HH'S GREEN THUMB...

WHEN CHOOSING...

stinks and is stinking hard.

I know it sounds flippant some days, just choose Jesus, just choose this or that, but I am all to aware of how hard that can be. The sinful me has its own choices it wants to make. The hurt me wants to protect me and mine. The wounded me wants to bite back when you mess with her. The insecure me wants the praises of peeps because they are tangible and drown out the what I am not ramblings in my head. Over the weekend I had the opportunity to work this out and let me tell you, it was difficult. I was mad, old wounds (that I thought had healed) ripped open, and I had a full scale debate raging in my head and my heart. I will tell you there was a point when I felt the burden lift. However, it only came after I confessed to the Lord the deepest, ugliest truth I had hid in my heart about the whole thing, and even then, I had to keep choosing.

I guess I want you to know two things:

First, if you find choosing difficult today, you are not alone. Choosing is hard for many of us, if not all. Whether it is choosing not to have that next drink or next cookie or next hit or next snarky comment, you are not the only one.

Second, it is only when we come clean with God about the truth in our own hearts are we able to move forward. Freely. You can tell Him. He can handle it. It does not change the sacrifice Christ made for you. It is the very reason for it.

If you and I choose nothing else today, let us choose to lay it all before Jesus.

He has chosen to carry it.

All the way to the cross.

EVERYONE...EACH and EVERY ONE

I have been having a little mini Jeremy Camp concert in my head over the last few days.

And we shall overcome

by the Blood of the Lamb

and the word of our testimony

everyone

overcome.

It has been both humbling and encouraging. The kind of lyric that brings you to tears of gratefulness and makes your heart burst with determination.
It has been a week of seeing this verse lived out. Last week, I was blessed to read a beautiful testimony of God's deliverance for one of His precious children. Friday, I received impromptu notes from some of my students thanking me for being there this year and sharing what I meant to them. Trust me, when a 16 year-old uses the word "godly" in reference to you, it brings you to tears. It is part of my testimony to them. Sunday was a day full of testimonies at church as we watched people being baptized. Women who had been serving right alongside the church, but realized they didn't have a testimony. A woman who was moved by the testimony of a boy less than 12 years old. A testimony he was willing to share. One he asked to share with her. I think the one that moved me the most was the man who came forward for the open invitation for baptism. The humble obedience to do what God called him to do  RIGHT THEN was so tender. His testimony has power.

I know I have said it before, but I will say it again. 
If you don't have a testimony, you can. Christ Jesus is waiting.
If you have one, when you have one - share it.  
It has power. It has hope. It has Jesus.
Jesus has overcome.
We will overcome.
Share your testimony.
Each and every one.
Choose to overcome.

WE MAY NEED DR. DREW....

Donkey's intervention did not go well.

 He was herded toward the way out.

He made it to the narrow gate. Then we heard,

" No DONKEY! NO!!!!!".

Then we saw Donkey in our front yard.

Where he has been ever since.

Seems he likes the grass on the other side.

DON'T BE DONKEY...

We have had company for the last few days. Donkey apparently came in through the front gate of our property. What he doesn't seem to realize is that his home is adjacent to us at the back of our property. All he has to do is walk to the back fence and he could return. His owners came over to get him, but he was hiding. We thought maybe he had moved on, but he emerged from the shadows about nine o'clock that same night. The kids love seeing him. The dogs love chasing him. He loves to eat dog food. Donkey gets a little desperate at times. He brays, and then he toots, and then he brays and then he .... well, you get the idea. He really wants to get out of here, and the only way he can remember to is out the front gate again. However, that is not a viable option for him. So, stuck he stays until the rain stops and they can come get him again.
Reminds me of me....and you. The way donkey got free was a gate was left wide open. He saw it, with his partner in crime Nester, and he ran through it. Nester, however, knows the way back. Donkey didn't. Ever done that? Saw some freedom...your buddies were going...so you ran right along. Problem was they knew how to get back. You and I just got trapped somewhere we didn't want to be. Somewhere we can't for the life of us figure how to get out of. Then, we someone comes to get us out we go and hide. Perhaps I should change Donkey's name to Adam. Or Eve. I haven't gotten close enough to tell.
We spend our days crying and fighting off things nipping at our heels. We keep trying to get out on our own, but the gate is closed. We are captive.
Maybe that has been you in your thought life. Found a little freedom to watch this or that and now you are held captive by it. Maybe you with food or drink. Little freedom to eat this or just have one drink, now you are imprisoned by it. Perhaps money. You had a little breathing room in the budget and you went and got yourself back in debt. Now you are enslaved by it. The list could go on. Well, today I want to remind us (and I mean US) of the good news.
We don't have to stay here. There is One who has came to set us free. Christ Jesus. The trip back is through a narrow gate, but it is the gate that leads to freedom. We can choose to follow Him through it. We must choose. God help us choose.

Luke 4:17-19 (NKJV)

And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.

And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

SUMMER PLANS

I asked the boys last night what is the one thing they want to do this summer.

Go to ........................... (the local water park)     MC 2

Go to VEGAS! So I can hang out with the ladies!  MC 1 (His father....I blame his father:)

No sir. Not gonna happen, Not even going to hang out with the ladies at the water park.
The only lady he will be hanging out with is middle- aged, overweight, and under tanned.
He will LOVE every minute of it!

MY NEXT 300....

I have been wondering all weekend how I was going to follow Friday's post. Was I going to leave it alone and move on? Was I going to defend my stance? Was I going to defuse any hostility?
In the end, I hope to do a bit of all three.
If you have pictured me with a white poster board sign and chunking rocks at people, then stop. I have learned better in my walk with the Lord. While I make no apologies for what I said, I am not going around acting as the sin police. If I did, I would never get out of my own bathroom and away from my own mirror.
Also, know that I can disagree with you and still love you. I really can. Before I grew up some in the Lord, maybe not so much. So I understand those of you who struggle with that concept. Now, I can. Maybe from a distance, but I can, because you are not my enemy.
Listen, relationship is key here. The Holy Spirit is vital here. Only by His guidance would I want to speak into someone's life that I didn't have a relationship with. It is only by His guidance that I would want to speak into someone's life that I do have a relationship with. The flesh wins out and the mouth sometimes shoots before it thinks, but I am growing in that as well.
I read a blog post about winning a culture war and losing a generation. I would say the generation is already lost. Each and every one. It is only through Christ Jesus, and His uncompromising truth and love, can we be saved.
With that, I am moving on.