Today

Well, my friends, as the clock ticks forward, I find myself closer and closer to the birth of our second child, Nolan Landis, and ever more exhausted and pushed to my limits. I just want to let you know that I will do my best to meet you here each day and share a morsel from God's Word, but I expect that it will be sporadic, at best, for a while. I appreciate your understanding, and I will be sure to let you all know when our little guy decides to join us out here. Of course, then life will really be crazy, and exhausted won't even be able to cover how I'll feel, but I will still meet you here when I can - I can't imagine that I will be able to stay away for too long.

I just want to let you all know that God has you on my heart daily, as I lift you up and pray for you. Just the thought of you all out there brings me great joy, and so I hope that I will be able to get right back into this very, very soon! Again, thank you for your patience and understanding. Take care, and we'll talk soon.

Serving,
Andrea Sipe


James 4:13-14
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.


I love the saying "Yesterday is the past, tomorrow’s the future, but today is a gift, that’s why it’s called the present." Truly, today is all we have. Yesterday is gone - nothing we can do about it, and tomorrow is not yet here, and we have no guarantee that it ever will be. Today is what we have, it’s what we’ve been given. So, what are we going to do with it? Are we going to dwindle it away, pushing our passions, our goals, our life up to "tomorrow"? Or are we going to live it, and use it - fill it with all that we can?

Now, I’m not saying that we have to go-go-go, as society so loves to tell us. And I’m not saying that planning is a bad thing. I am saying that we need to stop planning for tomorrow, when we’re not living today - continually pushing life away toward the future. Do you have a friend to call or a letter to write? Why wait? Do you have a child to love and play with, or someone who needs to hear of your love? Do you have a dream to fulfill - to write a book, or become a photographer? We do not know what tomorrow brings, if tomorrow comes at all. So, let’s take advantage of today, each and every day, for "today" is all we will ever have.

Existing For God

1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.


I missed my quiet-time yesterday morning. When God woke me up, I debated, considered, and then chose to roll over and go back to sleep. But sleep didn’t come. Instead, my head became filled with a song that I hear on the Christian radio station that I listen to. It talks about how when I’m feeling sad, my soul is weary, and my hands are tired, still I will lift them up to God, because it’s not about how I feel - I exist for Him. Wow! That was some message God was sending my way.

So, I began to wonder how many people really see it that way. How many people understand that it doesn’t matter how we feel, that’s not what it’s about - it’s about obeying God. I know that I tend to forget this lesson, often. It’s about going to Him with how we feel. It’s about understanding that when He calls us forward and we are weary, He does so because He knows coming is better for us than hanging back, even though that is what we want to do. We are not our own, and we have absolutely no right to dictate what we do or how we do it. When the Holy Spirit came on board, He took over rights as captain, and our lives should reflect that.

I’m asking that we each sit for a few moments (I really don’t think it will take long, if you’re anything like me), and think about all the areas that we make excuses for not obeying God. Think about all the things we do (or don’t do) that we know God has asked us not to do (or to do). Now, let’s really dig deep and look at why we disobey. We can blame others. We can blame weakness. We can place the blame in so many places, and yet when it comes down to it, it is a choice we are making. Others cannot make those choices for us. And we are no longer weak, having the Holy Spirit as our strength. It comes down to choice. We simply have to choose to obey - and not half-heartedly - He knows the difference! The moment we choose obedience, God will meet us in that place and give us all that we need to succeed.

I am making a pledge to start choosing obedience, to start existing for God. Won’t you join me? I know that it is so much harder than it sounds - it’s really a daily struggle, isn’t it? I know it is for me! So, let me know how it’s going with you. I am so encouraged when I hear of people who choose obedience and find their lives richer because of it, and I count it a blessing to pray for those who are struggling, just as I struggle. It is each of you that God uses in my life to urge me forward on this daily journey of faith, and for that, I thank you.

Goodness of the Lord

Psalm 27:13
I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.


The news is full of the terrible, the tragic, and the painful. We are constantly inundated with images and stories of all that is going wrong in world - bombs in Iraq, tsunamis in South Asia, the murder across town, we are hard-pressed to hear of anything good. And the really tragic part is that the Word of God tells us that it is only going to get worse. If you’re anything like me, you’re probably wondering how it could get any worse, but it will.

So, what can we, as Christians, hold on to? Of course our hope is in Christ, alone, but what about the rest of the world? Will we simply watch as it crumbles away before our very eyes? I don’t believe that we are doomed to simply stand off to the side and watch as the world withers away with no hope. A battle is raging, and as Satan tries to raise the stakes, God raises them just a little bit higher.

Of course, we have to look. We have to keep a look-out to really see how God is working in our midst, but as Christians, God has already given us the eyes to see His hand, if we want to. I take courage and find hope in the fact that God is bringing the world hope in the midst (and many times because) of all that surrounds us. God is the hope the world needs - there is no other cure, no other place to turn for comfort and relief. God alone is the foundation of all that is good. And I believe that as we watch as He allows all that is going on, perhaps bringing judgement upon the world, we will see people turning to Him, repenting, and spreading His message of love and deliverance and hope.

So, what can we do? We can watch for opportunities for God to work His goodness through us - we are His tools, and I want to be used. Don’t you? More importantly, we can pray. We can pray for those in the midst of the tragedies we see, we can pray for those ministering to those people, and we can pray for God’s hand to be revealed. We can pray for revival, and repentance. We can pray and pray and pray - mighty warriors, down on our knees. And as we pray, our hearts will be softened even more to see what God is doing, and in turn we will desire to pray more. We pray, because we truly believe that we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. We will see His goodness, and His love, and His message of hope spread from person to person, starting with us!

Trustworthy

2 Samuel 7:28
O Sovereign LORD , you are God! Your words are trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant.


The reliability of Scripture is rooted in the reliability of God and His character. We often talk about how Scripture is God-breathed, and perfect, but I think we also hear a lot about how Scripture is tainted, and isn’t completely trustworthy - that’s it’s been "mistranslated." The truth is that God’s words are trustworthy, not in and of themselves, but because of the trustworthiness of the One who spoke them. It is not the words that are spoken, but the One who speaks them in which we believe and put our trust.

So, why don’t we take these words as being perfectly trustworthy? Why do we so often fall prey to our own logic, or the "intellect" of others? Do we trust God? Then we need to start living as though we do. We need to start living lives that reflect the foundations of our beliefs. Look at David and the life He lived. As a boy, he did not run away from Goliath. Logically, he should not have won that battle, but he didn’t listen to logic, or anyone else for that matter. If we look at those who had great faith, the lives they lived and the deeds they were a part of are so counter-intuitive that God’s hand is obvious. That is what I want in my life. Don’t you? Excitement and adventure - a life lived in faith!

These people listened to God alone, and that is exactly what you and I need to start doing. If He has promised us good things, then we need to live in expectation of those good things. Again, we put our trust not in words that are contained in the Holy Book, but our trust is in God, the One who speaks those words to our hearts and minds every time we read them.