One Archives - allume

You are His ONE True Love

February Blog Post

David felt that God needed a new house. He couldn’t get past the fact that he was living in grandeur and the God of the universe had been relegated, yet again, to the pitched tent that was carted around the desert for 40 years. A tent that had definitely seen better days.

See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent. 2 Samuel 7:2b

Often times, like David, I feel like I know what God is looking for from me. Sometimes I get it into my head that my next idea fits exactly in the perfectness of His plan.

These days we have so much vying for our attention: social media and the latest craze move at a blazing speed. Just when we think we’ve got the latest technology to make our lives better, faster and more efficient, the next new thing hits the market.

With all of the noise it’s easy to understand how our day to day gets loud too – and sometimes it all just gets really confusing. So we make assumptions and speculations and try and fit our plans around what we think God is doing or should be doing.

David’s motives for building the House of the Lord were good. David wanted God to have a place of honor – a testament to God’s greatness.

I do the same. I do it on my blog, in my interactions with my community, in my writing, in my everyday; I want to plan and build in hopes of coming close to making my life, my journey respectable for the Creator.

Because really…isn’t that what God wants from us?

Listen to His answer.

In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges… saying ‘Why have you not built me a house? 2 Samuel 7:7

The weight of His response to David’s gesture rocks me to my core. God is so NOT looking for spectacular from me. He’s not looking for the next “big thing.”

Instead? He’s seeking me. Just like He sought the once shepherd-boy David.

I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep that you should be prince over my people Israel… I will make for you a great name. 2 Samuel 7:8-9

There would be a temple, God’s got plans for it, but David wasn’t the one who was going to build it.

What God wanted from David is his heart.

Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make [YOU] a house. 2 Samuel 7:11b (emphasis added)

God’s talking about a legacy of faith, about the relationship He had with David and the Israelites. He accompanied David when he wandered the hills with his sheep, when he used five stones to slay a giant. He was with the Israelites through every sand-filled step in the desert.

God came to where His people were because He desired nothing more than to dwell among and IN his people.

Building the temple was a good thing, in fact God tells David that his offspring — his legacy — will be involved in its construction.

Before we get ahead of God’s plan, what He really wants is our hearts. Of all the gilt-edged spaces or grand ideas where He could dwell, He chooses to dwell in you and me.

A temple cannot hold God. The next best idea or the latest fad, fashion or ideology doesn’t hold the heart of God.

His heart is where His people reside.

You are His ONE true passion.

Don’t be stunned by the grandeur, step outside the walls of your ideas and let God make within you a dwelling place and live as His temple in your every day.

Blessings, Tonya

Navigating the Hard Days.

By Carey

I am moving. Geesh! There, I finally said it in an official kind of way.

And I don’t mean moving my blog address or moving down the street. I mean moving 865 miles from Phoenix, Arizona to Denver, Colorado. (Anyone need a house in Phoenix?)

EVERYONE has assured me that I will LOVE Denver and thanks to the Allume Community I have been welcomed and connected to what seem like amazing people in the Denver area but the reality is my heart is happy and content in Phoenix where I have resided and built a life for the last 17 years. I don’t have one complaint about where I live. YEP! You won’t even hear me complain about the 122 degree summers because I am from Texas and if you have known 99% humidity with 100 degree heat then 122 with no humidity is nothing! The phrase “It is a dry heat.” is real, people!

So why move you ask? For at least 8 months my husband and I, along with a community of people, have been praying for an open door to a job where my husband would feel a sense of purpose and fulfillment in what he does. And that door opened…it just happens to be a door located in Denver. (We failed to mention in our request that the door was supposed to be in Phoenix. I kinda just assumed God knew. Lesson learned!)

We feel confirmed that this is the door to walk through but that doesn’t mean it is not hard to leave behind a group of girlfriends that know me inside and out, pull my kids away from two sets of grandparents , walk away from the small group we lead that was just building momentum. It doesn’t means it’s not hard to think about finding a new church when we have one that is “just right” for us. Oh, and don’t get me started on finding a new school for my kiddos. Figuring out Kindergarten last year felt painful enough. The thought of doing that all over again feels like being forced to eat liver and onions or swimming with sharks. Then you throw in selling and packing up my house that brings me comfort and joy and I just about teeter over the edge…STOP THE MADDNESS! I have cried more in the last 25 days than in all of 2014 I would guess.

In the tears my husband always reminds me that we don’t have to do this. He assures me that he is willing to stop packing boxes and begin looking for a job in Phoenix. Every time I say… just because it is hard now doesn’t mean it is not going to be good.

Hard today does not mean there won’t be good tomorrow.

What is your “hard now” thing?

I am thankful for the biblical examples that goes before me. People who have taken “hard” and found the good; Jochebed releasing Moses, Ruth choosing Naomi, Rahab throwing the rope, Joseph accepting Mary and the ultimate in Jesus bearing the weight of our sin. Without the Mighty One God and His perspective on this transition I would be an utter train wreck of a girl right now. But as the sun rises and sets I am reminded of His power.

Getting to the land of good is going to mean navigating the hard days well.

For me it is a move. What is it for you?

A marriage that feels hard?
Kids that feels hard?
A job that feels hard?
A financial situation that feels hard?

How are you going to navigate the hard days well so that you can see the good?

I have created three non-negotiables for my transition.

Choose Scripture

No matter what mood I wake up in or what seems to be going wrong my day STARTS with scripture. It may come from a devotional book, something someone sends me via text or from a Bible reading plan but it is my priority that keeps me grounded in truth and helps me to distinguish between feelings and reality.

Maintain Clear Focus

Because I have a variety of balls that I am juggling between parenting, coaching, retreat leading, Allume & MOVING it can be easy for me to get distracted by the variety of to-do’s. To maintain my focus I keep a slew of Christian music playing at all times depending on if I am with my kids, making dinner or working. It is hard to go off the deep end with my kids when I have “Boom Chaka Laka” playing in the background. I also work off a to-do list that contains ONLY 5 things. Once I finish those 5 things then I add more. This simply helps me not get overwhelmed by a running list of 50-100 things. (Download printable to-do list here)

Ask for Help

I consider myself a highly capable person who can handle a fair amount of stress but I am about to embark on the task of single parenting while my husband heads to his new job and we wait for the house to sell. I am not going to pretend to be excited about this. I am dreading this! I know without a shadow of a doubt that I will not be able to maintain my sanity if I don’t ask for help. I will need to crash a family member’s house for dinner, plan extra play dates so I can have adult interaction or even grant the kids a bit of extra screen time so I can finish up some work.

There are hard days ahead but I know if I intentionally commit to these three things there will be good in the midst of hard. I choose to trust in the land of good that is to come because I know He cares for me. What about you? What non-negotiables will you choose? How can we be praying for your hard days?

P.S. – Allume Conference tickets go on sale Sunday, March 1st at 8:00 a.m. EST. The first 50 tickets get the early bird discount. Set a reminder on your phone today!

Our One True Gift

By Mandy Scarr

one - 5

For years I reveled in God’s blessings. I soaked up the gifts that He showered over me. From the simple things, to the big things, I always had a way of spotting His gifts.

Over time, however, I started to act like a little kid in a toy store. Whatever I got, it wasn’t enough. I always wanted more. I’d receive His newest blessing and quickly say, “…but God {insert whiney voice here}…I want that too…”. Like a drug, I couldn’t get enough. Like a spoiled brat, I wanted more.

Not only had I lost track of the fact that as a fallen human I didn’t deserve any of His gifts apart from Christ, but I too started to serve those gifts as if they were my god.

One morning as I prayed for more blessings, asking Him to bring me some grand gift, I heard Him whisper softly into my spirit. His words were kind and gentle, not harsh. He spoke in a whispered tone that reverberated through my spirit saying,

You love my gifts more then me.

It hit me hard. HARD. I knew He was right. I had begun to love His gifts more than Him, the very Giver of those gifts.

I started to think about what that meant, how that looked to Him. It was as if my nephew loved the Legos I got him for his birthday more than me. That thought brought tears to my eyes, even now, the tears well up. Not the thought of my nephew loving his Legos more, but the thought that I paid more attention to my Legos then to God. I loved the gifts He gave me, I worshiped those gifts, more than Him. And any attempt I made to hide that from Him were lost, He knows my heart, He sees where my true treasure is.

It was as if I was blind and now all of a sudden the scales were removed from my eyes and I could see. Apart from Him these blessings meant nothing. Apart from Him, these gifts had no eternal impact, no eternal worth.

This life is our one opportunity to grow close to the One and Only. No gift that He’s given us will impact our eternal lives and legacy more then the gift of Himself. He is the true gift, He is the one true gift. He is what our hearts long for, hope for, yearn for, churn for. Apart from Him, all those other gifts don’t really matter, they are fleeting.

Yes, we are called to praise Him and thank Him as He lay gifts upon us each day; from the sun shining in our window, to the Starbuck’s card we find in our purse, to the safe travels He gave us on our road trip. They are all gifts and blessings and worthy of praise lifted high from our lips. But in the midst of thanking Him for all the little things, let us not forget to thank Him for the greatest gift of all – Himself, our One and Only.

Let’s not continue to love our Legos more than the Giver. His gifts are sweet, but nothing compares to the sweetness of recognizing Him as the greatest gift of all.

an Audience of ONE

By Allume

We make it incredibly chaotic. We make it all about our words and our life and consistently say.. “look at me, look at my life, look at the mess I am wading in.” There isn’t a need for it and quite frankly, our God is not a God of chaos.

He is the God of order, intention, intelligence, justice, joy, compassion, relationship and love.. I could fill pages. If we focused on the Mighty One God, how much of our own agendas, our need to be heard, or need to be seen by the world how much would fade away? How much more frequently would we see the Eternal God through our words or worship or social media channels? How much more joy, compassion and love would this world be flooded with?

Psalm - 3 final

I know it gets kicked around and misused across the Christian landscape a lot but our lives are really only about the audience of One. Before our feet hit the ground, before the first words roll off our tongues, we have a choice. Each of us has the ability to choose the audience we worship in front of every single morning. God’s given us each an individual story to write or if you will, worship set to play out before Him.

In the midst of our messes we wade in, are we truly surrendering to Him? Are we tending to our primary ministry that He has given to us individually? Regardless of what that ministry looks like, there is no greater call on our lives than the one that God commanded us to choose : Love God and Love Others. Period. No question, no division, no compromise and absolutely no complaining. After all, as we look ahead to the beginning of Lent, He’s already sacrificed it all just for us, hasn’t He? And yep. That means the sacrifice is for you too.

One.

By Logan

The Mighty One , God the Lord,

speaks and summons the earth

from the rising of the sun to its setting.

– Psalm 50:1

My friend Christa wrote this amazing song a few years ago. I’m pretty sure that you may have sung it before. It’s called “One Thing Remains” and for the past couple of years it has been sweeping the nation, showing up in worship services all over the place. I’ve liked the song since the first time I heard it.

But see, last year, Christa wrote the most heart wrenching blog post I may have ever read. And right there at the top of the post were lyrics from this song she had written 4 years earlier.

“In death, in life, I’m confident and covered by the power of your great love.”

Twenty-four hours before she wrote the post, Christa gave birth to their first daughter who died 40 minutes later.

And then she wrote those words, and I know that she meant them. The first time she said them and even when she put them at the top of a blog post about losing her daughter.

Because see, the thing is that no matter what happens before the sun rises, or sets, or during any of the hours in between, one thing does remain, and that is the love of a Father who came and lived and died to prove that love to us.

And for us here at Allume, it all comes down to that ONE thing.

One God who is the beginning and the end and all the days in between. He has spoken over the world and calls together all things. He breathed time and space into being…called earth and water into existence. He names us His sons and daughters..and all together he calls us ONE body.

Whether you’re a wife, mom, sister, brother, father, stay-at-home, working person, blogger, non-blogger, author, speaker, whatever-you-want-to-call-yourself title, we believe in you. We believe in the power of the One true God to unify us, to speak life in and through us, and to change a world that is desperately in need of love and of people who care. You are an influencer, and the size of your influence doesn’t matter nearly so much as your desire to make that influence count for something bigger than yourself.

So as we begin a new year here with a lot of exciting things in store, we want to boil it all down to the ONE reason we are here and doing what we do in the first place.

You are His ONE True Love

Navigating the Hard Days.

Our One True Gift

an Audience of ONE

One.

Categories

Search

Archives