Messy Love

"Lord, your love is perfect; Especially when it seems like it is not".

This is what I wrote in my journal earlier today, after waking from a nap and feeling burdened and heavy about it being a holiday and desiring my own family (just keeping it real, I have my moments).

Can I share with you something I have learned personally about God's love; it's Messy. Yes I said it,it was  not a typo, lol! What I mean is that out of my life relationship with God, the most beautiful moments that I have experienced in relationship with Him has been birthed out of hot mess situations (undesirable, unpopular, lonely, seemingly dry, or consequences from our bad decisions)!

I can explain it best like this: Imagine, there is this well known Chief artist and He is preparing to premier His best art piece ever. Everyone is talking about it. Some are skeptical, some are excited, and some don't know what to expect. It is clear that this chief artist is SO excited about His premiere piece of artwork. He has put his blood, sweat, tears and heart into it. He makes it perfect not missing one stroke or painting. So here goes the public viewing and you are the star guest. The unveiling is about to take place, many have gathered to seen (some because they genually want to know and others just to see what the hype is all about). The chief artist comes in and greets everyone, He introduces his premiere piece and asks you to do the honors of unveiling this most precious artwork!!! Once it is unveiled,  It is quiet in the room some are looking in astonishment, others look disgusted and turn there nose up, then yet others are confused as to what it is or means! The chief artist asks you what you think, you don't want to hurt His feelings because He is so excited and overwhelmed with joy! To you, the premiere piece looks....... Messy. To you it has so many imperfections and things seem to be all over the place! The artist can see from your facial expression exactly how you feel, then He grabs your hand and says, " My love, let me explain. This is my most beautiful prized possession. I put my blood, sweat and tears into this. This is my LOVE for you and it is my MASTERpiece"!

If you can tell, the chief artist is God and we are His special guest He asked to do the unveiling. The painting is His love for us. See, the world has given us a shallow, easy and even selfish view of love. This is not Love though. A lot of the things we experience in life may seem a hot steamy mess and the way We see our lives is in the world's eye, so we try to deny it or even look at it in disgust. It may look messy and far from perfect to us. Although His love is perfect, when we are in the midst of trial or test it may not feel or look perfect because WE are not perfect. Only God and His love is.

 Stop trying to be perfect for the world, the world will never be satisfied. Receive God's "messy" Love, which is perfect through His eyes! Let's ask Him to show us our lives through His eyes! It will look completely different! <3

The Worship Leader of Your Home

Who is the Worship Leader of your home? Who is being Worshipped in your home?

This year, The Lord has really been pushing me to focus more on family and relationships. He has been leading me to spend more time with them, read and study the word with them, Worship and Praise The Lord with them; in the home!

What would we really be saying about our priorities if we are here, there and everywhere (even in ministry) but our home life is a mess? Family is important to God, how many scriptures does He give us guidance and instruction on marriage, parenthood, relationships, etc. Clearly family and our home life is important to Him. In a day where the family structure is under such an attack (LGBT movement, fatherlessness, rebellion against authority/Elders, abortion, etc). We need The Lord in our homes! Whether it's a single family household, a household with both parents, a single in the home; there needs to be a Worship Leader in the home.

Let's look at the first example and story of a family in the bible (Genesis). Adam and Eve where a family and their home was the Garden of Eden.  Now The Lord had given the Leader/Pastor (Adam) of their home instructions on how to live.

"but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17 NKJV)

Adam, the Leader and the Pastor of his home, had shared and led his family to obey the Lord's instructions until the enemy tempted His wife (Eve) to disobey God.

"Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. (Genesis 3:1-7 NKJV)

Why didn't the serpent go through the Leader/Pastor of the home which was Adam? He is crafty and chose the Worship Leader of the home, which was Eve. He knew how much of an influence she had on her Husband and home.

Eve was God's ordained helpmeet to Adam. The NLT translation of Genesis 3:6 says that "The woman was convinced" after the serpent tempted her.  A Worship Leader should lead others/compel them to Worship the true and living God! Satan tempted Eve to Worship something other than God, she was convinced and then shared it to her husband.

We can learn a lot from this family. I'm not by any means saying that all Worship Leaders in the home are always women.  What if there is not even a woman in the home?

God desires Worship and we can only Worship in Spirit and in Truth! How can we lead our family's into Worship The Lord? I believe it starts in our prayer closet. See Eve was listening to the wrong person (the serpent). How many times have we made the same mistake?  We need to go to God and hear His heart regarding our families. Repent, Watch and pray. If there is something that He identifies is a hindrance from our family Worshipping The Lord together in our home, we need to pull that thing down in the name of Jesus! 

Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Luke 10:19 I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Let's go to war and allow God to restore Worship unto HIM in our homes with our family!

So, are you the Worship Leader of your home?