The Father's Love

(From John 1) And the Word that created everything became flesh and dwelt [tabernacled; camped out] among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the Only Begotten [the unique One, the only One of His kind] from the Father full [completely filled to the top] of grace and truth.

This fullness [completely filled to the top] we have all received, and grace upon grace.  For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth [that fullness from the Father] were realized through Jesus Christ [the Messiah].

No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten God [the unique One, the only One of His kind, Jesus the Messiah] who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him [brought Him out; the unfolding of the Father; helped us understand who Father is].

(From John 14 - Jesus talking to His friends) If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him and have seen Him.  He who has seen Me has seen the Father.  I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.  The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His work.  You shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me and I in you.

(And in John 17 at the end of Jesus’ prayer) Oh Father, I have made Your name known to them and will make it known, that the love that You have loved Me with will be in them and I in them.

May you recognize the grace and truth which you have received from the Father through the Son; that fullness of grace and truth to know the love that the Father has for you is the same love which He has for His Only Begotten, His unique One, His Son [Huios].  May you realize that the Father, your Papa in Heaven cannot love you less than He loves His own Son.  May you know this love and that nothing can ever or will ever separate you from this love.

If Love Crafted Me

If Love crafted me, then my destiny is to love and to be loved.

If Love crafted me, then I am wanted…

I am secure…

I am loved…

and I am valuable.

If Love hand-crafted me in my mother’s womb, then that Love and only that Love defines me.

If Love crafted me, then I belong to Love.

If Love crafted and created me, then I am His and I am known by Him .

I am made in His image and I love the way He loves.

I seek to know Him and be known by Him.

I am captivated by His gaze and my heart beats in unison with His.

If Love crafted me, then I can rest…

I can be still…

I can draw life from the arms of Love.

Peace in the Storm

These last few years have been difficult years.  The circumstances in our lives have shaken the very foundation of what we believe and why.  Tough circumstances stir lies deep within our souls and bring them raging to the surface.  We begin to question ourselves.  Sometimes we question the commitment and love of those around us, and sometimes we even question God.

God has given me a picture in this season.  The picture originates from a story:  One evening, Jesus and His closest friends (disciples) decided to get into a boat and cross the sea.  Well, Jesus fell asleep while they were making their crossing.  While He was sleeping a violent storm arose.  A majority of His closest companions were fisherman and very familiar with the sea.  So, this storm had to be fierce because these men believed they were all going to die that evening.  As the waves crashed over their boat and it began to fill with water, they woke their Friend; their Savior, Jesus.  Now at this point in the story, many of us want to get frustrated at the disciples:  “Guys, really, don’t you get it!  How many times does He have to prove Himself to you before you finally realize that He is love personified and He will never leave or forsake you!”

You see His friends were looking at the color of the sky, the wind, the waves, the water in the boat… they were looking at every circumstance and making determinations based on those circumstances.  How often do we do the same?  When things get rough and the waves rise, and sometimes the storm gets so bad that water begins to fill the boat… what do we do?  We may question ourselves: “I must be doing something wrong?  Do I have some hidden sin in my life?  Is God mad at me (and it’s my job to figure out why)?  Or sometimes our focus is on others: “If you would just do this or that, everything would be ok (as if our “okayness” is based on someone else)?  And then there’s always option number three: i.e. blame God. “If God really loved me…; If He really cared…; He is in control of everything, right?” How different are we than His closest friends who could not connect to Him because they were too focused on the wind and the waves? Did you ever stop to think that  Jesus would not have rebuked a storm that His Father had caused.

I think all of life comes from one place… Him.  “Apart from Christ I can do nothing.” John 15:5.  Jesus did nothing of His own initiative; He did what He saw the Father do and even the words He spoke originated from the Father!  He showed us the perfect Christian life; the only one that has ever existed.  That life is one of perfect dependence.  So here is my picture:  The storm is raging with such intensity that it looks as if death is imminent.  Jesus is in the boat.  I can look at the wind and the waves.  I can even look at the other disciples and connect to their fear or anger or disappointment… or I can connect to the One who is perfect peace in the storm.  I can connect to the One who says “Peace”.  I connect to the One who is Peace.  Let us choose to take our eyes off of the wind and the waves and the others around us and their words and actions and discover Him and His truth in this storm.  He is the answer.  I want to lay down next to Him in the boat and put my head on His chest and listen to His heartbeat.  I want to look up into His eyes and know what He is saying in this storm.  He will either speak peace to the storm or He will speak peace to me while the storm rages, but whatever He chooses, I know He is always enough.

Let Us be Reminded of Our Treasures

I married young... 19 years old. Since Scott had more college under his belt, we decided "I'll work and Scott can finish college first, then we'll switch places."  Needless to say, he graduated and we found out we were going to have our first child.  I instantly became a stay-at-home mom and went to college for the next 7 years... one class a semester at night.  I wouldn't have it any other way.

I always had this feeling that I was putting my career on hold.  In the beginning of our marriage it was, "I'll sacrifice and you can get your education." Then it became: "I'll sacrifice so that we can give our children the best." Then we took it a step further... I won't just sacrifice for 5 or 6 years, but for 18 or 19 so that we can home-school and offer our kids an education designed for them by someone who delights in them and understands how God designed them.

Now I'm an empty nester.  As I ended that season of raising my children for the next, I realized... it was not a sacrifice at all; it was always a gift.  My career awaits... but my children have grown. Yesterday I could swaddle them in my arms; today they're adults, moving into their careers and into their lives.

So, you see... it was not a sacrifice.  It was never a sacrifice, but an opportunity.  An opportunity to be with some of the greatest treasures in my life.  I realize now that God knew that one day I would not look back and think of what I'd lost, but I would look at what I've gained... treasures that are stored up in my heart that can never be taken away.

Daniel and Erika have been and are some of the greatest blessings of my life. I am blessed that the last 20 years of my life have been spent with them first. I am blessed for every sleepless night and every day of spit up and later, wrestling over school work... because they were days... Some were hard, some were glorious... but all were days. 

Seize these days with your children while they are young, for tomorrow they will be adults.

Things Unimaginable

1 Corinthians 2:9-10  However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived” the things God has prepared for those who love Him— these are the things God has revealed to us by His Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

Ephesians 3:20 ‘Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

So… God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or even imagine!  And… He has prepared things that eye has not seen and ear has not heard and (and not for my favorite…) things that have not even entered into the heart of man!

I don’t know about you, but this blows my mind.  This gives me permission to dream big with God and however big my dream; however big my request, He longs to do immeasurably more!

The orphan heart says, “You should be thankful for what you have.”  The heart of a son/daughter says, “More, Papa, more!”

Let us live as sons and daughters and continue to dream the dreams that God has placed in our hearts.  Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”  I have learned that when I delight in the Lord, He is the desire of my heart.  Isn’t it great that He sets us up in that way!!! 

So when we ask Him for more… the answer every time will be “yes!”  Yet, the answer will always be greater than the request.  Let us dream big and then let us know with certainty that however big we dreamed, God will top that because that is His character; because it is His pleasure to give you the Kingdom. (Luke 12:32)

It's Jesus.... period.

Sometimes God gives me revelation too deep for words.  I say that to let you know that this note will be insufficient as I try to explain what is in my heart.



I am in a season of seeking the Lord's will for my life in ministry.  For the past 19 years my first job (or shall I call it an opportunity) has been that of stay-at-home mom and then homeschool mom.  My second opportunity for the past 13 years has been in the area of ministry (this has been part-time because of my first opportunity); i.e. Christ-centered discipleship counseling and now inner healing ministry.  The latter included discipleship and inner healing for individuals, teenagers and couples, teaching classes and conferences, training interns and periodically public speaking. My first opportunity has just drawn to a close as my son and daughter have begun the adventure of life as adults.  I am now seeking the Lord about the next step in following Him.


In my mind I had it mapped out this way: Point A - intimacy with Jesus.  From that place I discover Point B - ministry, speaking, teaching, training, etc.  You know!  Go into all the world and preach the gospel.  Right?   Point A - Love God and Point B - Love others.

So, I was talking the the Lord yesterday morning and asking Him what this is supposed to look like.  I said, "Lord, I know that all things are rooted and established in You and I know that all things flow from a knowledge of You... I just don't know how to get from Point A to Point B.  I feel stuck in this place of knowing the things you have placed in my heart and not knowing how to put feet to those visions and dreams.  As I sat before the Lord, I heard His still small voice, "There is no point B."

You see, unfortunately most of us have not discovered Point A.  Most of us are too busy to posture ourselves before the Lord.  We want a formula, a plan, a principle that will help us get to the next place, but when we get there we will need a new plan or principle once again.  Jesus told us to seek first His Kingdom and all of the other things would follow.  But we don't know how to do that.  We don't know what it's like to seek God.  We are spending so much time doing life that we don't have time to spend with the Life Giver, Creator and Sustainer.

Remember the story of Martha and Mary.  We must remember that Martha was doing a good thing.  She was feeding the Son of God!  But she wasn't choosing the "one thing" (Luke 10:38-42)... really the only thing that mattered: sitting at the feet of Jesus; i.e. point A!

You see, Jesus is Point A and Plan A.  There is no Point B.  He is it!  He is everything and dicovering that truth is like a man discovering a pearl of great price in a field.  He sold all that he had just to buy the field... because he knew that he had discovered the treasure that was worth everything.

So where do we go from here.  We must find a way, a place, a time to posture ourselves before the Lord and discover the "one thing" as Mary of Bethany discovered.  As we discover the one thing, we will discover a rest and a peace and a joy and a love that will follow us into all of the other things of life.

To Know Him is to Love Him and to Love Others

A short time ago I had the privilege of hearing Wes Hall speak.  He said something that I wondered about and something that has inspired me to write once again.  He said, “John 17:26 is one of the greatest prayers in the Bible.”  Well, I recognize John 17 as being the prayer that Jesus prayed for the eleven who were with Him before He went to the cross.  I also think that John 14 through 17 are some of the most important words that Jesus spoke, since they were His last teaching/prayer before the cross.  He didn’t have an audience of 5000 that night; He had an audience of eleven.

John 17:26 is the end of His prayer to His Father.  Jesus said, I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for Me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”  Jesus told them that if they have seen Him, they have seen the Father.  Everything He did was revealing the Father.  Notice that as the Father is made known, the love that He has is made known!

Someone once said, the great commandment must precede the great commission; i.e. we must love God and love others before we go into all the world and preach the gospel.  God is looking for a generation of lovers.  He is looking for a generation that will be so in love with Him and in love with others that they will lay down everything and anything to know Him more and to carry that knowledge and love into the world.  It is from that place of knowledge and love that we are equipped to go.  If we go into all the world before we know Him; before we know His love and His goodness and His grace, we will carry a message of servitude and we will miss the greatest place of relationship: the position of bride, son/daughter, and friend.

God has taken us into the wilderness (Hosea 2) to shift us out of the position of servant and into the position of Bride!  He is looking for a generation that will love Him.  He is looking for a generation that will say “no” to the distractions of the world and fight to know Him; a generation that wants more of God, whatever the cost; whatever the price.

Does it sound costly and uncomfortable?  It is.  But nothing will ever satisfy the heart more than knowing Him and knowing the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.

I will end with this prayer from Ephesians 3:14-21: For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen

Hanging Out with God

This has been a crazy year and a half.  It began in August 2010: my mother-in-law passed away suddenly of a brain aneurism; my father-in-law was left dependent and destitute and Scott and I became his caretakers; we began to drive to Huntsville once a week to take care of him and remodel his entire house and get it ready to sell; we moved him to Nashville; within 2 weeks time several marriages very close to us fell into turmoil; before we could rest from the traumas around us, my mother became ill and had to move to assisted living; all this time was during my daughter’s senior year and all that comes with that season; my daughter graduated and the day after we got home from moving her to California; my mother went into the hospital and her health began to decline rapidly; I spent 5 to 6 days a week with her for 5 months, then on January 13, 2011, my mother went to heaven.

After her funeral I came home.  All was quiet.  As I met with the Lord I felt Him calling me to a season of rest.  I set apart days and times on my calendar that I would turn of the phones and close myself away from everything but God.  When I began my season of rest, I began to seek the Lord.  “So, God, what are we doing today?”  The answer came back, “We’re just hanging out.”  I wrestled with what this meant… do I read my Bible, do I pray, do I worship, do I intercede for others, do I fast and seek your will in ministry… what do I do?!?”  His answer came gentle and unchanging, “Rest. We’re just hanging out.”

After 2 weeks of this, I began to question God: “Lord, what am I supposed to do?  If I just hang out with You, my mind will wander.”  “That’s ok,” He said, just lay down on the sofa in My presence and let’s hang out.”  “But Lord,” I responded, “If I lay down on the sofa, I might doze off.”  “That’s ok,” He said, smiling, “we’re simply hanging out together.”

Then I began to think about my godson, Garrett; he’s 7 years old.  When I go to his house to visit, he comes and sits in my lap or as close to me as he can possibly get, and just remains… usually for the entirety of my visit.  I realized, he has no agenda!  He’s not thinking, “I am going to learn so much by sitting with Miss Denise.”  He’s not strategizing how his time with me is even developing our relationship or intimacy.  He just longs to be with me and as close to me as he can possibly get and he has no agenda.  His agenda is love.

We, as God’s people, are guilty of taking our time with God and turning it into a time that will produce fruit in our lives or in the lives of others (especially those of us in ministry).  Graham Cooke said, “You can end up with a great working relationship with God, but a lousy friendship.”  So, for the past 9 weeks God and I have been hanging out!  No Agenda!  He wants us to know Him.  He wants His sons and daughters to know His love.  He longs to just hang out with us and reveal His heart to us.  If that never resulted in ministry… is it enough?  We know the truth that as we get to know Him we cannot contain His goodness; but what if He said I just want us to hang out from now to eternity… period.  Are we satisfied?  Let it be so.

At our church we have this phrase about “those who God misses most”.  Typically we are referring to the lost sheep or the prodigals.  But what if it’s us?  What if we have become so consumed with “doing” for God, that we have missed just simply crawling into His lap just to love on Him?  What if we are the ones that God misses most?  May you crawl into His lap today with no agenda.  I pray that as you do His love would be released over you.  I pray blessings of peace and joy and healing and grace and the knowledge of Him over your heart and over your life.