Reflect-son

I don’t know about you Gems but living my life to reflect God’s son is a constant battle. I like most of you have struggled with the age old question “Lord what is your will for my life today?”

The Lord gave me a new answer when I asked the question AGAIN this past weekend.
He started by asking me what my reflection looked like. He then told me “my will is that you reflect me in whatever you do.”
Colossians 3:  ¹⁷ And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Huh? Whatever I do…. Did you just “whatever” me?

I realized that in each new thing I do my reflection isn't always the same.  Sometimes when I begin a new adventure I can’t see Jesus in me to clearly. You know what I mean?

But why don’t I see Him clearly? Is it because I’m being self-centered? Am I looking through the eyes of doubt? Am I basing my results on my promises to God instead of God’s promises to me?

After seeing the verse in Colossians it appeared to me God might be more interested in the how I do than the what I do.
Is this what your saying God?  This thinking seemed to bring more clarity to my reflection?

I’ll give you my latest example:
My car was falling apart and needed a lot of work.  After getting a quote I realized I would be paying way more to fix the the car than it was worth. This of course raised the question should I get a newer car? I have not had a car payment or any monthly payments in years and the thought of having one was not appealing to me at all. 
I started praying about the car situation and felt like the Holy Spirit said to lease a car. He also sent my friend Cynthia to see me who had just leased a car. She said she felt like God told her to tell me to lease a car.
Mind you I had not told anyone what I was praying about.

I reminded the Holy Spirit that leasing still required a payment,

 as if He needed that information.

You would have thought at this point things were pretty clear right? But nooooo! I asked my Spiritual Guru Jessica, my 18 year old daughter what she thought, her response “why are you still praying about something God already said yes too?”

After a couple more days of praying I finally met with my friend Evelyn’s husband Rob who works at a car dealership to talk about my options. I decided I would put out a fleece for confirmation. If I got approved for the loan with a part time job income it was definitely God saying yes. 
Really spiritual I know.

The night before our meeting I prayed AGAIN to God for clarity and this is what He said “Gena you can have the car and I will provide IF you can accept my provision without bringing it up over and over each month when the payment is due. If you can’t, then don’t get the car.”
Being the level headed Christian I am, I said back to the Lord what I thought He said to me. I decided to use part of Colossians just to be on the safe side. I just wanted to be clear, I learned this in a communication class :)

"So what you’re saying is if I’m doing whatever I’m doing in the name of the Lord, in this case leasing a car, then I would automatically be doing your will so it’s your will for me to get a car."

Are you confused? Welcome to my world….

Gems this may shock you but I don’t think God is too concerned with what car I was going to drive.

What He was concerned with was that I was going to believe that He said He would provide.
This may not have been a great example but it’s what I was dealing with.
The bottom line is as time went on I started reflecting more and more on what God was saying to me.
I was like the picture of this lake. You only see part of the sky in the reflection because clouds covered the rest.  Sometimes things look cloudy to us when we are asking God questions and we're not sure of the answer because of our own doubts about God's answer.

The thing is Gems maybe we keep asking God over and over for something He has already answered yes to. Maybe we are cloudy because of our doubt to His word or in my case  I didn't think I deserved what He wanted to bless me with. 

The truth is if we are walking our whatever in the guidelines of God's word than maybe we don't have to ask at all. He will give us our desires before we even bring them up. He will do this because His desires become our desires and that's the only way you can do things in the name of Jesus.

In other words just do whatever it is your gonna do the way Jesus would!

What questions are you asking the Lord right now? Maybe like me you are focusing on the what instead of the how. Maybe the Holy Spirit is asking you to focus your “whatever” in the name of the Lord and give thanks to God that in all things we have the ability to be a reflection of His son Jesus.

Just Say Yes

Y e s, 3 small letters that can change your world. Sometimes saying yes can feel like your jumping off a cliff with a blindfold on having no idea where you will land. That's pretty much what it felt like for me about 9 years ago.
It was yet another one of those times the Lord was setting me up for something larger than I could have imagined. He asked me to join a group of women that was starting a community Bible study and I said yes. What I didn't know was these women had been praying for years to also start a crisis pregnancy center for the community. Had I known that part I would have said NO. Why you ask? Because at that time in my life I had not been freed of my own abortion nor did anyone know about it. BUT God moved in my life in such a loving way that I FINALLY agreed. Having the sense of humor the Lord has not only was I a part of the founding board I was the President. And so Life's Choices Crisis Pregnancy Center of Lake County was born.

I'm telling this story, again for some of you, to express the power of your decision to say "yes" to something the Lord asks you to do no matter how difficult or out of your ability it is.


Luke 11:28  But he said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”

This decision was made by 5 women whom the Lord hand picked and brought together. I only knew 1 of these women personally going in but I can tell you that all 4 of them were WAY more qualified to act as President.
This picture is of our marketing team, Suzan Jenkins and her son Jett.

Jett was also our IT guy. We were a humble group of women coming before the Lord with no clue what we were doing. The entire organization was 5 women, our children, and 1 very Big GOD.

My time with the board was short, I started when God said and ended when He said. During that time we prayed weekly together, 5 women seeking God's will for His Center. As time passed we began training. When the Lord told us we hired a Director, Marcia McNaney.

We traveled to Colorado for a huge convention with crisis pregnancy centers from all over the United States. All of us stepping out in faith for wisdom, direction and finances. 

I remember telling some friends I was going to Colorado having no idea where the money would come from and they advised me to wait until I had the money. But this was not how God asked any of us to do it.

Acts 5:29 “We must obey God rather than men."

I'm sharing this with you today because I was invited to the annual banquet for Life's Choices and for the first time since my position ended I was able to go. They were celebrating the 8th birthday of the Center!

8 years!!! Gems I had never really thought about the results of that decision until this past weekend. I never truly realized what God did with those small 3 letters of y e s from 5 women until I pulled into the parking lot of the reception hall where the banquet was hosted.
I was shocked at all the cars.
Was there another event happening tonight? I"m sure there will be a sign to where Life's Choices is meeting. These are the thoughts that were going through my head.
Why? Honestly I never thought about the end result of what God was doing. I was always so amazed at what God did with me and my dear sisters Kathy, Suzan, Donna and Dina I never thought about what he was doing with Life's Choices Pregnancy Center of Lake County. I was always focused on my unworthiness instead of God's worthiness.
I walked into the entrance and was brought to tears by the amount of people that were there to support the Center and God's command to choose life.

Exodus 20:13 Thou shalt not kill.
John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

Gems this jewel is not an "at a girl" to me or the women I served with, however, I was truly proud for the first time of what we had started. Proud that God took our small offering of obedience and multiplied the seed for His glory.I was honored that He used someone like me, completely guilty of the very thing Life's choices was fighting, killing the unborn. He used me in spite of my past to be a mouth piece for his unborn, slain babies. I am humbled to the point of weeping even as I write this. This jewel is about knowing
Philippians 4:13  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
isn't just a happy quote to make you feel better on an off day, it's a promise from God!

Genesis 4 "What have you done (Gena)? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground."

This was God speaking to Cain about his brothers death but I believe it's also God speaking to all of us about the unborn.
Blood has a voice, it cries and it's heard by God.

This jewel isn't necessarily about abortion although it's an important message, it's about obedience to God when you feel like you are the least likely to say yes.
During the banquet there was a large screen where they showed a live sonogram of a baby about 17 weeks old.

My very own grand baby is a little older than that inside of his/her mother's womb. Just as Vangie Berry, the Master of Ceremonies, said the womb was one of the most dangerous places for a baby that sweet baby lifted his/her hands together toward the sky and held his hands together as if she were praying. We were all in awe of God's ability to give us such a live visual.

Matthew 25:40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

BUT the enemy was quick on the scene as well. As soon as I saw that precious moving baby he whispered to me "that could have been your baby but you killed it." Tears rolled down my face in sorrow and guilt BUT just as quickly I felt the presence of my sweet Jesus wrapping his arms around me and heard the Holy Spirit say "Gena I brought you here to see the fruit of your labor. To show you that I am serious when I tell you I can work ALL things out for good to those who love me."

Romans 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Gems I was called to His purpose and I said yes.  I cannot begin to tell you how good it feels to know I was part of a good thing for God. Marcia, the director, decided to recognize me that night as a founding board member and I was so proud to stand and be recognized. It was awesome hearing my name be mentioned with all the other people that are actively a part of the Life's Choices. But what will be far more rewarding to me is when I hear my Savior call out my name and say "well done good and faithful servant."

Gems I don't know what God is commanding you to do. It may be something you think is way too big or something you think is too small for it to be from God. You may be like I was and think mercy and love do not apply to your sin and therefore you can't possibly be the one.

Psalm 145:8 The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

I don't know what He's asking you or what your doing but I do know the sky is the limit in His strength. All He's looking for from you is one small answer to One big GOD!

http://www.lifeschoices.net/
Please support the Crisis Pregnancy Center near you.