Let's Be Real

Let's pick up the story of Jonah, where our hypocritical prophet has been vomited out and is 'obeying' God by finally going into Ninevah. We see a God of Love AND Judgement, where he ushers us into his grace.

We continue in our deep dive into the book of Jonah, and we are in chapter 2. We see Jonah wake up from his spiritual apathy, and cry out to God as he is swallowed by a sea beast. His awareness of God's presence is heightened and realized, he moves to a place of gratitude and thankfulness, WHILE he is still in the belly of the beast!  God is present and near in the midst of our suffering...what do we do? How do we pray ourselves out of these situations?

We take a dive (pun intended) into Jonah chapter 1 this week and get to see the picture of a life 'asleep at the wheel' and completely oblivious to the world around him. 

I am so excited to start this journey of deep diving into the book of Jonah. To rescue it from familiarity and to look at the message that God has for us in the pages of the book of Jonah. A satire that has humor, wit and sarcasm - a story for adults to dig into, not a story to water down for a children's book. Join me as we look at the lessons that God is teaching us as we look at Jonah.

In Denmark, they call 'Good Friday', Long Friday...I like that, it seems appropriate to me. That day must have felt very long by the time it was over. Reflect with me on the drama of that day, what it was really like, what was really going on, and what it really meant. Before we can celebrate on Sunday, we need to reflect on the death of Christ and what that means in our daily lives.

The way that we communicate in the States, by default (with of course exception), is not one deeply rooted in honesty. It is more the norm to be concerned with ease of delivery and lack of conflict.
I believe that self-evaluation is made more difficult because of the lack of honesty in how we communicate in relationships. I am not advocating, for everyone to walk around saying whatever it is they are thinking at all times, we all see how well that can go on social media. What I am advocating, is for each of us to take a look at ourselves, and how we communicate with others, and ask ourselves if our default is honesty? Or is it maybe ease? 
Then ask ourselves, is that really loving?
And after all that fun, turn and ask the same questions of our own self evaluation... are we easy on our selves? Or honest....?

We start a mini-series today regarding selfishness. About living outside of ourselves and living in light of the BIG picture. This is a big topic, and a touch topic...so today I will start small with a question and a phrase for you to ponder and ask yourself honestly - this is not easy, but it is worthwhile.

Let's Be Real Podcast is celebrating it's FIRST birthday! I cannot even believe it.

We are going to talk about IF Gathering 2021 in a quick review, and some of the great takeaways I had from the weekend, and camp on counting the costs of our faith and holding fast EVEN IF things don't go as we hope.

I've learned to love and value the seasons that God has created. To value them for what they are, winter a time of rest, spring a time of rebirth. Spring for me is a time to evaluate what God has in store for me in the upcoming changing of seasons, both literally and metaphorically. 
Let's look at nature and see God, and ask him what seeds he has planted in our hearts and how  to embrace his promptings.

Are you a planner? Or are you spontaneous? How well do you react when your plans get bumped or ruined? I had a long month of learning about my plans versus God's plans, and odds are you've had the same experience once or twice as well.