DAILY DEVO...Grow down in order to grow up!

Our lives are like tomato plants! Yes, that is right, even if you don't like tomatoes, in order to "grow up", we must "grow down"!

If you have ever worked in a garden, or watched someone work a garden, you know that in order for a tomato plant to grow up, it needs help. It needs a brace, or a support to help it along. While the plant may be strong enough to hold the tomatoes, it isn't firm enough to hold them up and the more it produces, the more help it needs.


The same is true in our lives, especially our spiritual life. The more we grow in Christ, the more structure and support we need...

"Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong." -Colossians 2:7

Paul knew that as we grow, we need deeper roots to support us. This is why so many times we see people walk away from their faith so easily. Their roots weren't anchored deeply.

If we want to grow in our relationship with God, we have to let our roots go down first. Now that you see you are nothing but a tomato (spiritually), let's do what tomatoes do...grow down to grow up!

DAILY DEVO...What's trending?

Every day, millions of people use Twitter, a social media platform to tweet some thought or event. Users determine by their hashtags (#) what issues deem to have the most importance. The problem with Twitter and other social media like it is that the real issues in this world can be overlooked or minimized.


Today on Twitter, the top "trending" topics were #HarrisonFord with 460.9k tweets and #BlackOutDay with 148.8k tweets. I am sure to some these topics are noteworthy but what about some of the serious topics around the world that can no longer be ignored or hidden?


Topics like the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu warning or the ISIS threat, or the worldwide devastation taking place (360 in China killed by a quake or the dozens in Japan found dead near the peak of a volcano).


What is this world being transformed into?


While millions of Americans tune in at 10 pm to the TV series #Scandel, a show about adultery, murder and lies, only a small fraction of those same Americans will tune into #Jesus on Sunday morning at 10 am at the local church.


"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." - Romans 12:2


The world operates completely differently than God. If we want to see #Jesus trending in our world, we MUST allow #Him to #Transform our minds!


What is trending in your world today?

LACED WITH GRACE...a spiritual lesson from a roller coaster ride

Today I shared the following devotion with the readers of LACED WITH GRACE. Every day you can find inspirational devo's written by awesome Christian writers. I'm blessed to be part of the team. www.lacedwithgrace.com

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When I was younger, I loved the thrill and excitement of a roller coaster ride. The feeling of no fear as the amusement ride attendant buckled me in was awesome. Fast forward to today… you couldn’t drag me on a rollercoaster. I’m deathly afraid of the twists, turns and hanging upside down with nowhere to land my feet.


My husband, on the other hand, at the age of 54 absolutely loves the ride. Last summer, he went on every ride with our youth group from church when we took them to an amusement park. He even allowed himself to be buckled into a giant bungee cord that whipped him high in the air about 100 feet. He was all smiles and loved every exciting moment of the thrill, while I stood down below trying to capture it on camera, but the fear in me to even watch was more than I could stand. As he was thrust in the air, swinging back and forth, I squeezed my eyes closed and screamed in disbelief. My heart was pumping just as hard as his, if not more, and my feet never left the ground.


Do you know what the difference is between me and my husband at the amusement park? He is a risk taker and trusts the restraints to hold him in place, while I do not.


Taking a stand for Christ is similar, often times, defending our faith can be just as scary as riding a floorless rollercoaster. We trust God, but we wonder how we can convince the scaredy cats on the ground to take a leap of faith and enjoy the ride with us and God.


Look at how Elijah handled something similar…

“Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God!” -1 Kings 18:24

Elijah challenged a bunch of people who didn’t believe in God to prove that his God was real. You could say that Elijah was a risk taker when it came to taking a stand for God but he was also confident that God would come through for him and not leave him dangling. In fact, Elijah was not willing that anyone would be skeptical, so he poured tons of water on his wood, so it would be obvious that his God was a big God.


Some of us are like those looking towards the wet wood, skeptical in our faith. But, just as we can trust the restraints on a roller coaster ride to keep us intact and safe, we can trust God that He will keep us safe and land us on our feet if we would just take a risk on Him.


When is the last time you took a risk and took a bold, fearless stand for Christ?


PRAYER: Dear Lord, help me to be a risk taker for You! Ease my fear and give me a boldness to stand firm in my faith, to share with others that there is nothing too wet for you to light. Light my wood God, let it burn bright.” AMEN

LACED WITH GRACE...keep on swimming.

There are so many things in this world that I just do not understand. For instance, I do not understand how electricity flows thru the wall and makes a light turn on. I also do not understand how I can place a seed in the ground and after a short time, a beautiful flower blossoms.

Some things are just hard to understand, but yet, some amazing things come out of it.

Lately I have been thinking about some things in my life. As I have tried to make rhyme and reason out of some things, I have come to the conclusion that some things are just not for me to understand.

Instead, it is like the electricity that I can’t see…I have to just trust. Everytime I flip the light switch, it is an act of trust that the electricity waves that I don’t understand will make the room illuminate with brightness.

Not understanding but yet trusting makes me think of the children of Israel who were finally set free after years and years of slavery. As they began to march to their freedom, they marched straight to the Red Sea. As they looked around they saw impassable mountains on both sides of them and the sea straight in front of them. As they looked behind them, the Egyptian army was in hot pursuit after them.

No matter which way they looked, it appeared that they had come to a dead end. There seemed to be nowhere to turn. I am sure at this point, they were questioning what exactly was going on. How difficult it must have been for the children of Israel to understand why God would allow them to come this far, only to come up to a dead end.

But God understood even if they didn’t.

God knew exactly what He wanted to do. He had not made a mistake. He could see what they could not see. He opened up the Red Sea so they could walk through to safety. Years later, the Israelites looked back  and sang,  “Your road led by a pathway through the sea—a pathway no one  knew was there!”  (Psalm 77:19 LB).

Maybe you feel like you are up against a dead end! Or like there is nothing in front of you but raging sea waters. You may not understand but God knows and He already sees a path that we may not see. As the Israelites came close to the Red Sea, God opened up the waters and gave them direct passageway across to the other side. Not only did God make a way, but He even made it possible for the Egyptians to NOT have access across. As the Israelites crossed over, the waves came crashing back down, drowning out the enemy.

The closer we get to the water, and place our trust in Him, He will lead us safely across. We just have to trust Him and keep swimming!

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your  own  understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your   paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

Some things are just not for us to understand. But we can still trust in the Lord and all of His ways! Are you swimming or are you drowning?

BLESSINGS, LAURIE

TODAY'S DAILY...what color do they see?

If you are on Facebook, you have seen the many statuses about "the" dress! Is it white and gold or is it black and blue? The color that you perceive it to be depends on your perspective and what kind of light you look at from.

The colors that people reveal depends on the perspective or what kind of light is being reflected. People who show their true colors reminds me of the pig story...

"A farmer brought his pig inside, he gave him a bath, filed his nails, splashed some perfume on him and tied a ribbon around his neck and sat him down on the couch. For a few minutes, the pig was presentable but as soon as the door opened wide, the pig flew out and jumped in the first mud puddle he found. Why? After all he was all cleaned up and looking good! It was because he was still a pig at heart, nothing inside had changed."

You can change your clothes, comb you hair and paint on a big smile while sitting on the front pew at church, but unless you have made a change inwardly, all you've changed is your clothes.
You see, it doesn't really matter what color that dress is, gold and white or black and blue, at the end of the day it's just a dress.

"God carefully watches the goings on of all mankind..." -Job 34:21

At the end of the day, our true colors will be what matters to God. If you act one way at church on Sunday but yet a different way Monday morning at work or school or on Friday night you find some mud to roll in, then perhaps you need a spiritual change of clothes, a change from the inside out!
True colors are always revealed, whether it's gold and white or black and blue, why not make your true colors count for the Kingdom!

DAILY DEVO...are you thirsty?

I've learned another great Truth today as I continue to study the book of Proverbs...THIRST for knowledge!


"Above all and before all, do this: Get wisdom! Write this at the top of your list: Get understanding! Throw your arms around her-believe me, you won't regret it; never let her go-she'll make your life glorious." -Proverbs 4:7 (MSG)

King Solomon, the wisest man, spent three chapters in the book of Proverbs stressing the importance of not only getting wisdom but obtaining understanding, so we don't fall to be a fool.


It reminds me of the classic salty fry technique: McDonalds puts so much salt on their fries so that we buy a supersize drink. Fries alone may taste good, but it also makes us thirsty, it whet's our appetite for more!


Solomon can give us all kinds of great wise sayings, but there is so much more to learn from Proverbs. Solomon is just whetting our appetite for more for more wisdom and for more knowledge.
Unfortunately, when it comes to wisdom and knowledge, sometimes we order off of the value menu. We allow things like disunity, negativity and sour attitudes to alter our clear mindset on what we understand to be true.


We must turn our eyes back to the big tall glass of water in our spirits and let God whet our appetite for more of Him and more of His wisdom and more of His knowledge!


Christians are to be the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13), so how thirsty for God are those around you?

Daily Devo...The icing on the cake

There's nothing like walking into a house and smelling a cake baking.

"Ohh something smells good! Is that chocolate cake?"

No matter how good it smells though, a cake isn't a cake until you break out the frosting! My kids use to wait for the cake to be frosted so they could lick the bowl but mainly because they knew the cake was ready to eat!

Whenever we put the finishing touches on something, we say, "the icing on the cake", which means, something good has been added to something that is already good.

A cake is good by itself, but how much more amazing is it when the icing is added?

"And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." -Colossians 3:14

Paul is telling the Christians of Colossae the essential elements of living a victorious life: put on the spiritual graces of mercy, kindness, meekness, long suffering, forbearance and forgiveness. Because they were quarreling, fussing and stepping on each other, Paul was saying put off the old and put on the new.

Everything Paul was saying to live a victorious life was good, however, the icing on the cake was when he said to even make it better, add charity, or love.

Even God said "love" is the cream of the crop or the icing on the cake..."and now abideth faith, hope, love; but the greatest of these is love." (1 Cor. 13:13)

Without love, we are nothing. Without love we are just making noise, our deeds are meaningless, our mountains have no value. To say we are a Christian but yet do not love others is simply just a cake with no icing!

Saying you are a Christian is good, but genuinely sharing the love of Christ is making a good thing even better. It's the icing on the cake!