October Giveaway and "Titles"

This month the CD is ....

And of course you will also be receiving a bag of coffee from a local coffee shop here in Michigan.


I also have a special surprise for you, Bayview Cards wants to bless you too!

They've sent me boxes of beautifully handmade cards to give you every month with our Praise and Coffee! Check out their website...I'm not kidding these cards are so well done, you will be proud to send them out!

To enter the contest: leave a comment to this post! OH, and please tell me if you have my button on your blog, you will be entered 2 times!

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And now a few words from this sponsor...

Do the kudos keep you going??

I was talking with someone recently and they were excited and proud of an accomplishment they were about to earn. I don't want to be specific and say what it was because I want this to relate to all of our accomplishments and titles.

This person said, I am a wife and mom but now I can add _____________ to my title.

I am happy for her. She has worked hard to achieve this goal and there is nothing wrong with the satisfaction she's gained from that.

But what concerns me is the need for a title. The need for the acknowledgement of others.
There's nothing wrong with having titles, I've had my share and still do. I've led groups and people and sat on community boards.

But several years ago now, the Lord exposed my heart and the need for such titles. He showed me how important it was to me that people knew all that I had done and respected me for it. Unfortunately, it was the stripping away of titles that laid my heart bare.

Now I am so thankful that the Lord exposed my heart. I can have titles, but they don't define me. Being a daughter of the Most High God is my most precious title now.

I find it so interesting that the men who built the Tower of Babel had this in mind:

Gen 11:4
Then they said,
"Come, let us build ourselves a city,
with a tower that reaches to the heavens,
so that we may make a name for ourselves
and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."
NIV

Are you working hard to make your name great, or working hard to make His name great?

Psalms 135:13
Your name, O LORD, endures forever,
Your renown, O LORD,
through all generations.
NIV

God loves us enough to 'wake us up' sometimes and when He does, we'd better pay attention. He only does it because He has wonderful plans for our life that He does not want taken off course by pride.

Here is an example of a woman who did not set out to make her name great. This video says it so well, it is a beautiful tribute to Ruth Graham.

You can have all this world, give me Jesus...

They will be MY people

I love to 'people watch' and observe how we all relate to one another and respond in different ways. It is so interesting to me that our behavior can be so self-preserving.

I think about this particular person (that NONE of you know :0) ) that is very much like this.
He is one of my kids' friends.
He is what I would call a "one-upper."

It matters not what you are talking about, he has a bigger and better story.
He is constantly arguing and stirring up trouble with others, in fact often telling you that you are wrong and he is right.

The very sad thing though is that he is a very lonely person and can't understand why no one likes him. He complains all the time about 'so and so' not liking him or being mad at him.

By his trying so hard to impress people, he actually repels them.

Of course I know that this goes far deeper in him that I can diagnose, I'm sure that this was learned over many years and 'who knows what' else. He tries to give an impression of superiority, but the irony is that he himself has such a low self-esteem.

If only he could see that by 'lifting' himself up, he is only tearing others down, and who wants to be around a person that tears you down all the time?

We, by nature, will gravitate toward those who make us feel good about ourselves and avoid those who make us feel "less than" them.

We all want to 'fit in' somewhere, we want to belong and feel valuable.

God wants that for us too!

I love what the Word says:

Hebrews 8:10
10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds and
write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
NIV

God knows of our need to belong- He put the desire there!
And He is the one that wants to fulfill it!

...and they will be MY people....
I love it!

I am praying for this young man, and I pray that you would lift up the person that jumped into your head as you read this.
Our natural reaction is to reject them, but they really are just longing for love and approval.

Blessings friend,

Our Conquering King...a servant

ipod
itunes
iphone
istuff

i-i-i

Toby Keith says it …. “I want to talk about ME”!

As a worship leader it was easy to notice that the largest file in the music folder was the letter “I”. I used to search for songs written specifically about Him and not how “I” feel about Him.

Phil 2:3-4
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain
conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
4 Each of
you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of
others.
NIV

I believe that so much of our own inner turmoil comes from thinking about situations and how they relate to US. Instead of putting ourselves in the place of Jesus who had every right to act like the conquering King that He was, but instead He became a servant.

Phil 2:5-7
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of
Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality
with God something to be grasped,
7 but made Himself nothing,
taking the
very nature of a servant,
NIV

This is an incredible challenge. It certainly doesn’t come easy for me. Make myself NOTHING?? ~sigh~ I have a long way to go!

But OH! The freedom of dying to ourselves!

The whole chapter of Philippians 2 speaks powerfully to this subject, I encourage you to check it out.

Drawing is one week from today!
Click HERE to enter the November drawing!