about be bombarded…I only post once or so a week!**

ICRS 2011

Writing is a funny thing for me. Sometimes it flows easily and other times I have absolutely no desire to write anything. That's probably true about most things that we do. The agony occurs when I do have thoughts that I want to write about and there's no time to string the sentences together. It's frustrating. This is where I have found myself this summer, a long hot summer! Today, however, the kids have been back in school for a few weeks and the routine is coming back together. With that said, hopefully I'll be posting on a more frequent basis.

Much happened this summer that I want to tell you about. The biggest event for me was going to ICRS-The International Christian Retail Show held in Atlanta. This is where I went with my publisher to promote Every Day Faith. The show was three days of non-stop walking, talking and promoting the Bible study to the attendees at the show. The show is where retailers come to find products for their stores. They represented brick and mortar stores, on-line stores and church stores from all over the world. I met folks from just about every state in the U.S., Korea, the Philipines, Trinidad, China, and many other places that I can't remember. It was exciting and an amazing time to see how God is at work all over the world. It was also fascinating to meet authors of all types of genres. I was especially impressed with the number of authors that were from Georgia.

Since this was my first time attending the show, I had no idea of what to expect. I certainly didn't anticipate the number of books that I would be given. This picture is just a portion of the books that we received over the three days. I don't know the count, but I'm pretty sure I have enough to open a small store of my own! Since then I've given many of them away, read quite a few and put some away as resources for my next Bible study.

Funny story about the picture. The book sitting toward the far right corner is called, "52 Ways to Wow Your Husband". My nine year old son was sitting with me as I sorted the books and he asked, "What do you need that book for?" To which I replied, "Don't you think I need to wow your Daddy?" He says, "No, I think He's wowed enough!" The picture is so blurry because I was cracking up laughing. Out of the mouth of babes….