Complacent

December 30, 2016 / Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

I know when I’m complacent

I know it’s a choice

And I can see why God detests

lukewarm

Because when I’m in that place

it’s a miserable place

And You, Lord, don’t wake me up

to have me meander, head low, to You

You call me to run back!

With fervency

and joy

and thankfulness

Mercy awaits

the temporarily complacent

Mercy beckons

Loving with abandon

crushes complacency

– Susie Stewart

What the world doesn’t need is Christians who tolerate the complacency of their own lives.

– Francis Chan

So he returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him. His son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against both heaven and you, and I am no longer worthy of being called your son.”

But his father said to the servants, ‘Quick! Bring the finest robe in the house and put it on him. Get a ring for his finger and sandals for his feet. And kill the calf we have been fattening. We must celebrate with a feast, for this son of mine was dead and has now returned to life. He was lost, but now he is found.’ So the party began.

– Luke 15:20-24 (NLT)

Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?

– Romans 2:4 (NLT)

Those I love I also correct and discipline. Therefore, be shamelessly committed to Me, and turn back.

– Revelation 3:19 (VOICE)

Photo by Susie Stewart

#1

May 16, 2016May 16, 2016 / Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

Many of us believe we have as much of God as we want right now, a reasonable portion of God among all the other things in our lives. Most of our thoughts are centered on the money we want to make, the school we want to attend, the body we aspire to have, the spouse we want to marry, the kind of person we want to become… But the fact is that nothing should concern us more than our relationship with God; it’s about eternity, and nothing compares with that. God is not someone who can be tacked on to our lives.

– Francis Chan

And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?

– Luke 9:25 (NLT)

Physical sickness we usually defy. Soul sickness we usually resigned ourselves to.

– Mark Buchanan

We disgust God when we weigh and compare Him against the things of this world. It makes Him sick when we actually decide those things are better for us than God Himself. We believe we don’t need anything Jesus offers, but we fail to realize that slowly, almost imperceptibly, we are drifting downstream. And in the process we are becoming blind, being stripped naked, and turning into impoverished wretches.

– Francis Chan

But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!

– Revelation 3:16 (NLT)

God, let me not be enticed to believe

that any thing in this life

compares with You

This life, my life,

is nothing

without my beautiful Creator

Keep me from love

of this world

to the neglect of my love

for You

– Susie Stewart

Photo by Susie Stewart

Not Safe

January 13, 2016January 13, 2016 / Susie Stewart / Leave a comment

We are not all called to go to El Salvador, or Moscow, or Calcutta, or even the slums of New York, but none of us will escape the moment when we have to decide whether to withdraw, to play it safe, or to act upon what we prayerfully believe to be right, knowing that with all our prayers we may be wrong, and knowing that we will probably be punished by those who do not want universe-disturbers to stand up and be counted. Perhaps what we are called to do may not seem like much, but the butterfly is a small creature to affect galaxies thousands of light years away.
– Madeleine L’Engle

One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow Me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed Him.

A little farther up the shore He saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And He called them to come, too. They immediately followed Him, leaving the boat and their father behind.
– Matthew 4:18-22 (NLT)

Life is short, hell is hot and eternity is forever!!! The world has NEVER been impacted by Christians who spend their whole lives in a car seat and beg God to never let anything bad happen to them!

Ask HIM to set you on fire with HIS plans…and THEN GO FOR IT!

– Perry Noble