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Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound..... 5/2/2017

Grace, I don’t see it abounding, do you?

This week I came across something that has left me pondering and a tad skeptical.  It pricked my heart and my spirit the moment I saw it because others see our actions and they hear our words.  We, as Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are a walking billboard for Him and His church.  

What I saw was a lady that had the word “grace” tattooed on her forearm, a person that in my own life has not shown grace, in fact has done just the opposite.  I made small talk with her later and mentioned, “Grace, what would we do without it?  So many people don’t understand what grace is, really, what would we do without grace?”

It got me to thinking about the Christian slogan t-shirts we wear and the bumper stickers on our vehicles.  What we are professing, is that what we really are walking out in our lives?  It was a good wake-up call for myself!  

I shared this with my Pastor because he loves me and I know I can trust him with my heart.  I respect him and it is important to be held accountable, if I’m off track I expect his loving correction to get me back on track.  I loved what he said back to me.  Grace was never meant to be kept or hoarded for ourselves, it was always meant to be a gift, to be given away.  

Would you be intentional today, tomorrow, this week and give someone the much needed grace that our world so desperately needs?  Would you help me make a difference in our world by allowing grace to begin to abound?  Would you and I be aware of what we are wearing to help align with our actions and choices to bring God glory and honor?  

I thank God for getting my attention and reminding me that I am His and encouraging me to allow my actions to reflect that He loves me and that He loves you!  Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound……



Love-Yolanda 
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Friday, April 21, 2017

What does God require of you and I?

 
What does God require of you and I?  
 
For some time now my heart has been burdened with how we treat one another inside of the church walls and outside of the church walls.  I’ve seen some down right nastiness in my 50 plus years of living as well as some amazing love.  I am making a choice to no longer allow the cold, bitter, negative people have such a say in my personal life any longer, they are toxic and cause me to spiral in a direction that does not please my Lord.  Instead, I am giving them to God, placing a smile on my face, and loving them the best way I can.  
 
1 John is helping me through encouragement of what it means to be a child of God.  To not be a participant in sinning, to not allow myself to be used as a pawn for the enemy, to not be un-loving.  Instead I am to be pursuing righteousness, and that is an on-going process until the Lord calls me home.  Meaning, I will back slide, I will not be perfect, and that I will find myself sinning, BUT it will not be a habitual sin.  Meaning I have a choice to make: will I choose Christ, or will I choose self? Will I choose to love and extend grace to mankind, or will I instead be nasty, mean, and unforgiving?
 
Brothers and Sisters, we have a choice to make as well.  Will we put aside our denominations, our preconceived notions, our thoughts on who is right and who is wrong?  It dawned on me yesterday during the early morning hours that I really deep down don’t care if you use a certain version of the bible, or use musical instruments in your worship, or have a prayer language.  What I do care about is this…..that YOU have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.  That you will be spending eternity with Christ versus eternity with the devil.  That Heaven is your home not hell.  That we begin conquering sin, unforgiveness, and hate. 
 
How does that happen?  It happens by being able to answer my opening question…..what does God require of you and I?  A relationship!  God gave us a very firm command, To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind. And to love your neighbor as yourself.  
 
Let’s get out there and do it! 
 
**I saw a quote today (4/20/2917) from Charles Spurgeon and I couldn’t agree more.  “I do not ask you whether you are a Weselyan, a Baptist, or a Presbyterian; my only question is, “Are you born again?”**



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Monday, August 22, 2016

The making of a champion


The Making of a Champion

 

As I sat  last week like many of you watching the Olympics and the amazing athletes and their stories be told and seen, we watched a hero and world class swimmer fall into the clutches of the enemy.  Being used as his pawn to bring hurt, confusion and destruction, Ryan Lochte’s world began to crumble.

 

I have no idea if Ryan is a Christian, but many of you reading this are and we know first hand how easy it is to stumble!  I’m sure whether he is a Believer or not, that he is praying and pleading with God for a grace card!  His apology to everyone seems to be very heart felt in my opinion and I am choosing to extend him grace and forgiveness. Why? Because God commands that of me, if I’m to be forgiven then I am to forgive. 

 

What keeps us from making poor choices?  Seeking God first, the power of our own prayers, and keeping in mind that we ultimately make that step that we choose. 

 

I would like to encourage you to stay the course, running your own race and remaining faithful to what God has called you to this side of heaven.  Ryan Lochte got caught up in the worlds way of thinking and acting and now he is paying heavily for a short lived choice.  My heart hurts so much for him, for his family, for his team mates, for the Olympic federation, for the U.S. and for Brazil.  When we are in the midst of others, remember that “Bad company corrupts good character.” *1 Corinthians 15:33.  Do not be swayed as well as do not sway others into something that is negative. 

 

Always there are eyes watching you and I, just like Mr. Lochte.  Just as Ryan is and was someone’s hero, YOU are also someone’s hero.  I am striving here to encourage you and I to think about our choices and the steps that we are taking! Before we act or react, keep in mind that ultimately we want to be happy tomorrow with the choices that we make this moment.  I implore you to do the hard stuff!  It pays big dividends, it’s a win-win situation, and may we always give God glory!  That’s the making of a champion!

Yolanda at Higher Grounds
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Saturday, June 27, 2015

God wins!

I've lived in a pit of sin, I've lived where I had hardened my heart and only desired to have my flesh satisfied. I know what it is like to run, run, run far away from God and His absolute truth. 

I've also known a handful of people that loved me in spite of it, or through those destructive years. That loved me!  I am so grateful!  But they didn't love how I was living and where I was headed and they never ever sugar coated God's Word to not hurt me or worry about my feelings. For that, I say thank you!

Today my heart is hurting.  Why? Because for a long time now I asked God that when His heart hurts, please cause mine to hurt as well. If what I am doing hurts Him to prick my heart to be convicted to repent and make a change. If my sweet friend(s) hurts His heart, I want my heart to understand why His hurts and for mine to hurt as well. 

So many are rejoicing and compromising because it tickles their flesh. Please understand, I've been there. But the truth is that I am no longer there. I will not rejoice, I will not compromise and I will not be more concerned with offending man verses offending God.  

Do I love you? ABSOLUTELY!  This isn't about not being your friend, it's about honoring God. 

God, my heart hurts.

Love, Yolanda 
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Tuesday, August 26, 2014

As far as my eyes can see......

For so long now I’ve honestly been scared that God would call me to the mission field after Bill and I retired.  Doesn’t that sound so crazy?  This coming from the one that absolutely loves adventure, traveling and meeting people.

 

So why wouldn’t I want to go into the mission field?  The reason is that I enjoy so much of what surrounds me right here where I am at including our home, our small town, and our church home.  I become content and comfortable fairly easily.  I very seldom go shopping or desire to change things in my home or my wardrobe.  Yet if someone decides to bless me, I don’t care how big or how small, I am absolutely overjoyed to be the receiver as I get the biggest kick out of blessing others. 

 

I hope you can sense from the past several Higher Grounds that God is really doing a number inside of my heart.  I’ve been spending good quality time with Him and He is showing me where my thinking has been wrong in many different areas and this includes the mission field.  As I seek to place Him first in my daily life and converse with Him through out my day I am learning so much.  I pray that I will not be found loosing my zeal to learn and grow.   That my heart will never get to the point that it stops loving Jesus and others. 

 

In this life we simply get hurt.  We just do!  Often times this causes people to become hardened and secluding themselves is not the answer.  My sweet friend, Becky has shared something with me several times this summer and it really means so much.  “You have to put your heart out there to love – some people will trample it but if we aren’t vulnerable we’ll loose out.”  TRUE TRUE TRUE!  So I’m choosing to put my heart out there because I really don’t want to loose out!

 

God is equipping me to be a missionary right here in my own back yard! 

 

  1. By being a woman that desires to fear God and love my Man like there is no tomorrow
  2. To be available to our children and grandchildren
  3. Working with our youth group
  4. Attending Super Summer
  5. To be a light to my little Tiger Friend
  6. Mentoring
  7. Opening our home to others
  8. Reconnecting with friends
  9. Writing Higher Grounds and the testimony of what God is doing in my life currently
  10. Becoming better at helping others, quick to assist anyone in need, showing no favoritism

 

Please, this is to not be used as a comparison, legalism, or look at her, or that I am bragging, as it is not!  I have so far to go and I really want to stretch not only myself but perhaps you, my friend and reader as well.  How about you?  Have you been allowing God to use you, right where you are at?  This has been on my mind for quite some time and awhile back I walked into church one morning and found this on our platform and I felt like God was confirming to me that I had no need of fearing the Mission Field.  He had my back, and He wasn’t calling me to India, Africa, South America, but He was calling me to right here where I’m at as far as my eyes can see!

 


Heavenly Father, Your love amazes me!  You always know how to get my attention and how to guide me ever so gently into Your truth and what You have for me and my life in my current season.  Lord, may I be quick to assist those that are in need.  May I not be found just sitting on my duff, but instead praying, getting my hands a tad dirty and my heart filled because I was willing to be Your servant.  I love You Lord Jesus and may I love Your people!

 

Stepping up to the plate with J.O.Y. (Jesus, Others, Yourself),

Yolanda

 
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Sunday, August 24, 2014

It's time to quit being a fake!

This summer has truly been very interesting for me in a very personal way.  I began with knowing that I wanted to allow God to change me once again and the area that I really wanted Him to get into my business was in my marriage.  Honestly, I want Him to get into ALL of my business, but I felt it was time to really devote myself to my Mr. 

 

Bill is absolutely a wonderful husband and the very best husband for me!  He is so patient with me, he is kind, and he is extremely attentive and giving.  But in all honesty, I wasn’t so sure he could so those things back about me.  I truly do desire to be patient with him, to be kind, extremely attentive and giving but I know in all honesty that I lack and have room for improvement.  I desire to be a wonderful wife but most importantly to be the very best wife for Bill. 

 

I set about knowing that the first thing I needed to do was write Proverbs 31:10-31 upon my heart and that it needed to be verbiage that would truly penetrate my heart.  So after reading it from a couple of different versions I set about memorizing this passage of scripture from The Message.  I then also began working through a study totally on my own dealing with being a better wife and loving my husband well.  Then I found another study to do with a friend in a discipling atmosphere as a Titus 2:4-5 woman.  Not that I am perfect, not that I have arrived, but one coming alongside desiring to be a better wife. 

 

To be a better wife I knew that I also needed to spend time in James as there is so much wisdom in this little book.  For several years now I generally read a chapter of Proverbs each day for the wisdom in how to do life this side of heaven.  Please do not think that I have it all together, because I simply do not!  I am a mess!  But because of God and allowing Him to begin changing me ever since I surrendered my heart in November of 1999, I no longer am who I used to be!  So back to James and trying to tie this all together without loosing you. 

 

Faith and Deeds in James 2:14-26 really has been hitting me right where I needed to be hit!  I'm not always the best at helping others and I tend to count the cost or I grumble and complain.  Perhaps I’m not the only one, and you also aren’t so hot at showing your faith by the deeds you do?  James is very explicit that it takes both faith and deeds...which got me to thinking about the Proverbs 31 woman that in vs. 20 she is about helping others.   Not only does she help others, but from The Message it says she is QUICK TO ASSIST. 

 

When I am quick to assist, with out grumbling and complaining and no longer counting the cost but stepping up to the plate and doing what ever simply because I love Jesus then my heart it right.  Am I not only helping others as well as SHOWING my faith to the world?  That is what you and I need to be doing as Believer's LIVING OUT LOUD our faith to our corner of the world. I want God to truly be able to call me His friend!  I want to be able to some day hear God say, Yolanda, thank you for allowing Me to get into your business and providing for Bill the very best wife ever for him that I knew you could be! 

 

I want to close by sharing from my study in James  as this hit me several weeks ago concerning this particular passage in James.  "You hypocrite, you cover up your penurious, stingy heart and clamp down your fist upon your purse by offering prayers instead of clothing and pious talk instead of food. Listen! That is what is wrong today....The world wants action, not words, and many a cheap, stingy heart is camouflaged under pious cant and hollow prayer. The world is not interested in our prayers. It wants evidence." Elizabeth George

 

This was reaffirmed today in our service as Pastor Jon stated something along the lines of serving is not staying in our chairs here in the sanctuary.  We honestly have to rise to the challenge he gave us the first part of January to reach up, reach in and then reach out.  I say this all the time and if you’ve spent any time with me you hear this out of my lips often.  I have to reach up, reach in and reach out!  This impacted me so much in 2014.

 

Dear Heavenly Father, I am so grateful that You did not leave me like I was when I came to You all those years ago.  That You have tenderly pruned me and molded me and may I never quit being teachable.  That I will always hunger and have a desire for Your Word and the ability to hide it in my heart to be able to apply it to my daily life.  Father God, I ask that I and those in my circle would quit being fake about following you.  That our faith and deeds would match and be pleasing in Your sight. 

 

I am continuing to dig deeper into James and desiring to be the best wife in the whole world for my Mr.  here at Higher Grounds.  With love, Yolanda
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Tuesday, August 12, 2014

A Camp "High"


 

As Super Summer was coming to an end one of Pastor Mike’s closing remarks was that the “Camp High” could be taken home with us but it was truly up to each individual to keep that fanned to flame within them.  How do you go about doing that?  He shared to be determined!

 

I got to thinking about how I can become more focused and what I would need to do to accomplish keeping my faith where it needs to be.  You and I have to be determined to shut the world out at times and make Jesus a priority.  To disconnect for a set amount of time from anything that keeps me away from being able to get alone, quiet and still before God.  That I/we need to make our time with Him quality as He desires us to invest in Him. 

 

To be hungry for God’s truths and His Word and I couldn’t help but to call to mind Psalm 119:131 that I had read earlier in the morning in my own quiet/devotion time with God, it reads, "I open my mouth and pant, longing for your commands.” I had also written down in my journal from my quiet time to share with the students vs. 133 that generally says to not let sin rule over me, vs. 134 to be redeemed from the oppression of men (peers) and how I felt this was vital to in turn have victory over “how” we had come to camp and that we didn’t have to return home in the same fashion.  If we would become determined and soak ourselves with truth, we could over come and continue becoming changed men and women of God. 

 

I had been working through the book of Psalms for July and August and as I camped on Psalm 126:1-3 it caused me to reflect upon the “Camp High”. 

 

“When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed.  Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy.  Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’  The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.”

 

Father, As You continue restoring us, Your sons and daughters that are no longer orphans, having returned us from Super Summer to our homes in Ulysses may You increase our dreams to be outside of the box.  That our mouths would be filled with laughter and our mouths sing joyfully of all that You’ve done within us and for us.  Father, may we continue allowing You to change us so we wouldn’t return here the same as when we left.  Thank You Jesus, Amen.

 

Soaring because of what God has done,

Yolanda at Higher Grounds 
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